I zoomed down to Eugene, Oregon on Thursday after a very long, hard day, and gave what I hope was a rousing talk on the future of publishing.
While I was there, I heard a lot of inspiring stories about folks pursuing their own publishing projects. So I began the talk by encouraging each writer in the room to realize that publishing is not outside of us, it’s inside of us.
Once we located the nexus of the future of publishing, it became a lot easier to discuss the responsibilities that come with writer ownership. It also became apparent that the biggest thing stopping most of us from succeeding in the new publishing climate is fear.
The biggest fear is that a reputable agent and publishing house won’t want to work with us in the future if we are already successful on our own.
I don’t want to make fun of this idea, because I have experienced it as well, and trust me, it is strong and insidious.
There are a lot of responsibilities that come with taking ownership of your writing career, instead of waiting to be discovered. They fall loosely into the following skill sets:
- Craft/Quality of writing
- Selling/Pitching your words
- Specializing/Leaning into your strengths
- Self-promotion/Helping others understand what you offer
- Career growth/How to grow and maintain your career over the years
When you work ALL your writing career muscles, you get strong enough to ride the ups and downs that come part and parcel with a writing career.
There is no finish line. You can run for it, but you’ll never cross it until the day you stop writing. There are plenty of skills to master, and people who don’t succeed or give up part way, tend to do so because they don’t deepen their skills.
If you want the reward that comes from doing good work every day, I hope you will pick up a copy of my latest book, The Writer’s Workout, 366 Tips, Tasks & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach. LINK I detail advice and inspiration that applies to all the skills writers are going to need to have for a publishing future that is being born as I type this blog post.
Many people thanked me on their way out of the talk. They said I had given them new hope about the future of publishing that does not necessarily rule out the old ways of publishing but simply expands writers’ options.
I think we experience a surge of hope every time we remember that the future of anything is in our hands. We can have a positive impact on that future of publishing based on how we respond to the cards we have been dealt today. We can create a win-win-win future.
But only if we take responsibility. Only if we take charge. Only if we produce our own success.
Here are the links I promised to post:
- “50 Simple Ways To Build Your Platform in 5 Minutes A Day” for Writer’s Digest magazine, March/April 2011
- “Elements of a Successful Fiction Platform” for Writer’s Digest magazine, November/December 2010
- “How to Build a Marketing Platform” for Writer’s Digest magazine, May/June 2009
- Jane Friedman’s Most Recent Talk On The Future Of Publishing
- Faith Popcorn’s Future Trends Website
- Lulu.com
- CreateSpace.com
- Amazon Kindle Services
And here are the links to my classes, books, and e-books that folks asked about.
Thanks for coming, folks! Hope our paths cross again soon.