Well, last month I messed up and used this month's theme of "Adventures in Travel" for last month's blog post about writing the book of my bicycle journey around the world:
https://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2019/07/every-book-has-its-time.html
I figured that this month I should look at my "travels" in writing.
Recently I was part of a small group discussion about the drop-out rate of authors from the industry, many of them with reasonably established careers. We talked a bit about why it happens. I eventually proposed a "model" but I've given it a lot of thought since and wanted to explore this a bit more.
I'm not talking about the "fad" writers. "Oh, everything with Girl in the title is hot, I'll write one of those." "Oh $0.99 books with massive ad campaigns are the answer to everything." Most of these folks are gone as quickly as they arrived. I'm talking about people who want to have a good, consistent writing career.
There are a number of hurdles to clear, things that can really stop authors in such a way they may never recover:
- Actually finishing and letting go of (publishing) that first book.
- The terror of the blank page of the second book especially after all that pretty polishing of the first.
- Five books later, discovering that this career requires hard, consistent work, and that success rarely just dangles from the trees. Yes, there are the breakout writers, but I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about steady, workaday writers like myself.
But once they clear the five-book hurdle, most authors seem able to continue up to that 20-book threshold. Then a massive winnowing happens at this point and this is what aroused my (and the group's) curiosity.
Why at 20 books?
By then, especially if the author focused intelligently on a genre or series, income is often moving nicely. Maybe not stellar yet, but probably a decent income. They know how much work it is.
And then they just walk away.
My theory on this is actually tied up in my own recent experience. I have fifty-two romance novels across multiple series. But 12 of those are in contemporary romance, which is quite different from writing military romantic suspense. And the military rom was split up across multiple series and the last 9 years (so I wrote many other things in between, perhaps bypassing that 20-book trip point that way).
But why at 20 books?
My theory is that most of the truly long career writers I've spoken to have had to reinvent themselves. Either the industry or the traditional publishers' perception of the industry created tectonic-scale shifts and suddenly Gothic romance, westerns, horror, Cold War thrillers, science fiction in general, and so on simply were no longer a viable option. A writer who wrote 20 novels without being "forced" to reinvent themselves would consider that they'd had a good run.
Then along came indie publishing. Now we are able to reach an on-going audience despite any trends or perceived trends. We are free to write 40 military romantic suspense novels as part of a career with no clear pressure to reinvent ourselves.
I think that this is the real 20-book trap. Twenty novels is typically between 1 and 2 million words. Isn't it time for a break? For a change up? For a refreshing of motivation? You don't have to do as I have and jump whole genres, but shifting from mystery to thriller, from noir to cozy, from space opera to apocalyptica, even small-town romance to urban romance. These kind of changes keep us fresh as writers. At least that's my theory.
Yes, many careers were ended by the "tectonic" shifts of the past, but how many more were created anew by an author reinventing and refreshing themselves? I'd wager the later number is far bigger.
I recently noticed that my own instinctive writer was looking for a change. My last several military romantic suspense novels have been reviewed with "thrilling, fast-paced, adventure" far more than heart-felt romance as they used to be.
So? I've decided to listen to that for a while. I'm not abandoning romance. But for now, I'm working very hard to reinvent myself as a thriller writer. We'll see how that goes...
Coming November 19th and December 17th the Miranda Chase NTSB thrillers:
 |
| More Info / Pre-order |
A supersonic drone flies Black Ops
missions from the most secure hangar in the nation.
A C-130 Hercules transport plane lies
shattered in the heart of America’s Top Secret military airbase — Groom Lake in
the Nevada Test and Training Range.
China’s newest stealth J-31 jet fighter
goes missing.
The CIA, the military, and the National
Reconnaissance Office are all locked in a power struggle.
One woman is trapped in the middle.
Miranda Chase, lead crash investigator for the NTSB (National Transportation Safety
Board), becomes a pawn in a very dangerous game.
Burdened with a new team, she must
connect the pieces to stay alive. And she must do it before the wreckage of her
past crashes down upon her.
Think I'm right or wrong? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the challenges facing career-writers.
---
M.L.
“Matt” Buchman started the first of over 60 novels, 100 short stories, and a
fast-growing pile of audiobooks while flying from South Korea to ride his
bicycle across the Australian Outback. Part of a solo around the world trip
that ultimately launched his writing career in: thrillers, SF/F, and romance.
His
titles have been named Barnes & Noble and NPR “Top 5 of the year” and
3-time Booklist “Top 10 of the Year” as well as being a “Top 20 Modern
Masterpiece” in romantic suspense. As a 30-year project manager with a
geophysics degree who has: designed and built houses, flown and jumped out of
planes, and solo-sailed a 50’ ketch, he is awed by what's possible. More at: www.mlbuchman.com.
8 comments:
Matt, I'm sure "Drone" will be a big hit - it launches on my birthday! To add to your thoughts, I think life events also play a role as in major health issues (heart attack, stroke, cancer, chronic pain, etc.) whether your own or your special someone(s); age especially if you started writing later in life (my experience is while the stories are still there, getting them out at almost 80 is more challenging than at almost 60. So if you are a slower writer (1 - 2 books a year) 20 books can take you 10 - 20 years instead of 5.
I do remember attending Jayne Anne Krentz' workshop on reinventing herself. Hearing her talk about changing her author name, writing in different genres, etc. was eye-opening. I'd be very surprised if I changed my name. I've more books to write about the people in my original Sacred Women's Circle series. But then I'm not sure I'll be writing to sell when I'm 90 instead of writing because I love to do it...only time will tell.
Good point, M. L. The need for reinvention is a huge factor in whether someone decides to stick it out past 20 books. And Judith's opinion about life changes probably accounts for some, too. Personally, I'm only at 5 books so far, but I've seen friends fade out from having to adapt to a changing landscape in publishing and genre trends. It's tough, and not worth the hassle for some writers.
Enjoyed your post and insight to the writing challenges of today.
Interesting post, Matt. Your ideas make sense, although I agree with Judith that life throws curve balls sometimes that writers, who don't have benefits like paid medical leave or disability insurance, have a hard time working through. Your new series sounds AWESOME!
Great thought provoking post, Matt. I hadn't realized there was a massive die-off at 20 books, hehe. It makes sense though if you consider the traditional 2 books per year would mean it's now 10 years later, and look how the publishing world has changed in that time. Someone unable/unwilling to adapt might just take their ball and go home.
But that's the publishing side of the discussion. The creative side comes with its own challenges. I have a good friend who wrote romantic suspense for one of the Big 5 for years, multiple books. Then she felt like trying her hand at a cosy mystery. Couldn't do it. The romance crept in.
Then there's the question of establishing a new pen name, building a new following, all the work required to find readers for a new genre. It's exhausting! Or if you stay with one name, worry about upsetting your current fans by writing in a genre in which they have no interest. I can certainly see why someone would be content to remain in their niche.
I'm about to publish my 10th book, all romance, all the time. But I have an idea, and copious notes, for a cosy mystery series and I'm interested to see if I can keep my amateur sleuth from falling for the hunky detective.
Judith, Life rolls? Absolutely! And, yep, older we get the rougher the toll.
But it was the 20-title cliff that I found interesting that is it's own weird beast. Along with a few others, I was trying to figure out what that was in the indie world. And, yes, Jayne Ann Krentz's workshop that I saw as a newbie back in '96 or '98 was definitely a part of my thinking on this.
Luanna, Yeah, I was surprised when the romance didn't creep into that thriller. My SF, fantasy, and foodie thrillers all have love stories in them. Not this one! LOL!
As to the "name change" idea, I would tend to argue that is also a creature of the past. Yes, doing all this under a single name screws up my algorithms and Also-Boughts... HOWEVER! In this day and age, we want to cultivate super fans and loyal fans to _our_ author brand. By having a single name, I make it easy for the superreaders to find all that I do. It requires very clear author / genre / series branding, but after 5 years of focusing on that, I like to think I've got some control of that. You'd certainly not mistake "Drone" or "Thunderbolt" for a romance (even aside from the subheading of "Thriller" right on the cover. And yes, that's why my romances say "Romance" on every cover. Part of my genre branding that is also a fragment of author branding (I'm the author who always tells you what it is).)
Matt, Thanks for expanding on your post. I like what you are saying about Author Branding. I've heard it before but you've mentioned specific practices you employ to assist your readers/super fans connect with the content they love.
A bit off topic but I'm wondering about your cover changes. I don't do mine so there is always a cost consideration when I think about changing the Sacred Women's Circle covers to feature a couple as they are romance or some are more women's fiction with strong romantic elements. So my question really is: did you LOVE any of the covers you changed and if you did, how did you make that decision? What did you focus on so redoing covers made sense?
The key is actually that many of my early covers sucked as they were all done by me. For a while I was getting advice, but in retrospect some elements of that advice was better than other elements and I finally took back full control.
So, I change covers on a series only if I feel they:
a) are grossly out of the now current standard for the genre
b) stand out as particularly sad to my ever more educated eye (this is when I will re-cover a whole series and bring it up to some standard of the author brand)
c) I think they misrepresent the title
d) They're just downright egregious
e) they're so far of the author brand that I can't stand it anymore
I approach this task with great caution, because if I touch one thing, I touch everything and that can be a big time investment: cover, redraft back cover, integrate all the changes from the typo file where I accumulate reader spotted problems, bio, Also by, etc. etc. etc. Also, older titles will have to be moved from InDesign to Vellum and then reuploaded on 6-8 sites.
As I said, I approach this very cautiously, but I will do it. I actually target a series about every 6 months. As I have a lot of series, that means I'll hit them all at least once before I die, maybe. LOL!
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