This is a really great read. Human, empathetic, and earnest. The issue contingent is there really truly is so much mixed messaging when it comes to publishing, writing, and so on and so forth. As a freelancer in tech, I more or less know how to work in that system for leads and reach.
But getting your book in front of agents and publishers? It felt more like mysticism than being strategic. Therein, we read, we try, and measuring our efforts feels far less about working smart, and far more about throwing things at the wall, hoping it sticks.
And so, I opted out of all that, and went the self publishing route. I know, I know. There's an assumptive negative connotation there of quality. But we're in a pandemic, and waiting 4-12 months for a response isn't on the agenda; mortality ever apparent.
Moreover, I'm trans. Trans authors seem to have a unique challenge, as we seem to have a unique challenge with many things. Add in a splash of neuroatypicality, and the recipe is a dauntless crusade through email inboxes, unstandardized submission practices, the UI/UX nightmare of QueryTracker, and a great deal of effort applied for very little return.
The fact of the matter remains that all green authors search for some kind of opportunity. We're hungry for our stories to be told, starving for some kind of purchase, desperate for a toothsome guidebook that others have seemingly stumbled upon at random, within an amorphous industry often unable to keep up with the times as it squelches ineffectually.
It's for this reason I suggest "nervousness" is not the route cause. It is not so much even about being tired, either. It's a thick concoction of having much time to burn (for many of us), and yet little time to waste in a timeline of hellfire. Pair that with technological leaps and bounds in plenty of other areas, and what you get is something not unlike a bitter aftertaste. It leaves a stain on all new, confused authors.
I don't say this to argue or devalue your position. I say this because there very much should be some way to pull through that works, at least some percentage of the time. I'm a freelancer; I know the importance of measurable data on improving reach and user retention.
This isn't easily applied to publishing, as you state. There's not one way for success to happen, which is understandable due to the subjectivity of art.
What isn't understandable is an industry that seems to scuttle at the thought of using technology to benefit writers, not only publishing houses or agents. Tackling this challenge from the freelancing route, we have something that looks like it was created in the 90s, further complicated by every house having its own standard operating process.
PEMDAS for prose, so to speak.
Which might have been understandable 10, 15, 20 years ago, but now? It becomes more difficult for authors to get noticed, just as it becomes easier for publishing institutions to sift, much like with resumes. By easier, I mean faster, not mentally breezy. The slush pile has been automated, therein you're fighting a hiring process of a different hue.
The point I'm trying to make here isn't that your article/newsletter email doesn't have merit. It does. It's not to devalue your stance; there's value in it.
It's to say that the green, young, confused budding authors do need much more than just "try something, see what happens", because it's not simply a case of seeing the landscape and judging that perhaps many different things have worked (in your experience).
It's that technology has afforded ease in some places, and challenge in others. It's that what was once amorphous have become even more intangible. It's hard to miss. If you squint at it, it looks like an even further unequalized power dynamic, that should've been far more transparent and balanced as technology flourished.
Please keep being prescriptive, with an eye on technology, aware of what struggles are faced in the here and the now. We truly need someone to consider these things, from a place of subject matter expertise, and to be very blunt it's not something I see employed often.
I see all manners of suggestions that don't match up with returns. It's all data, which may be applying logic to an emotive entity (as writing is creative, and what sparks intrigue is different for all people in publishing), but marketers have been doing that for decades.
Success has to have a 2020+ rulebook. I'd like to see someone try their hand at it, and I think perhaps you are already that someone. :)
Yes. This so much. I’ve published over 50 books with many different publishers and they don’t know it either. We are all just trying out stuff.
This is a really great read. Human, empathetic, and earnest. The issue contingent is there really truly is so much mixed messaging when it comes to publishing, writing, and so on and so forth. As a freelancer in tech, I more or less know how to work in that system for leads and reach.
But getting your book in front of agents and publishers? It felt more like mysticism than being strategic. Therein, we read, we try, and measuring our efforts feels far less about working smart, and far more about throwing things at the wall, hoping it sticks.
And so, I opted out of all that, and went the self publishing route. I know, I know. There's an assumptive negative connotation there of quality. But we're in a pandemic, and waiting 4-12 months for a response isn't on the agenda; mortality ever apparent.
Moreover, I'm trans. Trans authors seem to have a unique challenge, as we seem to have a unique challenge with many things. Add in a splash of neuroatypicality, and the recipe is a dauntless crusade through email inboxes, unstandardized submission practices, the UI/UX nightmare of QueryTracker, and a great deal of effort applied for very little return.
The fact of the matter remains that all green authors search for some kind of opportunity. We're hungry for our stories to be told, starving for some kind of purchase, desperate for a toothsome guidebook that others have seemingly stumbled upon at random, within an amorphous industry often unable to keep up with the times as it squelches ineffectually.
It's for this reason I suggest "nervousness" is not the route cause. It is not so much even about being tired, either. It's a thick concoction of having much time to burn (for many of us), and yet little time to waste in a timeline of hellfire. Pair that with technological leaps and bounds in plenty of other areas, and what you get is something not unlike a bitter aftertaste. It leaves a stain on all new, confused authors.
I don't say this to argue or devalue your position. I say this because there very much should be some way to pull through that works, at least some percentage of the time. I'm a freelancer; I know the importance of measurable data on improving reach and user retention.
This isn't easily applied to publishing, as you state. There's not one way for success to happen, which is understandable due to the subjectivity of art.
What isn't understandable is an industry that seems to scuttle at the thought of using technology to benefit writers, not only publishing houses or agents. Tackling this challenge from the freelancing route, we have something that looks like it was created in the 90s, further complicated by every house having its own standard operating process.
PEMDAS for prose, so to speak.
Which might have been understandable 10, 15, 20 years ago, but now? It becomes more difficult for authors to get noticed, just as it becomes easier for publishing institutions to sift, much like with resumes. By easier, I mean faster, not mentally breezy. The slush pile has been automated, therein you're fighting a hiring process of a different hue.
The point I'm trying to make here isn't that your article/newsletter email doesn't have merit. It does. It's not to devalue your stance; there's value in it.
It's to say that the green, young, confused budding authors do need much more than just "try something, see what happens", because it's not simply a case of seeing the landscape and judging that perhaps many different things have worked (in your experience).
It's that technology has afforded ease in some places, and challenge in others. It's that what was once amorphous have become even more intangible. It's hard to miss. If you squint at it, it looks like an even further unequalized power dynamic, that should've been far more transparent and balanced as technology flourished.
Please keep being prescriptive, with an eye on technology, aware of what struggles are faced in the here and the now. We truly need someone to consider these things, from a place of subject matter expertise, and to be very blunt it's not something I see employed often.
I see all manners of suggestions that don't match up with returns. It's all data, which may be applying logic to an emotive entity (as writing is creative, and what sparks intrigue is different for all people in publishing), but marketers have been doing that for decades.
Success has to have a 2020+ rulebook. I'd like to see someone try their hand at it, and I think perhaps you are already that someone. :)
https://constelisvoss.ml/