Escaping Stockholm: Part 3

[mizkit]

Introducing the third and final part of author Judith Tarr’s inspired rant on the changes in the publishing industry, and the expectations we writers have come to live with and accept.

Escape from Stockholm: An Epic Publishing Saga
Find Judith Tarr on LiveJournal | on Twitter | & at Book View Cafe

Part One | Part Two

This is no longer the only game

Comments

Someone's going to crack this nut.

[kirbyk]

It's work, and it needs skills.

What I read instantly into this is that we've just created a new industry job that nobody's filling yet. Somewhere between agent, publicist, and some entirely new things. It's not me - I both have a career already and am not the social barracuda one needs to be to figure out how to master this - but someone who is tenacious and clever and really believes in making midlist writers lives better could carve out a very rewarding career out of this, right now.

I mean, existing agents and publicists should be doing this already, but they aren't, and they don't seem to all understand it.

Best of luck to anyone trying to tackle this problem head-on!

Re: Someone's going to crack this nut.

[dancinghorse]

YES YES YESITY YES YES YES!

This is exactly what I've been seeing, but I'd already written 4000 words and, well, that's a whole new article. Manifesto. Call to arms. Something.

BVC does quite a bit of that as a group, but we're still figuring out the marketing end. We've had great results with distribution outlets like Overdrive. What's needed is, as you say, a whole category of person, repping authors for commission a la agents, but doing a slew of other things besides what agents currently do.

Re: Someone's going to crack this nut.

[tersa]

This essay has been an interesting read, and although I know you were directing it at Kit, I appreciate that you allowed her to share it because it's been very informative. :)

(And I caught on to the title almost immediately, and enjoyed the anticipation of the payoff. It was like a mini-story in and of itself!)

[gows]

Very inspirational at the end, here. But I feel there's a lot of information missing - mainly, the risk factor and the sheer amount of work marketing oneself can be.

I also have serious doubts as to the long-term viability of the crowdfunded model. It reminds me, to a degree, of the heady mid-90s Silicon Valley venture capital days, where you could get funding for damn near anything if you were bold enough, brave enough, and persuasive enough . . . only for that bubble to burst in life-shattering ways.

My guess is that when it all shakes out, things will land somewhere in between. As kirby pointed out, this is an excellent job niche--but also one that agents, et al, should already be doing. I expect that the next few years will be a mad scramble, but that some of the younger, hungrier, and more tech-savvy agents will Figure This Out and be instrumental in leading the industry to becoming a leaner racedog than the bloated, stagnant mess it seems to have become.

[mizkit]

I actually suspect crowdfunding is around for the long run myself, but there's no question that marketing oneself is a huge amount of work. I think that's part of why Judy's talking specifically to and about midlist authors here: people who have a name they can build on and entice with, whose books will be picked up by regular readers regardless of how they end up on the shelves.

But yeah, there's a growing need here and somebody's gotta learn to fill it. I just don't know who or what yet. :)

[dancinghorse]

I would have said crowdfunding was a flash in the pan myself, last year. Now? I think it's part of the new model, and it's going to stay.

And yes, I am talking to midlist authors about what they can do now, and what they might do as things continue to evolve. Starting with getting out of the trap of learned helplessness and learning to be more proactive. And more aware of how much power they have. It's so much more than I had when I was ten years in.

[tersa]

So, Kit--what new thoughts do /you/ have, after reading the essay? :)

[mizkit]

In brief, that I feel much more confident--and this is also partly due to the CreateSpace books in bookstores thing, mind you--in the idea of walking away from a publisher if I don't an advance of the amount I think I'm worth