The Pain of Promotion

I recently read a novel by an author I’d not read before, first name Annette. I selected it late one night from the sale pages of Christianbook.com when I’d run out of things to read. The first thing that caught my attention was that it was published by NavPress, the house that published my first two novels, so I read the opening pages and was intrigued enough to order it. The novel was surprisingly good, a refreshing find, completely out of the box for CBA, which instantly made me turn back to see the publication date. Aha. It was published in 2006. In my opinion, CBA has tightened its net, so to speak, in the intervening years, and I’m not sure this book would find a home in CBA these days. For more on that, you should read Latayne's excellent post from Friday, regarding Christian Fiction.

Coincidentally, I had an interesting conversation with a longtime employee of the Christian bookstore in my little town (anyone hear Simon & Garfunkel singing?) when I took more of my books in, which they graciously sell. Lynda is very complimentary of my fiction, because she feels it is real, addresses real issues, isn't neatly tied up in the end, and shows the reader she isn't alone in her struggles. But I haven't been able to get a CBA contract since 2008, so there you are.

 Annette did a remarkable job of writing a male protagonist (we discussed writing opposite-sex characters on this blog in August). She wrote real-world characters you could truly identify with, who had goals beyond getting the girl/guy next door, and problems that look a lot like mine. Problems that don’t always have good solutions. I applauded her guts and her ability, and sent her an email saying how much I’d enjoyed the novel. Her response kind of blew me away. She gave me permission to share some of what was contained therein.

Annette is the author of 13 novels, the first published in 1997. It sold roughly 140,000 copies. The others, combined, sold about the same number. Combined or not, I was struck with Serious Envy when I read her sales numbers. I’ve never come close to that, nowhere near, though I never stop working at it.

But it was her next statement that blew me away. She wrote, “As for why I stopped writing …”

Excuse me?!?

Stopped writing?!?

With that kind of success?!?

Yes. Stopped. She had three main reasons:

First, I absolutely cannot bear promoting. I'm quite private, more so as I've gotten older. (I'm 54). I am the only person I know not on Facebook. When I began writing, promotion meant speaking a bit, doing book signings, giving out bookmarks. I did do a blog for a bit, and didn't mind that. But now...I just can't do all that is expected and needed of an author. When I weighed the pain of promoting vs the joy of writing for publication, writing did not come out on top.  I do not see how someone unwilling to promote can publish today.


Second, writing was never a calling for me. I loved it. It came easily and naturally for me, and I had a talent for it. I read a few how-to books and subscribed to Writer's Digest, but I never took a writing class. I attended my first conference after I'd had 7 books out. It wasn't something I longed for or dreamed about. I was a voracious reader, but really never thought being an author was in the realm of reality. It was an amazing surprise.

But my true calling? Hospice nursing. I've been an RN since age 20. It is what I was born to do. It is where I have served, where I have done my best work. It was easy to let writing slip away when it wasn't my only thing, or even my main thing.

“My only thing, or even my main thing.” That line really struck me. Because aside from my relationship with family and God, writing IS my main thing and has been for 27 years. No, it doesn't begin to compare to hospice nursing or any number of other professions that truly help people, but it is my passion. Aside from unforeseen circumstances, I have no intention of stopping. But I completely get what Annette is saying. Debbie also wrote a great post last week on the truth about introverts. Many writers are introverts – and some are shy, to boot, as Lori Benton pointed out. That certainly describes me. So when Annette said she couldn’t bear self-promotion, I could relate so well. And yet, as she spelled out so clearly, someone unwilling to self-promote these days won’t get far as an author.

The environment we find ourselves in as writers today is somewhat of a dichotomy. On one hand, publishing opportunities are greater---and less costly---than ever before, if one is willing to go the independent route. Now that many authors are choosing to go independent, even those who have been multi-published traditionally, the stigma of self-publication has diminished.

On the other hand, going independent means the full weight of promotion falls to the author. And for those of us---which basically is all of us---who dislike self-promotion, it makes the writing life that much harder. Building a readership is like tossing a stone into water and watching the ripple spread out from the initial splash. Turning that ripple-effect into a tsunami is the goal, but how do you do that?

Bloggers and social media participants have formed an impromptu co-op, if you will, helping promote the work of other writers along with their own, but it still creates only a small ripple in a huge pond. And all that promotional work cuts deeply into the author’s writing time. One or the other is going to suffer.

Have you found a way to balance writing with promotion, and have you found a promotional tool that’s been successful for you? Is the fear of promotional responsibilities enough to give you pause as a writer, or perhaps deter you from going independent? What, if anything, would make you put down your pen for good?

Is it Ever Time to Self Publish? A NovelMatters Roundtable Discussion

Last week we talked about the steps involved in finding an agent and a publisher, and the truth about how long it can take to become a published author. Latayne meticulously listed the basic steps in the process of seeing a manuscript through to publication. Even those of us fortunate enough to have an agent and perhaps even the interest of a publishing house, the list can overwhelm. I asked myself countless times, "Will it really ever happen?" as I waited years for a contract to be offered. When at last I did receive that contract I felt like I had finally broken through to "the other side." But there's no guarantee that once you're contracted, you'll remain contracted.

~

So why bother? If the chances are so remote, if the wait is so incredibly long, why bother? Because we write to be read. That's the long and the short of it. In light of that reality, is self publication a viable option, and if so, when might we rightly choose that path to get our books into circulation?

~

Yes, self publication is a viable option, but not for every writer and not for every book. In 2004, I ultimately chose self publication for A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown. After spending a couple of years seeking a publisher for my Christmas novella it became apparent I wasn't going to find a publisher for a specialty book without a NAME and a publishing HISTORY. So I chose to self publish. I market to churches and Christian high schools the full-length play I wrote from the book in hopes of creating a platform from which to sell it. While it's slow going I continue to persevere.

~

But a word of caution. More than once I've started reading a book, and within a few pages checked to see who the publisher was. I was willing to bet it was a self-published book, because it was obviously in need of an editor. Spelling and punctuation errors, as well as poor sentence structure were dead giveaways. So if you're considering self publication, invest in an editorial service in order to put the best face possible on your book.

~

And speaking of platforms, if you consider self publication a speaking platform is a must. Let's hear what the other authors of NovelMatters have to say on the subject.

I'll have to say that I'm learning just how big a difference a speaking platform makes for a self-published book. Recently I was the speaker at a two-day seminar in Texas. Not only did the church sponsoring the event buy a copy of The Hinge of Your History: The Phases of Faith for every single one of the 150 women at the seminar, I sold about 60 other books to individuals.

I can guarantee that those people wouldn't have all bought books under any other circumstance. And now I'm getting repeat orders for books, and other invitations to speak. Word of mouth is great -- but the spoken word in such a setting, I'm convinced, can be even more powerful. I am grateful to God for such a wonderful opportunity, and it's inspired me to begin collating endorsements from this time and previous ones so that I can make a special page on my web site just devoted to topics on which I speak.

Latayne is so right. Her audiences are in her charming presence for a reason, a very specific reason that matches the content of her books. I speak at least once a month on topics related to fiction and art and faith, but my audiences are mixed. Some are fiction-lovers, some not. And the fiction lovers divide themselves in genre camps, and so it takes hard selling to get a mystery reader to pick up (and pay for!) a contemporary women's fiction book sans mystery. I sell books in these venues, no doubt about it, but not at the rate Latayne is speaking about.

And so, I'm wondering how I would get the word out that my story is Pulitzer material? I have a small following who might buy one of my self-published books, but is it worth the investment, especially in these tough economic times? In short, I don't know. I'm moving on to the next project and hoping like crazy a publisher picks up Goodness & Mercy. If things are looking bleak once I finish my new project...Oh. Sorry. I forgot myself. Jesus highly disapproves of worrying about tomorrow. Instead, I'll try to get a whole lot smarter about self-publishing.

~

Have any of you gone the self-publishing route? If so, was it for fiction or non-fiction, and how successful was it? If not, under what circumstances would you consider it?