Changes in Publishing - Part Two

By Maggie Lynch

***If you missed Part One, click on this link Changes in Publishing, Part One

What does all this mean to the individual author?

It means you have to think in terms of the long game. You don’t write a book (or even a short story) for next week’s or next month’s sales spike; and there’s no way to even see a trend before it’s gone. 

One could read all of the above and simply throw in the towel and say “I’m not writing anymore. I can’t make any money.”  However, I would suggest the author’s response to this should be NOT to play the short-game. 

Don’t count on book launches, short-term velocity, or deciding the value of your book on the first month’s or quarters, or maybe even year’s, earnings. 

Stop practicing or seeing answers to the short game. Instead focus on the long game. What is that title worth in two years? Ten years? How can it be re-used, re-purposed, re-made into new products? Duets, short stories, boxed sets, series. 

These are all thinking about long-game products and thinking about each product being more than a stand alone.

On the marketing and discoverability side, the long game approach is also very different. For example, there is no point in jeopardizing your long-term business over something that isn’t going to last. Too often authors check their sales every day and then react by trying some new latest fad to give it a boost: a Facebook or Twitter ad, a Pinterest post, a Tumblr blog, a … you name the latest new multimedia. Some subscribe to a tweet buzzer, or blast their fans with “buy, buy, buy, ” or frantically search for the secret “make millions now” scheme.

These are all temporary boosts with diminishing returns. Yes, the first time you try it you might see a few more sales, but the next time is less, and the next time may be nothing. While chasing those spikes, you’ve failed to write the next book or take into account the long-term sales results for that title.

Joanna Penn has coined a popular term for the type of author who can learn to thrive in this new publishing environment. It is: “author-entrepreneur.” I like this term because it joins both the creative and business sides that successful authors must embrace today.  Let me quote Joanna’s thinking on building an online presence.

“The author-entrepreneur” takes the long-term view, plans accordingly, and thinks ahead. For example, this is why I think relationships with other authors are so important. Some people consider social media a waste of time, but if you have a long-term perspective, you know it’s not about this one tweet, or a single blog post, or this one podcast interview. It’s about building social karma over time, about generosity that comes back to you in unexpected ways, about making friends and supporting each other on the journey. None of that is possible with short-term thinking.”

Embrace Change
Finally, I think the biggest change in publishing is the fact that it IS changing constantly. 

We are nowhere near stability or even heading toward equilibrium in the publishing game. 

We will continue to see changes in both traditional and indie options. 

We will continue to see a plethora of software solutions to speed the production cycle. 

We will continue to see power shifts among companies, countries, genres and formats. 

Authors who can find a way to continue to write great stories while being buffeted by change will be the ones to succeed, long term. 

Authors who don’t become obsessed with the latest gadget, marketing campaign, or promises of riches, will be the ones more likely to succeed in the long term. 

Authors who are willing to take chances, to experiment a little but always verify results, are the ones who will learn to be on the leading edge of change instead of hanging onto the tiger’s tail and bouncing between the earth and the sky.


Like most things in life, authors who can find some semblance of balance of creativity, business acumen, and a match with their core will now be more successful. Learn how to exercise control where you have some power and to let go of control where you do not.

And remember what brought you to writing in the first place. It probably wasn’t riches or fame. Get back to that person—that person who wrote because she had a story that wouldn’t leave her alone, or wanted her voice to be heard in a medium that has long-term staying power, or simply loved the shape of words and sentences and paragraphs. Don’t lose the core and all that flows from that will help you adapt as matches your need.

MAGGIE LYNCH

Maggie Lynch is the author of 15 published books, as well as more than 35 short stories and numerous non-fiction articles. She is also the founder of Windtree Press, an independent publishing cooperative.

Visit her online at http://maggielynch.com
Maggie's love of lifelong-learning has garnered degrees in psychology, counseling, computer science, and education;  and led to opportunities to consult in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. Since 2013, Maggie has enjoyed the luxury of writing full-time. Her adult fiction spans romance, suspense, and speculative fiction titles under the name Maggie Jaimeson. She writes young adult fiction under the name Maggie Faire.  Her non-fiction titles are found under Maggie McVay Lynch.