‘They’ recommend building an e-mail list. Have you done that? This whole be your own brand thing is like a snowball rolling down a hill. The farther away from traditional publishers you go the more you as the author has to do. I don’t want to be a brand. I’d like to be the most successful unknown author there is.
Hello from a self-published author who deliberately chose NOT to give money to a company that would NOT do the marketing for me. Why bother with a "real" publishing house if I get no help from them? Your latest post was an excellent statement of the situation. But I would rather put my support behind building up marketing help for authors, with a way for the cream to rise to the top, rather than supporting the crumbling, arrogant, and out-of-date old publishing megalith. Down with gatekeepers!
That's awesome! I have to admit, the idea of self-publishing really overwhelms me. It's not just that I don't want to do my own publicity/distribution, etc, it's that I truly don't know how to do it effectively and really educating myself on it seems like a monumental task.
I agree with everything you wrote and would add that those who "brokeout" on BookTok, later complained about mass returns. Mostly due to Amazon's return policy at the time which isn't much better now, of not monitoring how much of the book was read before the return and giving way too much time for the owner to keep the book beforehand. The Authors Guild is staying on top of it apparently, but it was a short lived boon to sales. I don't think anyone made huge profits but I don't know it as a fact.
So many of us chose this path because we didn't want to wear *all* the hats, because we wanted to write more than we wanted to be a social media star. Personally, I'm fine to do my share of the promo, but my share should be the tiny share. I don't have the budget!
Great article! There appears to be a surprising amount of similarity in the video game industry right now. Many game developers have chosen to be independent, form their own communities, and let the quality of their products speak for itself. Then there are the big publishers that seem to be intentionally undermining the success of their clients, and coming up with new and interesting ways to destroy the trust of their own customers.
"Really, really good books". Be nice if they started that again. I think this is the problem they have. If they got that right and were confident word if mouth would spread, they wouldn't worry about authors needing to do their marketing for them.
Very apposite article. I started my own little nano publishing outfit and have basically decided while it would be nice to have a bestseller. I just can’t get this writing bug out of my system.
I’ll just aim to produce other best books I can in the most cost-effective way possible. I have zero money so can’t market or hire editors or designers or self-publishing companies.
So, I’ll just send out my work into the great whirlpool of content in the hope someone, somewhere enjoys it.
Thank you for not being afraid to confront some of these important issues for us ordinary writers without influence or financial clout.
Keep up the good work, your YouTube channel is highly informative.
(Didn't realise I could like or comment to the emails I get. Never scrolled that far)
Popping on here to say how perfect and poignant this was. It feels trite to say "I'm at a loss for words" but I genuinely am at a loss for words. Ironically, I popped on here to say how much this post meant. But that's kinda hard to do when all I'm managing is rambling. 😅😂
Exactly! With the marketing teams, distribution channels, wholesale buyers, sales reps etc why the author is expected to learn so much and do so much? The royalies are shrinking, sometimes even lower than 5%, but authors are expected to do more and more for less and less. Every time I think about it, I think about broom makers. You don't see broom makers on TikTok and Facebook or Instagram trying to convince people to buy their broom. They make their brooms, they get picked up by wholesalers and that's it, then they make more brooms. Bookshop owners also expect you to send customers to their shop. No broom maker is expected to send customers to the broomshop. And if the shopkeeper doesn't sell the broom, that's on them. I envy the authors from 1930s and earlier. They were the product makers only, but modern authors have to be all for 5% profit.
Thanks for putting together such a great article. I'm a portugueses author and the industry in Portugal is in many ways even harder. But over and over again, I came back to this question of where to focus attention and energy, because I see it in myself that the more I think of branding and social media, the less time and energy I have to write. And does it really pay off? Hum... Really, thanks for sharing and reminding me to not lose focus.
“Isn’t it enough that authors create the actual product you profit off of?” !! mic drop moment!!
Thanks so much for reading, Emily!
‘They’ recommend building an e-mail list. Have you done that? This whole be your own brand thing is like a snowball rolling down a hill. The farther away from traditional publishers you go the more you as the author has to do. I don’t want to be a brand. I’d like to be the most successful unknown author there is.
Yep, I've got an email list! And yes, I completely agree - love the phrase "most successful unknown author" :)
Hello from a self-published author who deliberately chose NOT to give money to a company that would NOT do the marketing for me. Why bother with a "real" publishing house if I get no help from them? Your latest post was an excellent statement of the situation. But I would rather put my support behind building up marketing help for authors, with a way for the cream to rise to the top, rather than supporting the crumbling, arrogant, and out-of-date old publishing megalith. Down with gatekeepers!
That's awesome! I have to admit, the idea of self-publishing really overwhelms me. It's not just that I don't want to do my own publicity/distribution, etc, it's that I truly don't know how to do it effectively and really educating myself on it seems like a monumental task.
I agree with everything you wrote and would add that those who "brokeout" on BookTok, later complained about mass returns. Mostly due to Amazon's return policy at the time which isn't much better now, of not monitoring how much of the book was read before the return and giving way too much time for the owner to keep the book beforehand. The Authors Guild is staying on top of it apparently, but it was a short lived boon to sales. I don't think anyone made huge profits but I don't know it as a fact.
Oh wow - I hadn't heard about the mass return issue! Thank you for bringing that up!
So many of us chose this path because we didn't want to wear *all* the hats, because we wanted to write more than we wanted to be a social media star. Personally, I'm fine to do my share of the promo, but my share should be the tiny share. I don't have the budget!
Exactly! The resources involved to actually, truly break out...most authors just don't have that.
Great article! There appears to be a surprising amount of similarity in the video game industry right now. Many game developers have chosen to be independent, form their own communities, and let the quality of their products speak for itself. Then there are the big publishers that seem to be intentionally undermining the success of their clients, and coming up with new and interesting ways to destroy the trust of their own customers.
Oh that's interesting! I believe it's also similar with filmmakers and writers in TV/film right now.
"Really, really good books". Be nice if they started that again. I think this is the problem they have. If they got that right and were confident word if mouth would spread, they wouldn't worry about authors needing to do their marketing for them.
Yep. Hard to generate buzz around something that isn't actually buzz-worthy.
Very apposite article. I started my own little nano publishing outfit and have basically decided while it would be nice to have a bestseller. I just can’t get this writing bug out of my system.
I’ll just aim to produce other best books I can in the most cost-effective way possible. I have zero money so can’t market or hire editors or designers or self-publishing companies.
So, I’ll just send out my work into the great whirlpool of content in the hope someone, somewhere enjoys it.
Thank you for not being afraid to confront some of these important issues for us ordinary writers without influence or financial clout.
Keep up the good work, your YouTube channel is highly informative.
Thanks so much! I appreciate that. And how cool that you've started your own pub outfit!
(Didn't realise I could like or comment to the emails I get. Never scrolled that far)
Popping on here to say how perfect and poignant this was. It feels trite to say "I'm at a loss for words" but I genuinely am at a loss for words. Ironically, I popped on here to say how much this post meant. But that's kinda hard to do when all I'm managing is rambling. 😅😂
Thanks for taking the time to write it. 💜
One of the great features of Substack! :) Thanks so much, K - I appreciate this!
Amen!💕
Thanks Sue!
Exactly! With the marketing teams, distribution channels, wholesale buyers, sales reps etc why the author is expected to learn so much and do so much? The royalies are shrinking, sometimes even lower than 5%, but authors are expected to do more and more for less and less. Every time I think about it, I think about broom makers. You don't see broom makers on TikTok and Facebook or Instagram trying to convince people to buy their broom. They make their brooms, they get picked up by wholesalers and that's it, then they make more brooms. Bookshop owners also expect you to send customers to their shop. No broom maker is expected to send customers to the broomshop. And if the shopkeeper doesn't sell the broom, that's on them. I envy the authors from 1930s and earlier. They were the product makers only, but modern authors have to be all for 5% profit.
Thanks for putting together such a great article. I'm a portugueses author and the industry in Portugal is in many ways even harder. But over and over again, I came back to this question of where to focus attention and energy, because I see it in myself that the more I think of branding and social media, the less time and energy I have to write. And does it really pay off? Hum... Really, thanks for sharing and reminding me to not lose focus.