Writing: Finding an Audience

When I attended the 2015 Comic Con FanX, the first panel I attended was hosted by Tracy Hickman.  The panel was entitled "First, A Writer Needs an Audience," and the discussion focused on the importance and possible ways a writer can connect to his or her target audience.

Publishing a book these days is not what it used to be.  The traditional model of publishing (which entailed either submitting work to a publisher or editor, signing a contract, getting your work edited and sold, and a percentage of income is taken out for all parties involved) has been vastly diminished since the major economic collapse of 2008, leaving only "The Big 5" as viable options for the old-school publishing house experience.  Because these companies want to protect their investments tightly, they will not accept submissions on chance alone.  They will bank on the sure thing, and thus, they will pick projects via a committee to find that's most marketable, rather than the discretion of individual editors.  Thus, the Big 5 will surely publish the standard, run-of-the-mill thrillers or YA fiction that we see all the time, but they won't necessarily take a chance on any bold or unusual forms of literature.  On top of that, physical bookstores are disappearing all the time.

Nowadays, it's possible for anybody to publish, via e-books.  But, being published doesn't automatically make you a professional.  It's no longer important to be published; it's important to be read.  The experience of reading the words is what's important; the physical book is merely a souvenir of the experience.

This is ultimately similar to what happened to movies when television was invented.  Throughout the 30s and 40s, movie studios used to own everything:  writers, directors, actors, sets, marketing, and even the theaters themselves.  They had total control over an entire production, but when the 50s rolled around, they started to suffer financially because TV made quality programming more accessible, and less people went to the cinemas.  Movie companies had to pump out a lot of fluff in the 50s - especially in regards to musicals and sci-fi pictures - but it wasn't until the late 60s and 70s that studios finally wised up and decided to finance movies, rather than make them.  They relied on individual productions to create the product.

Writing books is now the same:  you, the writer, will have to become an independent producer of your own work.  Some viable options for getting yourself published now are:

• E-book publishing via Amazon or some other company:  anybody can do it, but you will need to edit your work extensively (freelance editors may help) and find your own cover art.
• Vanity publishing:  expensive and provides small distribution, last time I saw.
• Regional publishing:  may be limited to specific regions, but it should be easier to get accepted.
• Group up with other authors and sell your work together.

You can also create and host your own publishing company.  If you host your own website that enables Paypal payments (a combination of sites and components like Wordpress, Blue Host, S2 Member, and Pintrest), with help from Kickstarter, you can sell your own work.

When it comes to selling e-books, writers have control of the price.  In the traditional model, advance copies were pricier, but limited in number; hardbacks were more affordable, but still more expensive and less available; paperbacks were widely available and cheap.  In the new model, the effect is the opposite:  free material is everywhere; e-books are plentiful, cheap, but more expensive than free stuff; paperbacks are limited and cost more; exclusive editions are super-limited and much more expensive.  Thus, having a low price and high availability will allow you to snag a lot of readers.  But you don't want to give it all away for free; if you don't charge anything, you should at least snag some contact information so you can spread a newsletter.  Newsletters and e-mails can enable you to find more readers and spread word of your work, in addition to social media.

Those are the key points that I remember the most from this session.  It has become clear to me that traditional publishing houses are antiquated; anybody can publish in any number of other ways.  Above all, gaining readership ensures success and longevity, and you can do so by making your work widely available, inexpensive, and through self-promotion.