At this point, you can do two things--not necessarily one or the other, you can do both.
1. Wallow in self-pity. That's right, lapse into a melancholic fugue where all you can feel is the sting of salt on your lips from too many potato chips and lose your head in a fog of whiskey and Diet Coke. Go ahead. You're a loser; you're a fucking failure with a shit book nobody wants. FEEL LIKE SHIT--but write it down, you may need it later.
2. Keep writing. Because that's what you do once you've had your most recent emotional meltdown. Those little episodes of depression and self-abuse can be cleansing, purging. (However, if they're part of your everyday life or you're reading this while sawing a cake knife across your wrist you might want to see somebody about that) a little wallow in the pig shit of our own self-loathing can have cathartic effects. The next time you present yourself before the page you may feel a lot differently.
Remember, when we sat down to write, THAT WAS THE POINT. We wanted to write. This selling/not selling/bashing our heads against the Amazon reports screen wasn't part of the deal. So, forget that and keep writing. Back to where it all started.
The people in your social network are not a target market; they're not there to buy your book. They have their own reasons for spending time online. So, find the people who are online to buy books. Find them in the Amazon forums and the writing sites like absolutewrite. A lot of writers use the Writer's Market Guide, although, I'm not sure how effective that publication is for e-books.
Also, seek out other writers who are in the same boat. You don't have to form a coalition or e-book Writer's Union or anything, just make some friends. Help them sell their book and with a little luck and human decency, they'll reciprocate. That doesn't always work, I've found, but it does more often than not.
I found Rob W. Hunt on litreactor yesterday. He is preparing an experiment with an e-book in the upcoming months. Those who follow this blog and that one will participate first-hand in what works and what doesn't when it comes to selling e-books. And as much as I'm looking forward to following that experiment, I'm not going to rest on it. There is worldwide web out there and as a salesman (bleah) I want to cover as much of it as possible.
And I have to keep writing.
And eating potato chips.
And drinking whiskey.
Hi Jerry, I'm sorry if this journal entry of yours is coming from a place where you didn't get much response to your excellent story. A couple of things I can say that may or may not help -use or discard as you wish. Firstly, I think this is your first foray into self-publishing, right? Either way this is the first thing I saw of yours actually available to buy, and to read other than a few free excerpts on your blog from other works. You are never going to get instant success and instant readership; it will take time. Secondly, as great as WOP is, it's a short story. A long short story yes, maybe even a novella, but it's not a novel. People want to buy novels- or at very least a collection of short stories, although if you mention a collection to a publisher nowadays they will back away into the corners of the room. Thirdly, I think you need to find a target audience for this stuff, and you are right, it's not just your pals online. I think this would go down very well with a sadomasochistic audience and goths, maybe the hardcore metal music scene, but it's a straddler of a story - sort of extreme sadomasochistic activity mixed with more fantastical elements mixed with gritty crime instead of all-out torture porn. I actually love this,and don't think this is a bad thing at all, but i do think realistically it will make it harder for you to find a target audience for it. You need to either find or MAKE one- to make one you have to be very very good indeed. Some people would say that researching target audiences and writing for them is compromising one's art,and others would say doing that is simply getting your entry point from which you can play. If we take Clive as an example, sure he wrote groundbreaking short stories that were supported by some big names before he got any recognition, but the two elements in that success story are firstly he wrote hardcore horror with a twist, that fitted right in with the splatterpunk movement that was happening at the time, and then he got some big names to say nice things about him. It could have seriously helped that he had an agent in this- but you know big names!
ReplyDeleteI think you are right to just keep on writing, and getting your stuff out there. When you have enough, or a novel complete, I think you should look very closely at the kind of person who would read your stuff and learn how to market it to them, and call on your friends, as well.
Good luck.
I think it's mostly, that after you self-publish, without a built-in support system you're left entirely on your own. You really do take on the role of salesman. You look in all kinds of areas for support and almost anywhere you go requires an "establishing yourself" period. So what do you sacrifice to find this time? Writing time.
ReplyDeleteIt does get frustrating and a little discouraging, but these are all good things; it's all experience. In writing, frustration and depression, pain have to be examined as closely as happy happy joy joy and the throbbing member. It's okay to be frustrated.
I agree- the only thing I don't agree with you on is that writers don't write to sell and get read- of course they do! We want to be read; we want our stories to be accepted and liked and respected by a readership. Of course we don't write to be bestselling authors and earn millions - although i have yet to meet a writer who would turn it down - but I believe writing is a communicative endeavour. And yes, you are right about just getting on down with the downtimes; however, untrue to my gender, I'm a problem solver type.
ReplyDeleteThe way to solve the problem of which you speak is to not go down the Indie route, and instead pursue an agent and publisher. It's a double edged sword that if you do that, you'll be spending a lot of time pursuing and then if you do get lucky, you'll spend a lot of time reviewing your work to tailor make it. None of it is the ideal of just being embraced by the world just as you are and right away, but then, it never has been, never will be.
What honestly frustrates me is that you are good enough to get an agent, Jerry, and no matter how much we defend this new age of self-publishing e-books, it is true that the majority of first time novelists - NOT all, but the majority- are doing it because they aren't good enough. The ones I see have the most success are previously house-published authors who want to take their work down a road their publishers didn't want to go. But there are the lucky few first-timers, of course, and I hope you are one of them.