Friday, October 22, 2010

Some Grumpy Musing

Do you ever feel like your writing is taking second place to your salesmanship? I'm being serious here. More and more I see writers standing on the Internet corners hawking their wares and personally, it makes me sad. I know we all have to let readers know what's out there, but when does it hit the point of too much? When will it become more about the actual story and less about the person who wrote it? Are we writers so entangled in our words that there is no separation of story and writer? Do we all need to walk around with some sort of brand on our ass and a price tag on our forehead just to get people to read our work?

Yeah, I'm a little grumpy today. The reason? No one wants to discuss writing or markets or that amazing story they found. They remind me of the hucksters at the sale barn when I was a child. "Buy my peaches, buy my apples, buy my book."

And I wonder, is that what I'll become if I write a novel or manage to sell a collection of shorts? And the bigger question, is that what I really want?

15 comments:

Fred Zackel said...

OTOH, I gave up trying to market my stuff & sticking only to what I love best -- which is the writing --- and the sales plod along like a three-legged sloth. Did you know that in South America, sloths can grow moss on their bellies from inactivity? Sigh.

Chris Rhatigan said...

Good points as always Sandra. That's why I dig your blog--it's not about you or about selling something--it's about providing great resources for writers.

I guess that I sort of sympathize with novelists who hockin their wares--if that's what you're trying to do for a living, you have to give it everything. But why don't more novelists go the Joe Konrath route? He's written tons about the craft and business of writing, along with promoting himself at the same time.

sandra seamans said...

Yeah, I know we have to market, Fred, but lately there seems to an abundance of over-kill in the marketing. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, even the discussion groups, no one posts unless they're trying to sell themselves. I even get emails from writers I don't know and never heard of trying to sell me books. And I didn't know about the moss - interesting!

What Konrath does is commendable, Chris, but all that pushing and marketing never got him off the mid-list and now he's self-publishing. Yes, he's making money with his writing but I'm not sure I want to follow in his footsteps.

I think what's bugging me, too, is when I look into the submissions for small presses and even some of the larger ones they not only want your first three chapters, they want your marketing plan. Which leaves me to wonder if they're buying the best story or the best marketing plan to make them money.

And if I'm solely responsible for the costs and marketing why don't I just self-publish and be done with it? What exactly do I need a publisher for if all they're going to do is print the book?

I'm mostly just thinking out loud here. Wondering.

pattinase (abbott) said...

The problem is that if you put a lot of work into a project you want it to get read. For instance with DISCOUNT NOIR, all of the hours of work that went into getting it ready for publication will be for nothing if no one reads it. We no longer have the traditional means of publicizing-which were newspaper reviews, publicists, readers. So we are forced to try to make it known through other means. There are people on facebook who do nothing but toot their own horn, day in and day out. And I hide them. But I do understand the impulse.
But this is one of the reasons I really don't want to go forward with more of these projects.

sandra seamans said...

It's a hard corner we writers are standing in, Patti. Publicity is so important to finding an audience, but finding that perfect line between jumping up and down and screaming look at me, and hey, here's a great book I think you might enjoy is getting more difficult to find.

For me, personally, I find it hard to draw attention to myself. I've always been the wall flower who hides in a corner so no one will notice me. I watched the video of Laura Lippman doing that TV interview and thought I could never do that, why am I even bothering to write?

Charles Gramlich said...

Unfortunately yes, I find myself marketing more and more and writing less and less. I try not to "overdo" it but it's not always easy to know where that line is. For me, as a small press author, it's not really about making a lot of money, it's like Patty says, it's about wanting people to "read" my stuff.

sandra seamans said...

Yes, there is the need to have your work read, after all, that's the point of being published, Charles. It's a bit of a Catch 22 knowing how much is just right without driving off readers.

I guess what set this off was several writers joining the SMFS just to announce what they had to sell, then leaving. And then there's the ones who only post about themselves. It sort of makes you feel used.

Eirik Gumeny said...

I think a big part of the problem is that most of our reading audience is other writers.

Where word-of-mouth should help spread the word about a good story, no one is really willing to do that at the expense of their own story. (Well, almost no one.) So it becomes a case of writers shouting louder than other writers to get their name out there.

Then of course there's just the saturation of the market. There are so many presses and journals out there, all trying to sell to the same audience of writers, writers who themselves are trying to sell to these presses. It's, unfortunately, gotten to the point that many writers feel the only way to survive is to be self-serving.

Presses and journals really need to market to non-writers. I feel like it would help everyone. Someone reading just for the sake of reading -- without subconsciously appraising the journal for a future sale -- would be more willing to help out without worrying what's in it for them.

sandra seamans said...

You're right, Eirik, there are very few places that are aimed at just readers. The Dorothy L list serve and Lesa Holstine are two that jump to mind as being reader centered and they both do a great job of getting the word out about new books. I don't know if there will ever be a solution to how to put the reading material in front of readers.

Oscar Case said...

I've been working to be guilty of that "crime" to sell some books, but so far it hasn't done much good. Maybe word of mouth will do it, if only I could get enough readers to pass on the word, so I'm right back where I started.

sandra seamans said...

It is a vicious circle, Oscar!

MontiLee Stormer said...

There is this fantasy world new writers believe exist in the Realm of Publishing where a big house buys your book and all you do is sit back and watch the money roll in.

It's a myth that a good book sells itself, and it's a myth that publishing houses do all of the work. Only you can talk about the characters because you've lived with them and watch them evolve. Putting a marketing department in charge of everything creates distance between writer and work, like giving birth and leaving it with a nanny. Just because you don't hear the writer talking about all of their promotion stop and interviews, they spend just as much tine promoting the new book as they do writing the next one. It's part of your job, to help sell your book. Sometimes it's just not done particularly well.

Let's face it, there aren't lot of etiquette classes when it comes to marketing and the internet, and many many people break unspoken rules of general politeness. If you wouldn't do it in meat life, don't do it on the Internet, like walking into a room and shouting about your next project.

Writers have to temper their writing and work with a personality. Neil Gaiman does it very well - talking about his everyday life (because fans being able to connect is huge) with new works coming out as well as his appearance.

MontiLee Stormer said...

Also, what JA is doing isn't ground-breaking or particularly good promotion.

Why would create a product only a small slice of your readership could read and enjoy? There is no print version, so those without access to the internet or a reader can't read it.

It's only available on Kindle through amazon and he advocates cracking the DRM so it can be read on other devices. I have a huge problem with that.

sandra seamans said...

It would be nice if there were some sort of etiquette program for writers to follow, MontiLee. I think part of the problem arises from some very bad advice that's out there. Publishers and agents are telling writers to start with building a platform, getting a brand, and nailing a spot on every social network available but I don't hear any of them telling the writer to learn their craft and write the best book they can FIRST.

What a writer writes should be their number one selling point, not who they are, not their occupation, not their jail time, etc. etc. etc. Yes, an author has to make public appearances but even here, if you have a terribly shy author a public face isn't going to help. I think each author should be allowed to follow a path of publicity that works for them and their work personally.

Every author is different and selling their book should work to their strengths and weaknesses, not be a one size fits all program.

MontiLee Stormer said...

And yet, people connect with authors not just on words but on personality.

GLAHW is hosting two seminars (this is not a plug, I swear) in December that cover exactly that - the creative process and how to get published, with an emphasis on how not to promote - and how not to blog.

Author websites are an extension of the author, and that includes the blog and any social networks. I can give you the names of at least three authors who will never crack it bigger than small-run and self-published presses because of how that act online, believing on some level that their wholly unacceptable behavior is inconsequential to their writing.

NewsFlash - it's not. Authors now have to sell the whole package, and that includes personal sites, message boards, and social networks, because when the public wants to know more, Google is just a click away and the Internet is forever.

I can point you to Neil Gaiman who is a rather shy person, but has a fabulous blog that highlights what he does and his writing. There are people who don't particularly like his fantasy writing, but because he's such a a nice guy, they feel comfortable passing along his words to their friends and younger relations. That's an incredible endorsement.

When it comes to promotion, unfortunately you have to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Some people find success in Facebook events (Like Seth Harwood), and others discover word of mouth networks and hashtags (Brandon Layng) really bring the crowds.

Yes, the individual writer does have to find what works best and tailor a marketing plan that fits, and until that audience is built up, the wholesale hard sell may be the ticket.