So there is this mini-discourse thing going on over on BlueSky: someone posted about an author with an idea for Book 2 who probably won’t write it because they don’t think they’ll make money off it. This led to a variety of responses. One set was readers being sad that authors aren’t writing the books they want to write. There were also authors basically talking about, like, getting out of trad publishing for a variety of reasons that boil down to trad publishers expecting Stephen King-level output while not paying anyone enough to write full-time, while also forcing authors to do a lot of the stuff the publishing house used to do for them (promotion, etc.) and basically getting rid of the mid-list.
Okay, all of that’s pretty fair and factored into my decision to go self-pub.
Then I read this one take about how self-pub isn’t the answer, either, because it just gets the book out there, it doesn’t guarantee sales or attention. That ended with the idea that sometimes not writing is the best thing for a writer.
And … okay, hold on. When exactly has there ever been any guarantee of sales or attention for any book, ever? When has there been a guarantee of *anything* past “getting the book out there”? Okay, maybe the publisher was contractually obligated to promote your book, but that’s no guarantee of sales or anything else.
One reason this feels alien to me is that I’m a Tumblrina and whatever else, Tumblr has reasonably realistic ideas about writing and a better work ethic? Over here you get people writing LOTR-length fanfic for free in their spare time, people posting poetry and stories to their blogs, self-publishing writers, and trad published writers—and everyone is in it for love of the game.
Obviously you want readers. They’re not *required* (absolutely you can write only for yourself), but for many of us they’re the other half of the equation. But! There are so many ways to get eyes on your stuff! Like, when I was a kid it sure seemed like it was trad pub or nothing, though there were ‘zines and probably mailing list type things—still, a limited number of ways to get an audience outside your family or friends, most of which involved a large investment in postage. Nowadays, you can just post something on the internet! AO3 lets you post fanfic and/or original stuff! You can put a PDF on Ko-fi for $0.00 and with a couple of social media posts *someone* will probably read it. You just can’t be precious about how *many* people read it, and—shocking—you’ve NEVER been able to do that!
But even more obviously, you want to write. Honestly, I don’t see how “sometimes the best thing for a writer is to not write” because when I literally do not have time or space to write, I’m a menace to myself and everyone around me. I absolutely suck at not writing, as well. I’ll think I wasn’t writing, and turns out there’s three poems and twenty pages of an unfinished story in a notebook that I just didn’t count because my brain can be a bastard. But I—and I assume the rest of y’all—am doing this writing thing out of love.
Somewhere I read a quote that was “If you can do something other than write, then do that.” I remember the professor who told me the difference between me and some of my fellow writing majors was my willingness to do the fucking work. I’m reading some of these posts and thinking “skill issue,” which, since I have a fairly expansive idea of what constitutes “being a writer,” feels shitty, but for fuck’s sake, if you’re not doing it because you love it and/or have no choice, why are you doing it?
It’s like … for a bunch of people, “writing books” was equivalent to “sell leggings to your friends” and now they’re let down and discouraged like when the MLM scheme doesn’t pay off. Suppose this is the horrifying result of Kindle Unlimited.
Anyway, final takeaway: if you’re reading this, it ain’t about you. You, my fellow artist, are amazing and a goddamned light in this dark-ass timeline. May you (and I) keep on doing the fucking work.
