Everything
old is new again. What I mean is that
while digital and ‘self’-publishing has changed a lot of things and upset the
publishing paradigm, the reality is some basic truisms
about writing remain the
same.
 |
| Bob Mayer |
One is: The best promotion is a good story; better
promotion is more good stories.
I write that
as my 56th story comes out on Tuesday, the 26th of
November: The Kennedy Endeavor.
I had 42
books published traditionally. I
survived for 20 years by staying one spec manuscript ahead of my
contracts. I never thought I had it
made. These days, I see too many people
thinking a gimmick will make them successful.
I think the key is more and better content will make a writer
successful. Most people aren’t willing
to get out the bum glue and apply it.
Second: The writer produces the content, which is
story (not book). The reader consumes
the story. Everyone else is in between
and must add value to that connection or else they are an obstruction. The distance between author and reader is the
internet. At Cool Gus we call ourselves
a publishing partnership, not a publisher because we consider the author the
key, not the publisher. While many
people focus on money as a key factor (and its certainly important), I believe
in the next year we will see some big authors go indie, not for money, but for
more personal reasons, such as:
-Creative
control. They can write what they
want. They can have final say over pub
date, price, cover, cover copy, marketing, etc. etc.
-Controlling
their rights, means they control their legacy.
Most big name authors have ZERO rights under their control. They’ve all been signed away. As long as they are front list, they will
sell. When the day comes that they
aren’t front list any more, they will be shocked how quickly their sales will
dry up.
Bottom
line: While numerous articles and
industry ‘experts’ are saying traditional publishing has ‘weathered’ the
digital surge and things have settled out, I submit we’ve hit a brief plateau
and even greater changes will rock the industry in 2014.
5 comments:
Thanks, Bob. Immediately after reading your post, I purchased two of your Kindle books targeted to writers, and visited your blog.
I sure would like to know what "even greater changes will rock the industry in 2014." Any hints?
Thanks for visiting, Bob. It appears that the "free" and 99-cent intro pricing strategies are less and less effective due to market saturation. In addition to publishing more books, do you have any "discoverability" recommendations?
Thanks for joining us today, Bob. The difference between "story" and "book" is an interesting concept to me. Readers do come back for "story" but first isn't it our book that entices them to read us in the first place?
Great post! I always enjoy reading your blog "write it forward". What sort of changes are you predicting for 2014?
I had an instructor talk to me about the difference between story and book long ago. While some people use them interchangeably, the book is just the delivery medium. The story is the emotional content on the pages or ereader or audiofile. People read for that emotional connection, he said.
I suspect that future will bring more and more of the end consumer (the reader) and the producer. I'm looking at the idea of different covers for different readers, additional, specialized content for readers who want it, and other ways of interacting with them.
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