Finding What Works for You...Publishing Thoughts

I have heard a lot of people defending various “publishing models” lately, and it made me sit back, scratch my head, and think.  What seems to constitute a model in today’s world (particularly on the Internet) is anything that someone else did that worked really well.  The fallacy is in the notion that because a thing worked for someone else that it is a “way” to be followed.

For instance, Cory Doctorrow gave away a book on the Internet and built a huge following from that.  Now there are disciples of this “method,” all with varying levels of success. I posit that this success is based on the talent of the authors and has little or nothing to do with the method.

The kid who wrote Eragon self-published with the help of his parents and drove around the country selling copies and signing books and got famous.  I implore you not to quit your day job and print your magnum opus at Lightning Source before hitting the road in his footsteps.  He had the help of educated and devoted parents.  He was lucky.  The timing was right, and he had the right personality to pull it off.  It’s not “A” way – it’s his way.

A few folks have done e-Books and Kindle books and found ways to turn their early success into well-oiled machines.  Oddly, the best-selling e-books still seem to be about how to write, sell and format e-books.  There’s money being made – don’t mistake me – I’m making some of it.  Here’s what I’ve found, though, that seems to transcend “publishing models,” be they POD, e-Book, traditional, free, podcast, or an amalgam of every possibility (which is close, I suppose, to the method I employ).

The success of an author in Kindle is very similar to that same author’s success in other models.  What I mean is, an author with best-selling print books tends to be a best-selling Kindle author and also – should they venture into it – a best-selling POD author.  An author who puts out a very good book on Kindle and gets noticed can usually move into print, and would also do well with a POD release.  If a best-selling author presents a free podcasted novel, fans will flock to it.  It’s just the way this artistic world we live, work, and breathe in works.  If everyone could do it, it wouldn’t be special.

The point is simple.  Choosing a new, bold publishing model isn’t going to make you a better author.  If you are unable to attract a readership with one model, it is likely you will have an equal lack of success with other models.  You should, rather than worrying that you just haven’t found the right way to reach your audience, spend more time perfecting your craft.  If you haven’t even finished your first book and are already stressing over how to publish, or what agent you should go with, the odds are you didn’t really want to write a book in the first place and only wanted to be published.

I’m not saying this to be mean.  I’m saying this to be helpful.  When I first started writing, I thought I was about as good as there ever was.  I rushed through story after story, and I wondered why people didn’t flock to me…why I didn’t attract immediate notice.  I was brilliant, after all.

Twenty years, seventeen novels and nearly two hundred stories later, I know that I’m good enough, but that I need to be better.  I know that despite all the worrying over editors passing me up for others, I can BE better.  I can do more.  I may spend some time working on how to get those words out, but in the end, it’s more important that they get out of me – and that this happen in the most creative, careful manner possible.

The bottom line is, it’s not as important how the words are published as it is whether they were worth publishing in the first place.  That is how readership is earned – by telling good stories, and by learning to do that better and better with each book.  Growth is a two-way street – if you start out in a hurry and slapping crap on paper or digital files and don’t evolve beyond that, you will achieve the tens of readers you deserve.

If you are an independent publisher or an author choosing to publish independently, don’t shirk your responsibility.  If you are going to BE a publisher, do the work associated with that title.  Don’t short-change your readers.  If you really believe your books are on par with the output of traditional publishing houses, I hope that belief comes from the labor involved in making it so, and not from arrogance or a lack of understanding of how much work creating a book actually entails.

I have, in the past, tended to hurry things.  My successes in later years have shown me the error of my ways.  I won’t say slow and steady wins the race…but keeping a steady, maintainable pace and some focus goes a long way.  Writing what matters to you helps, as well.  Sometimes you do it for the money, and sometimes you do it because it helps your career, but there have to be times when you are immersed in worlds and words of your own creation.  Without that, it’s just hammering at keys and nonsense.

It’s more impressive to write something important than to be an important writer…

-DNW