Writing Myths Perpetuated

Myth - The only way to "make it" in the writing world is through traditional publishing methods - agents, large house publishers, huge advances, etc.

This myth continues to hold writers down. How many excellent manuscripts would we see if writers would cease and desist from perpetuating this lie? Writers today have far too many options to be held back by a system that literally robs the writer of his/her compensation. By the time the editors, agents, publishers and printers take their cut, writers are left with a pittance and told they are responsible for their own marketing and promotional expenses - with NO advance!

Why do writers allow these "powers-that-be" to take advantage of their hard work? Because the myth of "traditional publishing" gets promoted by other writers. I know the argument that if writers publish what writers themselves view "good material" the market will be flooded with crap. Look around you folks. The market is already inundated by crap. The key word here is "market". Let the market - the consumer - dictate what writing is good and what writing stinks.

Why is this myth perpetuated by authors themselves? A variety of reasons. Those writers already traditionally published either don't know there's anything else out there just as viable and more lucrative or they are hooked on the "validation" principle. This principle says that unless you are traditionally published, you aren't legitimate. This principle perpetuates a lie. There are many thousands of manuscripts far superior to what the traditional houses publish every day.

New writers do not want to hear this, but this statement is true - large advances for new writers are virtually unheard of. In fact, advances for established authors have shrunk to near rarities unless you are in the "elite" circle of writers. You aren't going to write the great American novel and get rich as a newbie. See my next hub on the myth that a book sells itself.

Why do writers desire traditional publishing that only pays cents per book when other options offer dollars per book? Because the myth keeps getting repeated in writer's groups, print media, conferences and by college professors. I spoke to one college professor who did not realize the plethora of options available to authors today. You have everything from vanity presses, POD (print-on-demand), self-publishing (setting up your own publishing company thus having total control of the process), small publishers, mid-level publishers, university presses, online publications from e-books to PDF's to Tweetbooks and many more.

Compensation for most of these "new" alternatives compared to traditional publication often comes in higher for the author. Is there work involved? Absolutely. Learning curves? Every day, but why choke down meaningless money paid for your hard work? I see no good reason from a business point of view. The traditional houses have not paid authors what they're worth for decades. More likely centuries.

There is money out there to be made by authors, you just have to learn the business of writing. Too many writers want to write their book and then kick back and collect royalties. Unless you plan on being the million-to-one shot, I suggest you stop listening to the "traditionalists" and research how you can set up your own company and publish a book for a scant few hundred dollars. How you can publish e-books as well and have both tactile and e-formats available through large scale distributors like Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and others.

Get off the "traditional-publishing-is-the-way-to-go" myth and find out what is waiting for you in the dynamic, ever-changing world of writing. Find a small press or a co-op publisher like myself and ask good questions. Be open to answers you won't hear from the traditionalists. You may be glad you did.

 

All writers have dreamt this dream.  We finish the last word with and exhausted but satisfied sigh.  (Those of us who know better dream of the last edit instead of the last word).  The book is picked up by a publisher (check out my hub on the myth of traditional publishing) and we kick back with a sizable advance and a book-marketing machine that sells our baby like rocket fuel to NASA.

Time to wake up fellow writers.  This doesn't even happen rarely.  It simply does not happen.  Your book must be written - true - it must be well-edited - true - and your book must be marketed - true.  But that marketing is not going to be your publisher.  I know a seven-time New York Times bestselling author that received $50,000 for promotion of his new book. 

Large dollars you say?  In advertising dollars that $50K won't go anywhere nationally.  Nor regionally for that matter.  This is not money for the author either.  This is the advertising budget.  For a seven-time New York Times bestseling author.

My point here is that you, the author, will have to market and promote your book.  You will spend your money, your time,  your resources and your effort to get this baby off the ground.  Writing the book is only 5-10% of the work. 

Here is the place most writers fall out of the writing picture.  Once the true scope of this book-writing effort rears its ugly head, many writers pack it up and make writing their "hobby".  They turn tail and run to other pursuits that are either more financially rewarding or at least less painfully work related.  A blue-blood writer sees this and sticks with it.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with realizing you got in over your head and you choose to not do this "writing life thing" to yourself.  In fact, I encourage wannabe writers to do just that - give it up if work is something they do not wish to associate with their writing.  There is nothing wrong with part-time writing and "hobby" writing.  Leave the heavy lifting for those pig-headed authors that simply won't take no for an answer.  Leave book writing to those prepared to take on the gargantuan task, especially those that welcome the challenge.

This clears the playing field a bit.  There are over 6.5 million manuscripts out there looking for a publishing home.  Those willing to take on the work of marketing and promoting their work will fare far better than the person who sits back and complains that no one is buying their book.  You, the author, must find the way to sales.

And don't let that notion of millions strike your brain so often as to discourage you.  Look for tens of sales, then hundreds of sales.  Build your book platform over time.  The flash-in-the-pan money-maker is far too rare.  Play the lottery if you're into those kind of long-shot odds.

When an author pens (keys) a book, does what it takes to get it published, then gets out and markets and promotes it, the book has a shot.  Even all that work is no guarantee of success.  For a writer, it's the process that's the thrill - the motivation.  Yes, who wouldn't want a best-selling novel to sweep the land.  I know I do.  Just do not allow that dream to supplant your reality.  One day you may get there, but it will be due to hard work and loads of seemingly wasted effort.

Believe in your work enough to get behind it and apply your imagination to promoting it.  One day, when all the effort has paid off, you'll look back and see so few of your contemporaries ever actually got it - the book doesn't sell itself, you sell yourself.  Book sales follow.

Put to death the myth that a book will sell itself once written.  Time.  Effort.  Work.  These sell books.  Enjoy them all.  The time, the effort, the work.  Kill the myth.

This myth may appear to be a bit self-serving with the book Writing is Easy poised to be published, however, writing is not easy. To the uninitiated or even the new writer, writing can be deceptively simple. You sit down, you key, you're done.

Any writer who applies himself quickly learns that writing owns many facets, most of which a writer has to learn on their own. The colleges do not prepare a writer for the business side of the writing life, hence writers have been financially taken advantage of for centuries.

Think about this: a writer creates incredible stories, visuals, ideas, etc. yet on the compensation side of life the writer is the one person in the chain that does not make money. Without the writer, there are no movies, no soap operas, no blockbuster novels, no Writing for Dummies books. Who makes the money? Huge publishing houses, (ok, publishers in general), editors (they make good money), printers (they definitely get theirs), agents (wow, money for networking, checks for free ...), graphic design artists (necessary), distributors, bookstores, etc. and this does not even address the magazine and newspaper markets as well as online moneymakers like Adsense.

Most of these drains on the income stream are necessary to producing a product. My issue derives from who deserves the lion's share. Simply because writers do not have financial clout like the large house publishers, writers have become indentured servants. If you, as an author, have the talent to produce wondrous works, why should you be the last person on the money totem?

Writers are notorious for possessing little business savvy. Authors are well documented for wild mood swings and other mental disorders. Many writers suffer internal wars that only their craft can address. Writing demands attention in most writers. Writing becomes a drug, an escape, a therapy.

Nothing easy in any of this, is there? Writers lean heavily to the 'tortured soul' side of life like many creative artists. Writers prefer to hole-up and let it flow rather than deal with money and the business side of life - that's way too analytical and left-brained. Maintaining yourself as a writer presents itself as a struggle, a major struggle, right from the start.

Once you get past you beautiful prose that came from your heart, mind and soul, you are greeted by the reality that writing involves more than you bargained for. Once new authors see this, large numbers drop out. Who can blame them?

Someone needs to stand up and capture the writing community's attention. Remember the writer's strike a couple years ago? Finally, a group of writers got fed up with being massively underpaid (compared to everyone else in the writing business) and attempted to do something about it.

Unfortunately, writers are their own worst enemy. For every writer who understands that getting paid peanuts for their work is grand larceny, there are hundreds of writers willing to sell their souls for a byline. As long as this dynamic continues, writing will not only NOT be easy, it will not be for the financial faint of heart.

One of my hopes is that writing will move more to a 'market' compensation where writers have a more direct line on the income stream, not the bottom-feeder position in which we currently live. Harlan Ellison has been saying this for years and has been labeled a 'bad boy' in the writing community.

Business, editing, pure prose work without filler, showing not telling, multitudes of publishing options that change day to day, internet, magazines, copywriting, copy rights - the list goes on and on as to what writers MUST know. Writers have to know at least the basics on these topics as well as many others.

Then, to top it all off, writing is truly as Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith said, "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." That aspect of writing can be lived with and reveled in by most writers. If only, Mr. Smith, writing was that easy.