I recently read a blog post by Sarah Hoyt about how emotionally tied we get to our work, and it hit pretty close to home(or at least part of it). I've released three books to date, and I got attached to each of them. I shepherded them through the process of both writing and publishing, and I felt each was special in its own way. I now wonder whether or not I've gotten too close.
I spoke two weeks ago about the cost it takes to bring a book out. Yes, this is a little more than it has to be, but that's because I actually want a professional product and feel any schlub can simply upload one to Kindle or something. Is that conceited? Will that annoy fellow writers who crank out book after book very quickly? Probably. However, that's just the way I'm built.
But all of that may be keeping me from making any money at this. Most writers starve, and that's because most of our work doesn't sell very well. That may not be the public perception - tell someone you're a published author, and they instantly think you've got it made - but most of us have to do other things to pay the bills. Still, some are able to make it, not because they produce anything special, but because they produce lots of nothing special.
I have yet to meet a writer who didn't think the book they spent more than a year writing wasn't a masterpiece. After all, they put so much of their soul into it, everyone else should recognize its brilliance too, right? Of course, the audience doesn't work that way, but that doesn't stop our pretension.
But it is the audience we should worry about(at least a little). They buy our books, and most folks aren't swarming to stores to snap up masterpieces. Yes, every once in a while you'll get a Harry Potter or Twilight moment, but those are so famous precisely because they're so rare. The average reader may get through three books a year, and even avid readers will usually only go through about a dozen or so. So perhaps volume is part of this. After all, you can sell more if you have more to sell.
I'll have trouble adjusting to this. Even Hoyt admits that she put out some stuff she thought was crap...but people bought it. How would I feel cranking out similar crap. My initial reaction is one of revulsion, as if I'd be selling my soul, so I can't say that'll be my route. But if I want to focus on writing and putting out masterpieces, maybe I should occasionally poop out a book or 15 just to get the volume necessary for people to buy. What do you think?
I spoke two weeks ago about the cost it takes to bring a book out. Yes, this is a little more than it has to be, but that's because I actually want a professional product and feel any schlub can simply upload one to Kindle or something. Is that conceited? Will that annoy fellow writers who crank out book after book very quickly? Probably. However, that's just the way I'm built.
But all of that may be keeping me from making any money at this. Most writers starve, and that's because most of our work doesn't sell very well. That may not be the public perception - tell someone you're a published author, and they instantly think you've got it made - but most of us have to do other things to pay the bills. Still, some are able to make it, not because they produce anything special, but because they produce lots of nothing special.
I have yet to meet a writer who didn't think the book they spent more than a year writing wasn't a masterpiece. After all, they put so much of their soul into it, everyone else should recognize its brilliance too, right? Of course, the audience doesn't work that way, but that doesn't stop our pretension.
But it is the audience we should worry about(at least a little). They buy our books, and most folks aren't swarming to stores to snap up masterpieces. Yes, every once in a while you'll get a Harry Potter or Twilight moment, but those are so famous precisely because they're so rare. The average reader may get through three books a year, and even avid readers will usually only go through about a dozen or so. So perhaps volume is part of this. After all, you can sell more if you have more to sell.
I'll have trouble adjusting to this. Even Hoyt admits that she put out some stuff she thought was crap...but people bought it. How would I feel cranking out similar crap. My initial reaction is one of revulsion, as if I'd be selling my soul, so I can't say that'll be my route. But if I want to focus on writing and putting out masterpieces, maybe I should occasionally poop out a book or 15 just to get the volume necessary for people to buy. What do you think?
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