Steve Jobs and 5 Tips for Being a Successful Author

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Yesterday, one of our WANA International instructors, Amy Shojai, wrote about the importance of reinvention, and I strongly recommend her class this Saturday (which is recorded if you can’t make the time). Use code: OWFI for $25 off. As authors, we are in a new paradigm that changes faster than we can keep up with it, thus Apple seemed to be a natural segue into the topic of reinvention and excellence.

Yes, Steve Jobs was known as a lot of things, including a tyrant and egomaniac. Yet, no matter how we feel about the man, Jobs remains the poster child for reinvention, and I found some quotes that make great lessons for all of us writers.

Granted, I was inspired by another blog. Last month, I ran across a fantastic post by Tiffany Reisz Wisdom for Writers from Steve Jobs which I strongly recommend you read as well.

Tip #1—Dare to Be Different

One of the major reasons a lot of other computer companies failed is that they tried to take on Microsoft, by being just like Microsoft. Instead of being brave enough to be different, they were imitators.

Imitators are not interesting.

In a world that has an increasingly shorter attention span, we must stand apart from the crowd. As writers, we are artists thus we have the power to create art in our work, not just some tired copy of something else. Be different. Be excellent. Put in that extra effort to stand apart from everything else.

“It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy.”~Steve Jobs

Lack of flexibility is one of the current weaknesses in the traditional publishing paradigm. Because this is a business with a lot of overhead (beholden to shareholders), frequently, publishers will look to books they believe they can sell, which is code for “something like the last big thing that sold.” This doesn’t mean these publishers are putting out bad books, but it does mean that their business model limits the boundaries of creativity and innovation.

For those of you who decide to take a non-traditional route, you have more freedom and flexibility to be daring. Daring is exactly what we need to be to stand apart, versus being just another brick in the wall.

Ask yourself, Why me? Why my book? Why would anyone choose my book over another? And if it’s just because of price, prizes or freebies? TRY HARDER.

One of my all-time favorite Demotivationals.

Tip #2—Dare to Be Excellent

Learn the craft. Read. Learn this as an art form. If you choose to self-publish, find beta readers who can give honest feedback and let you know if your book is ready. One of the biggest mistakes self-published authors make is that they publish too soon. Invest in good editing and a knockout cover. If you blog (and I recommend you do) be excellent. This is a sample of your voice, of you. In a world of cheap Taiwanese imitations, people long for excellence.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through. ~Steve Jobs

Ask yourself, Have I done all I can to make this work as good as it can be?

Tip #3—Keep it Simple

New writers often try to reinvent plot as we know it. Three-act structure works. It’s worked for thousands of years. The greatest stories of all time can be summed up in a sentence. Simplicity leads to complexity, where as complicated leads to confusion. Great stories are very basic. There are no new plots. I could hand ten writers a great idea for a story and we’d end up with ten totally different novels. It is all in execution.

Same with social media. WANA methods are simple. Be kind. Be focused. Be consistent. Be authentic. Add value. Be part of a community. Serve others first. That’s it. And yes, I have written a new book, but everything I teach can be summed up in those seven sentences. Algorithms and fancy marketing plans can quickly overrun the most important part of what we do—write books/create art.

That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. ~Steve Jobs

Ask yourself, Could I tell what my book is about in less than three sentences?

Okay, now make it ONE.

Tip #4—Love What You Do

Writers have more opportunity to succeed than ever before. For the first time, we are seeing novelists make six and seven figures. But, if you look at all the successful authors (traditional and non-traditional), they work their tails off. And, the funny thing is, it rarely feels like work. Why? To really do well in this business we have to LOVE IT.

Yet, there is a hard truth about love.

Love is not all kitten hugs and rainbow kisses. Love is work. Love has good days and bad days. Love requires sacrifice. It requires boundaries. It requires prioritization. It demands toughness and tenderness all in the same space. Whether it is our marriage, our family, our kids or our craft, love is not all a glittery unicorn hug.

I speak at a lot of conferences, and I generally can tell the writers who will succeed versus the ones who won’t. One type of writer wants to make hard cash. He loves money more than craft. He attends all the social media classes and marketing classes that promise to maximize his book sales. Sales, sales, charts, algorithms, outsourcing, programs! Yay!

The other writer? She believes writing is floating around with the muse being inspired all day. She is in love with a romantic vision of being a writer…not the craft or business of writing. She doesn’t need social media. “A good book alone will sell itself.”

Uh huh.

Take a gut check and make sure you love writing. If we seek to do this writing thing professionally, then there is a lot of changing diapers writing, staying up cleaning puke out of the carpet revisions, taking the kid to school every day blogging, toy box explosions social media.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. ~Steve Jobs

Ask yourself, Am I willing to do the unfun stuff, too? 

Tip #5—Embrace Failure

We didn’t learn to ride bikes by hopping on one day and pedaling away perfectly. Most of us fell…a lot. We all had our fair share of skinned knees and elbows before we looked like we knew what we were doing. Writing is the same.

If you aren’t failing then you aren’t doing anything interesting. Failure teaches us more than success ever will. Our greatest successes often will be birthed from the ashes of many doomed attempts.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. ~Steve Jobs

Ask yourself, Am I open to learning? Do I view failure as a tombstone or a stepping stone? 

What are your thoughts? What struggles have you faced in the new paradigm? Have you had to learn to set boundaries? How did you do it? What are some of the tips and tricks you’d like to share?

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of May, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of May I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

Successful Author Presence—Do You Have It?

Image via Flikr Commons, courtesy of JonoMeuller

I read a lot of blogs, namely because I believe the best writers are 1) perpetual students, and 2) are stronger when they read a lot, particularly in other areas that might not be their genre or even directly related to writing.

One of my favorite bloggers (as some of you may already know) is successful CEO and leader in Silicon Valley, Steve Tobak. He had a really interesting post this week called Leadership Presence–Do You Have It?, which inspired me to write today’s post.

Successful Author Presence—Do You Have It?

All of us (writers) balance this fine line of complete narcissism, and profound insecurity/self-loathing. We have to believe that our ideas, opinions, stories are something others want to pay money to read in order to be successful. Yet, we are constantly plagued with self-doubt. Chronic doubt is possibly a built-in mechanism to bring balance to The Force.

Just my POV.

The Narcissist

If a writer is too full of what he believes he knows, he won’t grow and eventually will stall and burn out. That or his hubris eventually will just drive others away. This type of writer can’t forge strong relationships because everything is a competition. Eventually others just say, Okay, sure. You’re better than us. Bye.

In the current paradigm, we need a team more than ever. Also, likability didn’t matter fifteen years ago, yet now? Likability is getting to be a bigger and bigger deal. Readers will eventually just gravitate to writers who know how to tweet without putting others down.

The Emotional Vampire

On the other side, a writer who needs constant props and ego-stroking eventually wears out those around her. She can’t grow and mature either because she’s in the business for the wrong reasons. We writers should be here to teach/inform (NF) or entertain (NF/fiction), not to use our audience as emotional hostages.

The Author With “The Right Stuff”

Yet, there are those writers who have a “presence.” It’s a tough thing to explain. But, I think Steve’s list might help me try:

They’re Not Born with It

Talent is highly overrated. Character matters in this business. It’s why I dedicate so much time to talking about the writer as a human being. Without self-discipline, drive, humility and a certain work ethic, a writer won’t make it long-term.

The writer with successful author presence generally comes from a background that’s already fired out a lot of character impurities. Whether it’s a tough childhood, bad marriage, law school, or time as a police officer, this writer has a different je ne sais quoi that stands out.

Being Right A Lot

This writer is open to listening to a lot of people and processing a lot of information quickly. Rather than taking shortcuts, this writer knows where to funnel energy. If she makes a mistake, she readjusts and doesn’t waste time moaning over making a poor choice. She throws herself into the work knowing that, if we make enough wrong decisions, we grow enough to start making a lot of RIGHT decisions.

Hey, I’ve done literally EVERYTHING wrong. But I’m still here .

Knowing Your Stuff Cold

There are a lot of ways to train to be a good author, but great authors must read. The authors with presence study everything. Either they inhale craft books or they devour fiction. They watch movies and series, then break stories down to see what’s working, what isn’t and how to duplicate the magic.

Every time I meet a writer who says, “Well I want to be a best-selling author, but I don’t like to read.”

Yeah. Next.

The author with presence understands the basics of his craft and practices to perfection. As Picasso said, “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Confidence

Confidence is often birthed from hard work. One of the reasons I am a HUGE fan of writers blogging is it helps to build confidence. Confidence isn’t BS bravado, rather it’s a mindset that any problem can be solved if broken down into enough pieces.

When I used to run critique groups, I had too many writers who just wanted ego stroking, to be told every word/sentence/idea was a rainbow nugget of gold. If I tried to point out the problems, these types of writers would fly into a hissy-fit-rage.

Yeah, that would be NO confidence.

On the other hand, I’ve also been blessed enough to work with writers like Piper Bayard, who had enough confidence in themselves to take the criticism and then ask the tough questions. ”How do I make it better?” “What do you need to me do/read?”

Writers like this have enough confidence to not be derailed every time they get feedback that doesn’t tell them they’re a unicorn-kitten-hug.

Piper now has a multi-book deal with a traditional publisher, btw .

Thinking a Few Steps Ahead

Writers with presence regard writing as a career. They think strategically and long-term. These writers (even before they finish their first books) aren’t viewing publishing like a literary scratch-off ticket. They’re already planning the next book, the series, the next series, and which publisher(s)/publishing options might be the best fit, etc.

Too many writers have desperation coming off them in waves. Why? They have ONE book and market it TO DEATH. They aren’t playing Career Chess; they’re playing Publishing Tiddly Winks.

Adversity

Frequently, these writers are survivors. There is a reason we see a lot of lawyers, doctors and former military people become best-selling authors. These writers embrace pain and harness it for advantage.

Believing You’re Special

As we talked about in this week’s Boxing Series, there is a lot of resistance in this profession. The world will never be short of people who will call you a talentless hack/poseur/fake/amateur/nut.

It’s The Resistance.

The Resistance is made up of two types of people. Those too chicken $#!& to follow their own dreams, or those so full of themselves they can’t bear to share the spotlight. Both types of people build themselves up by putting others down.

Expect it.

The writer with presence holds fast to the internal knowledge she or he IS SPECIAL. She tunes out the haters and presses on. No matter the push-back, this writer has a calling and this calling is intimately tethered to the internal belief that she has something the world wants to read/hear/learn.

Just like no one is born with talent, none of us are born a “Writer with Presence,” but we can learn to be that writer. Just set down the ego, roll up the sleeves and WORK HARD.

What are your thoughts or opinions? What would you add to the list? What are your experiences? Have you dealt with the narcissists or even the emotional vampires? The jealous, the immature? Have you been that person and had an A-HA! moment?

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of March I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

The Five Mistakes Killing Self-Published Authors

The Spawn’s First Novel, “akjehsubfuirewagh6r5″ now available on Kindle.

Happy Monday! Okay, last week, upon my return from Thrillerfest, we explored what I felt were the 5 top mistakes that are killing traditional publishing. Then, on Friday, we talked about how self-publishing can help writers as a whole, even traditional writers. It is a wonderful time to be a writer, but I want to make myself crystal clear.

This business is hard work. There are no shortcuts.

I Don’t Take Sides

I feel that traditional publishing has a lot to offer the industry. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t spend so much time and effort challenging them to innovate to remain competitive. Self-publishing is not a panacea, and, since I spent last week focusing on the traditional end of the industry, today we are going to talk about the top five mistakes I feel are killing self-publishing authors.

Mistake #1 Publishing Before We Are Ready

The problem with the ease of self-publishing is that it is, well, too easy. When we are new, frankly, most of us are too dumb to know what we don’t know. Just because we made As in English, does not automatically qualify us to write a work spanning 60-100,000 words. I cannot count how many writers I have met who refuse to read fiction, refuse to read craft books, and who only go to pitch agents when they attend conferences at the expense of attending the craft sessions.

Additionally, too many new writers I meet do not properly understand the antagonist. They don’t grasp three-act structure, and most don’t have any idea what I mean when I mention POV, Jungian archetypes, or the phrase, “scene and sequel.”

I see a lot of new writers who believe their story is the exception, that the rules make for “formulaic” writing. No, rules are there for a reason, and, if the writing is too formulaic, it has more to do with execution than the rules.

Three-act structure has been around since Aristotle, and there is a lot of evidence in neuroscience that suggests that three-act structure is actually hard-wired into the human brain. Thus, when we deviate too far from three-act structure, it confuses and frustrates readers. Stories have clear beginnings, middles and ends. Without a clear story objective, it is impossible to generate dramatic tension, and what is left over is drama’s inbred cousin, melodrama. Yet, many writers start off writing a book without properly understanding the basic skeleton of story.

Writing fiction is therapeutic, but it isn’t therapy. Yes, characters should struggle with inner demons, but that does not a plot make. Struggling with weakness, inner demons, insecurity, addictions are all character arc, not plot arc. There should be a core story problem that we can articulate in ONE sentence. The plot arc should serve to drive the character arc. If the character does not grow and change she will fail, but it is the core story problem that drives this change. Without the problem, there is no crucible.

Yes, we are artists, but we need to understand the fundamentals. I played clarinet for years, and yes it was an art. But this didn’t excuse me from having to learn to read music, the finger positions and proper embouchure (the way to position the mouth to play).

The better we are at the basics, the better we know the rules, the more we become true artists.

I’ve received contest winners whose first pages were filled with newbie errors. Yet, when I sent them my critique filled with pages of corrections, I would then receive a reply telling me that the book had already been self-published.

OUCH.

Sometimes there are reasons we are being rejected and we need to take a hard look and be honest. Self-publishing is suffering a stigma from too many writers publishing before they are ready. If you really want to self-publish, I am here to support you and cheer you all the way, but remember, we have to write better than the traditional authors.

Mistake #2 Jumping in Before Understanding the Business Side to the Business

I see a lot of writers rushing into self-publishing without properly preparing to be a small business, yet that is exactly what we are. When we self-publish, we take on new roles and we need to understand them. We need to be willing to fork out money for proper editing, cover design and formatting.

One of the benefits to traditional publishing is they take on all the risk and do the editing, proofing, etc. When we go it alone, we need to prepare for some expenses and do our research. We can be told a million times to not judge a book by its cover, yet that is exactly what readers do. Additionally, we may need to look into becoming an LLC. We need to set up proper accounting procedures and withhold the correct amount of taxes, unemployment, state taxes and on and on.

This is part of the reason I created WANA International. Writers need business instruction. In the fall we will be bringing on more and more business classes for writers.

Mistake #3 Believing that, “If We Write it They Will Come”

There are a lot of writers who mistakenly believe that self-publishing is an easier and faster way to fame and success. Yeah, um no. And those magic beans are really just beans. Sorry.

Self-publishing is A LOT of work, especially if we are starting out this way. I know Bob Mayer and Joe Konrath lecture writers to do less social media and more writing. To an extent I agree, but here is the thing. These guys were branded traditional authors who could slap New York Times Best-Selling in front of their names when they decided to go it alone. If you can’t slap New York Times Best-Selling in front of your name, prepare for a ton of work.

Not only do we need to write good books, but we need to write prolifically. We also need to work our tails off on social media. If you study the successes of the Amanda Hockings and the H.P. Mallorys, they worked like dogs. They wrote a lot of books and also created momentum with social media and newsletters.

When we self-publish, we need a much larger platform because we don’t have New York in our corner. This is one of the reasons self-publishing isn’t for everyone. We need to look at how badly we want the dream, and then ask how many hours are we willing to work? What are we willing to sacrifice?

Mistake #4 Misusing FREE!

There are a lot of problems with giving books away for FREE! We shouldn’t be giving away our work unless it serves some kind of a strategic advantage. There are ways to effectively harness they power of FREE! but too few writers understand how to do this and they just end up giving away their art for no tangible gain. This goes with my above point of us needing to understand the business side of our business. When we do choose to give away stuff for FREE! it needs to serve longer-term business goals.

Mistake #5 Shopping One Book to DEATH

When Joe Konrath and Bob Mayer chastise writers to get off social media and get back to writing more books, they are giving fantastic advice. One of the BIGGEST problems I see with self-published writers is that they publish one book and then they focus every bit of energy on selling THAT book.

They fill up #MyWANA and all the writing hashtags with link spam promoting their books. They keep futzing with the cover, the web site, the promotions. They do blog tours until they drop, and they do everything except what is going to help that book sell a ton of copies…write more books.

Here’s the thing. Self-publishing, in many ways, just allows us to accelerate the career path of the author. Even in traditional publishing, it usually takes about three books to gain traction. In traditional publishing, this takes three years because we are dealing with a publisher’s schedule.

In self-publishing, we can make our own schedule, but it still takes THREE BOOKS MINIMUM. I know there are exceptions, but most self-published successes hit at about book three. The ability to offer multiple titles is a huge part of why John Locke became successful.

This is why it is critical to keep writing. Not only will writing more books make you a better writer, but once people discover they love your writing, they have a number of titles to purchase. Being able to offer multiple titles is how we make money at self-publishing. It also helps us maximize the whole FREE! tactic. Even I am putting my nose to the grindstone to come out with more books in the next six months. I don’t tell you guys to do anything that, I myself, am unwilling to do.

Remember Why We Do This

Self-publishing is a wonderful alternative. Just because we self-publish doesn’t mean we cannot publish other ways, too. I feel the author of the future will actually be a hybrid author, and I do believe that the ability to self-publish is challenging all of us to come up higher. We are striving to be better writers, to be better entrepreneurs, to get better at organization and time-management and to write more books and better books. If we can learn from these mistakes and grow, then the future is ours for the taking.

A little humor…

My own story…

What have been some of your challenges with self-publishing? In what areas is it forcing you to grow? Have you had to outsource? What sacrifices have you made? Tell us your story!

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of July, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

***Changing the contest.

It is a lot of work to pick the winners each week. Not that you guys aren’t totally worth it, but with the launch of WANA International and WANATribe I need to streamline. So I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners will now have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of July I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

How Self-Publishing has Helped All Writers–Welcome to the Revolution

Yes, I have more books in my car if you need.

Writing is a very different gig. In most jobs, we don’t need years of external validation to prove what we “really” are. We don’t have to save so many lives before we are a “real” doctor” or close so many mortgages before we are a “real” banker. But with writing? With the arts? We struggle. When are we “really real”?

For the answer to this question, I advise, Don’t Eat the Butt!

A lot of us want that traditional publishing stamp of approval, but there are a lot of recent red flags in the industry that demonstrate this might not be the best path for those of us who want a long-term career. Traditional publishing is also very slow, and there are huge gaps they cannot fill. For instance, technology.

When I was at Thrillerfest, one of the old guard teaching a class announced that, “Self-publishing was only good if you were a breast-feeding truck-driver who wanted to write a book for breast-feeding truck-drivers.” I have zero clue what is meant by that statement, but the comment speaks volumes, and highlights a problem in the industry.

Writers, for some reason, seem to be at the bottom of the food chain. We are the ones who produce the product, yet we are the last to get paid and seem to be treated the worst. It seems any 24 year old with a degree from NYU can hang up a shingle and call herself a literary agent and suddenly she is “real.” Author Joe Konrath has talked about this problem at length on his blog, which I highly recommend.

Yet, even after two #1 best-selling books, I still cannot get Barnes & Noble to shelve my books, because I am not a “real” writer. B&N literally has turned customers away trying to order my books in the store and they will only sell my books on-line. My books are returnable, so there shouldn’t be a problem, yet conference after conference I have to lug in a suitcase of my books because B&N won’t stock them, even though my books almost always sell out.

*shrugs* More money for me. And I am supposed to feel sorry for booksellers who are suffering. Yeah, I’ll get right on that.

I was even invited to speak at a conference and then, after my classes, they refused let me sell my books inside with the other authors. I had to go out into 112 degree heat to sell social media books in the parking lot because I wasn’t a “real” writer.

So I can appreciate the feeling of wanting and needing validation.

What I love about the new paradigm is that it seems to be finally earning writers the respect they should have had all along. I know back when I was querying, I felt agents were gods who stepped down from Mt. Olympus to see if they could find a champion among the unwashed masses. I so wanted to prove I was the one who could bring home the golden fleece best-selling numbers.

I recall typing my queries, hands shaking. One time, I was so nervous I misspelled “query” in the header of the e-mail and was instantly rejected. Though agents have demanded perfection and professionalism from me, I have received rejection letters with typos, my name misspelled and even the wrong name. I have received form-letters and sticky notes. We aren’t supposed to send a mass-query, yet I have received many a mass-rejection.

And I am not here to gripe about how I am being mistreated, because I really don’t care about anyone’s behavior other than my own. But this does raise an important point.

As the industry shifts and writers gain more power, will the industry as a whole benefit?

As more and more self-published and indie authors start earning a really good living, will we still get those “self-publishing is only for freaks” comments? As writers band together and blog and build platforms capable of driving sales, we become more powerful. Will this then force agents and editors to behave better?

Are we part of the women’s writer’s liberation movement?

I have been to conferences where agents didn’t want to take pitches or would walk off in the middle of a writer talking. I know I had an agent I finally had to fire because she just never returned e-mails. Finally, after six months without a peep I assumed my agent was dead or had been abducted by aliens. But I posit this question.

Would an agent stand for a writer who didn’t return an e-mail for six months?

As a social media person, I’ve witnessed agents tweeting lines from rejected queries, openly making fun of writers. Yet, when they google a writer to represent, what do they demand? Professional behavior. What if we were tweeting and making fun of literary agents?

Make no mistake, I feel we as writers need to come up higher as professionals and set the example. Frankly, as NYTBSA Bob Mayer has stated, “Writers are in the entertainment business.” Yes we are artists (entertainment), but we are also in business. It is incumbent upon us to know our craft. We cannot assume that command of our native tongue qualifies us to be best-selling authors, and we also need to understand our industry and business.

And here is where I feel self-publishing has greatly benefitted writer-kind.

I feel that self-publishing, oddly enough, has been a massive benefit to all writers. Why?

It has forced writers to understand the business side of the business.

I feel it has helped many writers embrace this business side of the equation and step up their game as professionals. Writers who are pursuing or even considering going it alone suddenly take social media and platform-building far more seriously. There is something transformative about finishing the story, then digging in to create the product. Many self-published authors understand the new publishing paradigm better than the Big Six editors, and I feel this is a real advantage.

Many of us have learned about web sites, accounting, formatting, and even cover design. The new publishing paradigm is constantly changing and forcing us to learn, grow, adapt, change, and ship.

The new paradigm forces writers to ship.

If you read Seth Godin’s Linchpin (which I highly recommend), he says one of the marks of a true artist is real artists ship. We let go. We sell the painting, burn the CD or publish the book and then move on to the next. Saturday Night Live happens no matter what. Good or bad, they ship.

One of the biggest problems I have seen with writers is they keep working and reworking and reworking the first book. In the new paradigm? They publish. If it is a super stinker they pull it and pray people forget. If it’s so-so, they leave it, but best of all, if they are smart, they move on and write more books. One of the largest barriers to becoming a successful writer is trying to be a perfect writer. The new paradigm gives new writers a way to ship so they can move forward and write more books and better books. 

It has encouraged writers to become empowered by building a platform.

Also, since there have been some real successes from the indie and self-pub fronts, it has forced traditional authors to realize how social media can give them control of their careers. As traditional authors build viable platforms, they suddenly have options. Many are realizing that NY is no longer the only road to Rome and they have the power to walk away (Barry Eisler).

Social media and self-publishing has given authors bargaining power and, with that, respect.

True story. A friend of mine couldn’t get an agent to even listen to a pitch (and the same agent had been a real toad to me). My friend self-published and was doing really well. Next conference? This agent wanted to represent him. Suddenly thought his books were awesome and brilliant. My friend comes to me and says, “There is no way I can go traditional. I make way too much money.” Then he asks me, “You think I should e-mail him a rejection letter?”

The story makes me chuckle, but it is just proof of what I have been saying all along. It is a WONDERFUL time to be a writer.

Writers are no longer satisfied with being publishing fodder. We are stepping up and demanding the respect we are owed. Now? Agents. We are googling you. We are watching what you are tweeting and we are reading your blogs. We are not expecting anything from you that you aren’t expecting of us—professionalism and respect.

It is a wonderful time to be a writer. No matter what road writers now choose to take, traditional, self-pub or indie, I feel writers will finally enjoy the success and the esteem they deserve.

Welcome to the revolution!

So what are your thoughts? Opinions? Are you happy that writers now have more options? Do you feel overwhelmed? Excited? For those of you who have gone indie or self-published, what are the greatest lessons you have learned?

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of July, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

***Changing the contest.

It is a lot of work to pick the winners each week. Not that you guys aren’t totally worth it, but with the launch of WANA International and WANATribe I need to streamline. So I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners will now have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of July I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

Big Six Publishing is Dead–Welcome the Massive Three

The Reader of the Digital Age–Trust me, he won’t miss paper.

Ah, the times they have changed. The year was 1983 and life was good. Summers filled with trampolines, swimming pools and evening walks to the snow cone stand. Cartoons were only on Saturdays, and if we stayed up too late playing Bloody Mary and toilet-papering the neighbor’s trees and overslept, we were out of luck for another week.

Music stores were a rare treat, a place to spend birthday money or blow our allowance, and a Fox Photo Hut graced virtually every grocery store parking lot. My mother would always turn in the film and then the car would break down and we’d run out of money. No one knows how many of my brother’s baby photos were lost.

What did they DO with all those pictures people couldn’t afford to pick up?

Who would have thought that one day, everyone would walk around typing messages on a phone? Or taking and then sending pictures with that phone?  Who would have believed that a computer company would be a larger distributer of music than Tower Records? That car stereos would stream tunes from satellites floating above the Earth’s atmosphere? No more cassette tapes. Who could have envisioned a day that Kodak would be a memory and a home telephone an anachronism?

It is an amazing time, and I can say that Star Trek fans did envision a lot of these changes. Yet, even when we see it coming, it is very surreal to see it actually here. As an avid Trekkie, I do like to think of myself as a Futurist, so today we are going to indulge my future vision.

The Big Six have a new problem…Microsoft.

Yes, it does look like Microsoft is what is going to save Barnes & Noble’s tails. From this article by Felix Salmon on WIRED:

Barnes & Noble has sold a 17.6% stake in its digital and college businesses to Microsoft, for $300 million — a deal which values B&N’s remaining 82.4% stake at $1.4 billion. And while the $300 million is staying in the new joint venture and therefore not available to help the bookstore chain with cashflow issues, the news does mean that Barnes & Noble won’t need to constantly find enormous amounts of money to keep up in the arms race with Amazon. That’s largely Microsoft’s job, now.

So why is this a problem for the Big Six?

The same reason that Apple (a computer company) was a problem for Tower Records, that Sprint (a cell phone company) spelled death for Kodak and that Amazon (an on-line distributor of everything from camping equipment to push-up bras) gave Border’s its mortal blow.

The Big Six are dead. Welcome the Massive Three. More on this in a moment…

The past ten years have been nothing but market Darwinism. The slower species who refused to adapt to the new climate after the comet strike (birth of the Internet coupled with an affordable personal computer) are now being devoured by the faster, hungrier and more agile creatures.

Notice Tower Records, how it defended how music-lovers, “would always want CDs and music stores.” Instead of realizing it was in the “music business” not the CD business, it stood there, dumb and immobile…..*munch* then the Appleosaurus Rex ate it whole.

Then Kodak stood looking at the shiny black hole that was its business plan. It put both feet in and got stuck. Sprint flew out of the sky and took chunk after chunk while the Kodak beast cried foul. “People will always want film pictures!” it wailed as it bled.

All the Kodak beast had to do was grab the digital stick, but it was too stuck. Soon the other digital predators smelled blood and the parsed the Kodak beast until it finally died in a pool of red.

Now we come to the book distributors and publishers. “People will always want paper!” they cry, even as they can smell Border’s bloated, dead storefronts rotting in the sun.

I think the metaphor is clear.

Amazon took out Borders and gave Barnes & Noble a nice flesh wound. The Amazonasaurus also took a nice chunk out of the Big Six. B&N and the Big Six need to ask the hard question.

Will people really always want paper? Did they really always want records and CDs? No. Did they really always want film? No. The view from the cave is nothing but a graveyard of former giants, bleached bones from the rulers of an age that has passed.

Adapt or die is the message. Ah, but the Big Six could have a problem.

See Barnes & Noble has proven it can scrabble with the best of them and even get in some sucker punches below the belt. They had no problem devouring the indie bookstore when it suited them to claw their way to the top of the food chain. Now that it has partnered with Microsoft, should the Big Six be worried?

My opinion? YES.

Barnes and Noble likes being an apex predator. It got a taste for being on top in the 90s, and, make no mistake, it longs to revive the glory days.

Who can blame them?

If I were the Big Six, I would worry big time. Why? Because, the only disposable part of this relationship is…the publishing houses.

I have to say, my hat is off to B&N. That company has moxie. I’ve blogged a number of times how the Big Six should have revisited its relationship with B&N. Once books went digital and e-book sales took off, propping up a paper distributor was just a bad plan.

In my blog Bracing for Impact–The Future of Big Publishing in the New Paradigm I said there was really no reason that the Big Six couldn’t sell directly to the consumer and just distribute the books themselves. I advised that they make the move and go digital. For paper? Focus on POD technology, the consignment model was too inefficient.

Hmmm, a fan of this blog sent the link to that post to the CEO of B&N. Curiouser and curiouser…

I LOVE NY publishing. I have consistently tried to help them. With the model I proposed, New York would never again have wasted money on books that didn’t sell. They could have ruled the Digital Age well. The Big Six would have only sold books that, well…sold. And in my model, they could have partnered with Barnes & Noble and done it together.

Ah, but B&N has a new friend, and you know the saying, “Two is company and three is a crowd.”

Some see Microsoft’s investment as a good thing for publishing. Finally, Amazon is going to get a run for its money. Not only does the Nook now have the backing of the Windows giant, but now consumers don’t need to buy an e-reader to have one.

Now an e-reader will be built into every Microsoft operating system. Kindles and Nooks will eventually be for only the die-hard fans, because readers won’t really need them (kind of like cameras were replaced by our cell phones).

Amazon has been able to gain market share by capitalizing on its Kindle. Ah, but that was before the Microsoftisaurus decided it wanted to get into the publishing business, and, Barnes and Noble, being the crafty survivor, made a big new friend a bad new digital world. Microsoft is investing because it just makes sense.

Amazon shouldn’t be the only one reporting record gains each quarter. While the Microsoft-B&N deal is serious bad juju for Amazon, I think they will weather just fine. Amazon is the very definition of “adaptable.”

I have consistently wondered why New York didn’t grab hold of e-publishing. Why couldn’t the Big Six open digital divisions? Why didn’t they seek out Microsoft? Why couldn’t Random House have a self-publishing division that allowed authors to upload e-books for sale (um, like B&N’s PubIt). Then they could vet out authors, and only “officially” represent those authors who’d met a certain standard (X amount of sales).

I know this new world seems very strange, but it seems as if computer companies are destined to rule the Digital Age, which I suppose only makes sense. It has a bit of poetry to it if one thinks about it.

The Big Six, in my opinion, are in big trouble, because they really are no longer…necessary. This doesn’t make me at all happy to predict. I’ve tried and tried and tried to help, but to no avail. The Big Six might remain for a few more years, but frankly, what advantage do they hold? What do they really have to offer other that a crap load of overhead?

Sure they have a love for the written word that the new giants don’t possess, but then again, Kodak held an unrivaled passion for photography and that didn’t save them from the iPhone.

No matter what way I look at it, I can’t see how the Big Six can remain relevant. The Windows has closed, pardon the pun.

Literary agents and editors have home mortgages to pay, and they’ll go where the money is (and NY is hemorrhaging cash). No one can fault them for wanting to eat and be able to put braces on their kids’ teeth. Cover design? I think Microsoft can handle finding a graphic designer or two.

Oh, and then Microsoft doesn’t have to build in stratospheric Manhattan rents and horrific costs of shipping paper into the book price.

NY once had a sole lock on distribution. Well, that went away. Then, they were the Gatekeepers who offered us the promise of a certain quality (just ignore the Snookie book deal).

Yet, indie has really changed. Some of the best books are coming out of this movement. Additionally, some of NY’s best talent has defected (Bob Mayer, Joe Konrath, and Barry Eisler to name a few) and more are bound to follow. Authors are getting tired of the depressing odds of success in the traditional paradigm, and instead of NY offering its authors a bold new plan for the future (like partnering with Microsoft FIRST), it comes up with brilliant gems like “agency pricing.”

Oh, and then there is the new talent, the fresh ranks. Unpublished writers are seeing their friends self-publish and make thousands of dollars a month and that is very appealing. Logic dictates that some of the best writers who work the hardest and who are the most professional might just try it alone first.

Writers now don’t have to keep querying and hope for gatekeeper approval. We can go to the reader and try our luck there. We might not make enough to live off at first, but, frankly, the slush pile doesn’t give us gas money.

*waves to Amazon*

What I don’t understand is that these companies don’t seem to grasp that the nostalgia card only plays so far. Microsoft understands what the Big Six doesn’t. People won’t always want paper. They want to push a button and a have a book delivered quickly and cheaply from outer space.

In a world where gas is $5 a gallon, why would we want to fight traffic across town to go to a physical bookstore? In a world where we can have hot yummy pizza delivered to our doors in 30 minutes, why would we wait a week for a book in the mail?

Really.

So what do I see? Instead of Big Six, we now have the Massive Three–Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Amazon likely will open physical bookstores (probably in old Borders storefronts). And Microsoft will just use B&N to sell paper and maybe some Nooks. Yes, paper will always be around, it just won’t be the lion’s share like it used to be.

And writers? We are artists and they will always need us to produce the content. We have to adapt as well and this is why I have dedicated the last few years of my life training writers for the Digital Age. It is a WONDERFUL time to be a writer.

Welcome to the future. Beam me up, Scotty!

Okay, so what are your thoughts? Does someone see what advantage the Big Six still holds? How can they pull out of this tail-spin? Do you think I am wrong about the Massive Three? Is this a good thing for writers? Is this bad for writers?

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of May, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of May I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

Note–Will announce the winner Friday. Thanks  .

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

Understanding Author Platform Part 2–All the World Wide Web’s a Stage

Photo credit: Thomas Hawk Creative Commons

Last week, in Understanding Author Platform–Part One we talked about how platform has changed in the digital age, why tools of yester-year won’t work and how an outdated approach can do little to eventually drive book sales (and also leave a writer too worn out to create). We also talked about why some experts may make us break out in hives when they try to give us tools to build our author platform. If sales or marketing isn’t our art, then the tools can feel awkward and clumsy and can do more harm than good.

Yes, I am giving you guys permission to hate sales, marketing and PR, but I am not offering permission to avoid building a platform. I have been saying for years that all authors—traditional and nontraditional—needed to have a strong platform.

A strong social media platform takes a lot of pressure off authors, leaving them less stressed out and more able to do their art. A solid platform can assure sales of new books and even revive old titles.

In short, a platform is vital for anyone who wants a writing career. 

My two year-old-who commandeered my new iPad 3 is your future reader. Every teen with an iPhone and every college kid with a laptop is a future reader. In a world where bookstores are fading to the pages of history, if you aren’t on social media?

How else will they know you?

Redefining Platform for the Writer-Artist

I feel that, if I’m asking you guys to commit time, talent and energy to build a platform, it is only fair you should understand what I’m asking you to build and why. We need to pan the camera back. We also need to forget all those mind-numbing lectures about metrics and web sites and demographics and target audience, etc. etc.

Ack!

To change our approach and make social media our art we need to slip on some WANA rose-colored glasses and really see the opportunity we’ve been given. Social media isn’t a free way to advertise and spam people about our book non-stop.

It is our stage.

Meet the Author-Performer

Think of it this way. Technology has finally made it fiscally possible for us to do what other artists have been doing for generations. Platform is getting our art and ourselves out there and getting known. What people then think of us and our art, the emotional response they get from our name and our art eventually becomes our brand. 

The problem for writers has been that printing was extremely expensive. Until the Internet and e-books, NY had almost total control over printing and distribution. There was no other way for fiction authors to create a platform…unless they had a ton of cash.

Writers all want to write one book, hit the Beginner’s Luck Jackpot and become world famous for being brilliant. Hey, I’ll admit I wanted that, too. Yet, that almost NEVER happens, even in the traditional sense.

This is like us learning to play guitar, writing some songs, recording a CD on our Mac and hoping a smooth-talking agent drives by our house as we are practicing in our garage, hears our siren’s song and lands us a million-dollar recording deal.

Yeah. Keep dreaming.

No, what do musicians do? Many start playing in church or at the state fair or the local nursing home for FREE. They then get older and better at their craft and their art and play at restaurants, dives, the VFW…for FREE! If they get good enough, they might be able to sell downloads or CDs for $5 a piece. If they keep working hard and getting their art seen by more and more people and people LIKE it they then get bigger breaks.

They get to open, for FREE for a bigger band. If they do enough work and put in enough time and get themselves out there as they are improving their art in ways that create a market for their sound, they are then rewarded with record deals and people are then willing to pay money for their music.

I still remember years ago, I went to an unveiling of the stealth bomber out at Alliance Airport here in DFW. This was a private event before an air show. A sound caught my attention. One of the bands was warming up before they opened the show to the public. It was an all-female country band and they used a banjo, which I thought gave them such a fantastically unique sound. I chatted with them for a while and told them that I just knew they would make it.

That band was the Dixie Chicks.

 

The same band that was playing for free or close to free at an air show was the exact same band that went on to tour the world, win Grammys and make millions. But they didn’t get that in the beginning just because they were talented and unique. They had to convince others that they were worth the investment.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is this. The digital age has changed the learning curve/career path for the writer-artist. Before we wrote and wrote and wrote, and, after enough drafts and submissions we either gave up or we wrote what the gatekeepers were willing to try and sell. Most writers, even after a book deal, failed to ever make a living writing.

That path is still available (for now), and, if that is the way for you, I won’t stop you. I will, however, say that career longevity doesn’t look so hot if you don’t have a platform (those people who dig your sound). Yes, writers have a sound–it is called writing voice. 

Yet, now that amateurs can get out and sell books for 99 cents, people in publishing are aghast at the swarm of talentless hacks that will inundate the world with bad books.

Why?

These authors are the “free or darn close to free band” we get to listen to at the local bake sale or BBQ pit. If audiences like them, we buy their $5 CD or drop money in a hat. If we don’t? We don’t make eye contact, and the band doesn’t get a second invite. Positive word of mouth will not spread for lousy bands, no matter how great their “marketing” is. Same with bad books.

So, when new writer runs out and slaps up a 99 cent book or a $2.99 book or give books away for free, it is part of building a platform. If the writer uploads a horrible book that gets pummeled with digital tomatoes, he either cries and gives up or he tries again to write a better, more crowd-pleasing book. He performs again and again and he gets feedback a heck of a lot faster so he can tune his art accordingly.

Thus, writers who don’t go the traditional route can build a platform with minimal social media and writing a lot of inexpensive books (playing for almost free at the State Fair)…or we can make social media an extension of our art and rely more on blogging. Since social media relies on a lot of WORDS, we should totally ROCK at this! Or we can do both—write lots of books and do social media. Isn’t technology AWESOME?

Define Social Media as Part of Your Art

Social media is like us being the band that goes to all the parties and all the mixers so people at least get to know us, like us as artists and grow to be loyal fans. Blogging isn’t a chore, it is a demo tape of our artist voice. It is a free performance at a local mall. And, since writing is our art, if we will approach it as such, our attitude toward it will improve because we will be approaching with a totally different intent. 

If our intent is to share our passion, to affect people, instead of a chore to be endured and a way to part people from their money, the experience will be more enjoyable for all concerned. Eventually, once people come to love and trust the artist they will be more willing to part with more money to buy the art.

Please Stop “Targeting” Readers—It Makes Them Nervous

That group of people who dig your sound–writing voice–will likely be a certain demographic. This is why it is critical for writers to stop blogging about writing all the time. It limits the audience. This is why I train writers to blog in a totally different way that uses the same voice as their fiction. For more about why blogging about writing is bad, I highly recommend my post Sacred Cow Tipping–Why Writers Blogging about Writing is Bad.

Writers often freeze on words like “target audience” when it is really far simpler than we try to make it. Blogging (the way I teach it, at least) will naturally connect you to your demographic organically, and just like fans are loyal to their bands, readers are loyal to their favorite authors.

They can be loyal to you, too .

Does this make you feel better about social media and blogging? What are your thoughts or feelings about my definition of author platform? Feel ready to get your laptop case and go on the digital road? Remember, you don’t have to do it all alone. Make sure you check out the #MyWANA crew. They love being Roadies. They think it makes them more mysterious.

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of March I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

No Mash-Up of Awesomeness this Week. I am preparing to teach all weekend at the Texas Two Step Conference held by the NTRWA. So for any writers in the DFW area (or who want to drive to the DFW area), come hang out with me! The conference is only $150 and there is going to be a lot of talented people there, including the amazing Candy Havens and Roni Loren. Check out this link for details!

Does Publishing Support the Writer-Artist?

 

On Monday’s post we talked about the importance of craft in the new paradigm, yet there seems to be some assumptions floating around that I feel are flawed, and we need to talk about those today. We are artists, and the ONLY one who can develop and mature an artist is…the artist. We are responsible. We always have been. Just because Amazon is not going to appreciate our art beyond the sales numbers doesn’t mean anything other than Amazon remains what it has always been—a means of getting a product to a consumer, the art to a potential patron.

Yet, I will say the same thing about NY publishing.

They can wax rhapsodic about how they care about developing writers and how they care about writing and art, and I believe they do…but only to a certain point. The second any art becomes a commodity, then no one really cares only about the art. It becomes more about how many units can be sold, and will it be enough to gain back our investment before they cut off the power?

There are bills to pay.

But we will get to that, too, in a moment. But first we need to make sure we all have nice open minds and to do this we need to dispel some myths.

Myth #1

The only people who publish on Amazon are writing junk and weren’t good enough to get a traditional NY deal.

In the comments section on Monday many of you expressed that you were working on your skills, honing your art and holding out for a NY deal. That is awesome and up to the individual artist, but be careful. A lot of terrific and innovative writing has come out of the indie movement.

Sometimes writing won’t get picked up by New York for any number of reasons that have nothing at all to do with the skill level of the writer. Feel free to check out Kait Nolan who was the only indie author nominated for the prestigious DABWAHA award (and you can go vote for her, too).

Myth #2 NY Publishing supports art.

True, Amazon doesn’t have any gatekeepers, thus no way to keep out the truly motivated. But, this does not therefore mean that, by default, NY is a great patron of art.

How?

Some art challenges. It upsets and disrupts the status quo. It transforms us and changes us. Not all art is commercial art.

For instance, I could publish a book of nothing but commas, and on Amazon, no one can stop me. No one would stop me. My book of commas might not be a great use of my free time, but who are you to judge my art? Maybe my book of commas is a challenge to the post-industrial society to take more breaks.

Why are you laughing?

Maybe I yearn to make our culture really think about how they have forgotten to pause in their everyday lives. Perhaps I long to expose all those tiny breaks to appreciate life that you missed because you had e-mails to check or a Facebook page to update. Every comma in my 1,000 page e-book represents a moment you will never get back.

I have them all here. Your lost moments. I captured them like little damsel flies in amber.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I collected your lost moments into one place, a tribute to all the breaks no one wanted. We are a pauseless society always on fast-forward, plunging into the Red Bull-soaked abyss of suffering.

Wow, I really ran with that.

Please look for upcoming book “,”…never in stores, well, for obvious reasons. It is part of a series–”?” “!” and “.” will be released some time after they let me out of the looney bin.

Some Art Cannot Begin as a Commercial Product

I know I am going to get e-mails about this one, but again. Breathe and give me a moment. Some art is meant to please and be aesthetic. It is designed to appeal. But is that the only art? No. Some art is designed to shake things up, to challenge. This kind of art, the kind that disrupts, confronts and even offends is often only appreciated as a commercial item retrospectively.

Trust me. Most people didn’t “get” Dahli at the time, and now his work graces many a T-shirt. The industrial publishing machine is in business to sell goods people want, but if something is a certain type of art, then no one knows they need it…yet. This art will only be appreciated by the society the art changes.

For instance, in Picasso’s time, art had been steeped in realism for centuries. Then Picasso stepped in and shook things up by doing things…differently. He painted a woman with her eye closer to her forehead or a person made of geometric shapes. It forced society to transform, to open its ideas of what it considered beautiful of what it considered to be art.

Of course, now, a century later, even a small schoolchild has seen cubism if only on her mother’s mouse pad near the computer. Modern art was once shocking and of no determined commercial value…but then as society changed, the value did as well. This art, once only appreciated on the fringes of society, over time became more and more commercial.

Writers are Artists

Yes, there are wanna-be-amateur hacks who believe they are being rejected because no one can see their brilliance, yet I would be bold enough to say that there are some genuine artists being rejected by New York, too.

Oooohhhh.

Who is to say that modern digital age society wouldn’t like to read a 130,000 word book written in the verbose style of A Tale of Two Cities? Anyone who shops at Wal Mart truly understands how it can be the best of times and the worst of times. That manuscript that is being rejected for all of its heaviness and lack of commercial appeal might just spark that style of writing back to life.

It could. Why not?

Maybe potential readers are feeling nostalgic. Maybe we were too immature to appreciate The Grapes of Wrath in 11th grade, but now, a book like that is just what we need. Maybe works that read like Jane Eyre would appeal to modern audiences if the stories were modern. Perhaps the unique juxtaposition of a modern world and archaic language would be brilliant.

Worked for the movies! I saw Romeo and Juliet. Lionardo Dicaprio’s performance was stellar.

You might chuckle, but maybe I am right. Yet, the thing is, New York will reject most books that really challenge conventional tastes, so how will we ever know?

Agents will reject these works not because they might not love them, but because they can’t sell them. New York will say these works won’t appeal to reader tastes, and they would be right. New York is in the business of satisfying appetites, not necessarily creating new ones or reviving old ones.

I am in no way saying that New York Publishing doesn’t appreciate art, it just doesn’t always support it. It can’t afford to.

Publishing is Not Necessarily about the Art

Yes, publishing supports some great works of literary genius…ones it believes it can sell. Publishers have overhead and payroll and frankly, they cannot afford to be philanthropists. It isn’t as if they are supported by donations and foundations. Museums have the luxury of being innovative and provocative.

Let’s take Dadaism as an example.

Dadaism was an artistic movement birthed in response to the outbreak of WWI. It was to protest the reason and logic of a bourgeois society. Dadaists believed the misguided values of the time had plunged the world into war. Dada was the antithesis of everything art stood for at the time. Dada had no concern for aesthetics, and their works were intended to offend. Through their rejection of traditional culture and aesthetics, the Dadaists sought to destroy traditional culture and aesthetics.

What this means is that people of the time, regular people buying stuff, probably would not have cared for anything Dada in nature. It was a fringe appetite. If we have a urinal installed in our home, it is a place to use the bathroom. Install it in a display at the Museum of Modern Art and it is an Marcel Duchamp exhibit.

So New York can say they support art, but the fact is they would probably love to, but they can’t. They likely could if they would embrace digital publishing. Maybe my book of commas would be a hit. If NY followed my suggestions, they could take more chances on art. Maybe they could mold tastes instead of trying to predict them and react to them.

Hmm. Food for thought.

Social Media Art–Embrace WANAism

Why my social media teachings are different is that I am not here to make “responsible little marketers” who can sell books as if they were no different than vacuums or light bulbs.

I created WANA (We Are Not Alone) to tear down the establishment that wants writers to run out and automate messages promoting book giveaways on 8 different platforms. WANAism rejects the current system and declares that writers are not car insurance and books are not tacos. My medium is social media, and I create art every day. So do my followers…WANAites. WANAism cannot be measured with metrics, because, while WANA is digital in delivery, it is human at its core.

WANA is here to liberate your inner artist, to show you the truth of the new paradigm, and that is you are free. Writers have a new medium. Social media isn’t a chore, it is a new canvas! I am not a marketing expert; I teach art classes for WordPress .

Art is the Divine Part of Our Humanness

What makes us human is this longing to create. No matter what race, creed, religion or place in time, we humans are united by our universal desire to create art, and we will use anything available—stone, canvas, skin, words, paper or Facebook. Doesn’t matter.

Those who follow WANAism understand that technology doesn’t steal our artist spirit, it gives it another medium, much like the invention of cameras and film gave rise to movies…a new way to tell stories. Make social media your art and your attitude will change. It will no longer be a chore to be endured. It will transform into a place to share your artist passion with those who can….appreciate it.

Social media offers a place to give away your art. Not your product…your art. Art is part of who we are so each interaction, each tweet, every blog represents a sample of us, our art, our personal Dada movement.

Amazon Opens the Door for Art

So if I really wanted to make an argument for who did a better job of supporting art, I would have to vote for Amazon. By opening the doors and not using any outside market standard of “acceptable, publishable material” Amazon has liberated the artist to put his art on display. If the world throws digital tomatoes at it, c’est la vie.

Either the world wasn’t ready or the artist wasn’t. Time will prove which was the case.

But…

The daring. The truly original. The writer-artist who creates that very thing that no one knew they needed until they saw it…this writer will be rewarded. He will sell books and his following will grow because his art will affect people. They will feel it and will want to share this experience and pay good money for it because this is always what art does.

This digital paradigm lets indie and self-publishing test the “art” to see if there is an audience for this innovation and create the market (then NY can step in with a deal when the risk makes fiscal sense).

The New Paradigm Liberates the Author-Artist

Until now, the act of publishing a book was so terrifically cost-prohibitive that is truly limited art in our medium. If we created something so original it would revolutionize the world, we had to hope and pray we landed a gatekeeper with vision who was willing to risk her reputation and career. A lot of money was on the line if the art was not embraced in a way that made it commercially viable. Now? Digital makes art possible.

All of us art putting out art…just not all of us will make the commercial cut.

Art vs. Tastes

Let’s even set this notion of art aside and maybe just talk a moment about reader tastes. Tastes can be molded, shaped and changed. In the new digital paradigm we are seeing a resurgence of essentially pulp fiction. Fantasy, sci-fi, erotica, Westerns, novellas, poetry books and all kinds of works are now finding a home now that we have loosed the chains of capital risk.

We no longer need anyone but the artist to invest, and the readers either come…or they don’t.

Maybe we are a Picasso that later will be embraced by millions and generate wide-spread commercial interest, but we could just as easily be a giant sculpture crafted from used diapers that a handful will think is brilliant and provocative…but no one will want to take home and display in their living room.

Thing is, in this Brave New World we all get our own exhibit.

Thoughts? Reactions? Are you elated? Horrified? Do you think writers should shape and create reader tastes or publishers? I want to hear from you! And yes, I am putting my art out there every week, hoping that even if you don’t agree, you will walk away somehow changed . Off to go do revisions on “,” and I will let you know when you can pre-order copies .

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of March I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

This Week’s Mash-Up of Awesomeness

10 Myths about Forensics Spread by TV

Protecting Our Writing Time by Elizabeth Craig

I’ll Get to It…Eventually by Alan Orloff

How Does a Publishing Auction Work? by Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner

What is More Fairly Priced at 99 Cents? Nonfiction or a Novel? by Edward Nawotka over at Publishing Persectives

What is an Author Platform? by Jane Friedman

The Controversy Over Controversy by Amber West

What’s Better than a Fight? over at More Blogging Cowbell

The Modern Author–A New Breed of Writer for the Digital Age of Publishing

Being the social media expert for writers has been an interesting experience. I recall when I first started teaching social media, most writers refused to use e-mail. I used every shiny thing I could think of to convince writers that social media wasn’t the devil, it was actually going to be the key to our freedom. We no longer had to throw everything to chance. We had some control over our futures!

Now that we are in the throes of the Indie Revolution, writers are really embracing technology and are seeing the liberation I promised years ago. Yet, the debate rages.

What is the Key? What is the Secret to Success in the Digital Age?

Product–Some say it is content. Write good books and lots of them.

Platform–Some say it is social media. We must build an amazing platform or we will be invisible now that EVERYONE can be published.

Promotion–Some say it is all in the bundling, promotions, give-aways and blog tours.

What do I say? All of the above…but likely to different degrees. If you want to know more about the Three Ps, check out NY Times Best-Selling Author Bob Mayer’s post Platform, Product, Promotion. And YES, folks, this post was good enough for me to go digging through the WDW archives, so check it out…seriously.

But back to our topic.

There are all kinds of arguments about what is the most important. Frankly, it depends on your strengths, but these days, to really become a success? REALLY a success as in “sellabunchabooks success”? We need to be stronger, faster, and smarter. We must be better trained than any writer in human history.

Every vocation evolves in the face of new technology, but for today’s purposes I want to talk a little about war. War? Yes, bear with me.

Kristen’s Brief History of War

See, in the beginning when disputes could no longer be settled with name-calling and stealing goats, we used rocks and sticks. Of course, it wasn’t long before some dude figured out how to totally cheat and affix a pointy rock (flint) on the end of his stick…CHEATER!

So, then Man retreated to the caves to figure out what could be done about those dudes that were cheating and affixing pointy rocks on their sticks. They chewed on those red berries that helped them stay up late into the night and finally handed the problem to their engineer–Og–and Og figured out a way to use some dried critter tendons and TIE them to the stick and then shoot the other stick with the pointy rock affixed to the end. He named it after his favorite pet monkey…Bo.

True story I just made up.

A thousand years later–give or take a few centuries–the art of firing pointy sticks was, indeed, an art. In fact, once we figured out a little bit of basic geometry (Thanks a lot, Archimedes) we got to use cool gadgets like catapults…which, strangely have nothing to do with cats.

So not only did we figure out new weapons, we also had to devise ways to shield ourselves (no pun intended) from whatever weapon was all the rage of the Dark Ages, Renaissance, Civil War, whatever. In fact, one really fascinating subject is the architecture of castles. Did you know that, after the advent of the cannon, the shapes of castles/forts changed. They transformed into shapes that resembled stone starfish…not stoned starfish. Stop giggling and pay attention.

Why did the castles/forts change shapes? Well, because a flat wall, when hit with a cannonball just caved. So, the architects realized that if they changed the shape of the castle, the cannonball would always hit with a glancing blow. It could never hit flush, so the walls would be far harder to take out.

Yes, I am trivia flypaper.

Anyway, fast-forward to the 20th century. In WWI we really started seeing the influence of the Industrial Revolution on warfare, but soldiers still were often just used as fodder and we see this all the way up through WWII. Those in command just threw sheer human numbers at the problem.

Yet, in Vietnam, everything kind of came to a head. War had changed so much. We were no longer two sides lined up an a cornfield shooting in the smoke and whoever had the most dudes standing at the end was declared winner.

No, it was all different.

We were facing submarine attacks and air attacks and machine gun attacks and HOLY COW NUKES! With each new technology, different technology had to be invented to overcome the other technology. But more than the technology changed…the people changed.

The soldier changed.

Gone was the illiterate youth conscripted off the farm and handed a musket. Today’s soldier is highly trained and highly educated. He (or she) learns basic hand-to-hand combat, but he also learns how to use technology so space age most of us wouldn’t know whether to hit the “On” switch or hit it with a stick. And I am not even talking Special Forces, because, well they are special. Just everyday enlisted people have SO much training and education to keep pace with modern warfare.

Soldiers now operate predator drones and bomb-sniffing robots. They use laser designators to drop bombs, and we even have dudes who have to do trigonometry before they kill someone (they are called “snipers”). Today’s armed forces is smarter, faster, and better trained than any force in history.

The thing is, as technology marches forward and changes our world we either evolve or we die. No one ever heard from that other tribe after Og invented the stick-thrower, btw.

What Does War Have to Do with Writers?

Now back to writers. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we must be GOOD AT IT ALL, especially indie people. Gone are the days of Hemingway where writers could power drink, chain smoke and hide away writing books with little to no outside communication with the world (except the agent and occasional book signing). That is as archaic as going to war with a slingshot. Sure, the slingshot rocked back in biblical days, but now it is a formula to DIE.

Writers Don’t Have to Be Literary Fodder

Do you know where the word infantry came from? The Latin word infantem, which means “youth.” In early warfare they would put the young and inexperienced youths in the front ahead of the seasoned soldiers and essentially use them as fodder. If a kid survived, he got promoted. It was a sheer numbers game that was bloody and brutal and ended mostly in death for the infantem.

Sound like the traditional publishing paradigm?

Throw enough new writers out there and the one that survives gets another book deal. In the indie age, we no longer have to be fodder, but we have to be TRAINED and we need to be part of a TEAM. Blind luck is for the foolish.

The Competition is Getting Leaner and Meaner

Yes, we need to write good books, but the competition can write good books, do social media AND run promotions. Haven’t you noticed more and more indies are making the best-seller lists? Sure they had good books, but they also had a ROCKIN’ platform, they blogged and marketed their tails off and all that hard work booted the traditionals from those top slots. I feel we are going to see a lot more of that in the coming months.This is why I work so hard to teach you guys about this business in a holistic way.

Product (Content)

We can’t put a shiny bow on a pile of literary dog poop and call is a rose. No amount of marketing is going to sell garbage. We have to learn to write good books. Notice I use the plural–books. We can’t slave over one book forever making it perfect. I said we need to write good books, not perfect books.

We also can’t toss junk out there and think promotion will make it a hit. Good books will always sell way more than crappy books. Not rocket science. We should always be learning as much as we can about our craft, our trade, our art. This is why I blog on craft and point you guys to the best teachers in the industry.

Platform (Social Media/Blogging)

But this is also the reason I work so hard to give you guys tools to do social media effectively and in far less time. It is also the reason I have created MyWANA (here is the short video that explains). Plug in on Twitter at #MyWANA or on our brand new MyWANA Facebook page here. Platforms take time to build, but they take a LOT LESS time if we are part of a team.

A New Breed of Writer Rises from the Ashes 

The Modern Writer is a BAD@SS. She writes, blogs, does social media and she has a killer team of fellow ninja-writers who have her six and offer cover-fire (Retweets). Lone writers DIE, but packs of writers create mayhem through the city taking all the wine and chocolate…

Wait, that went sideways. Try again.

The Modern Writer lets go of the past, the lone soul who sat alone, hunched over a typewriter and who was only responsible for glorious prose. The modern writer is part of a community and a team. She doesn’t whine about technology, she gets in and OWNS IT.

It isn’t called a slave drive for nothing .

The Modern Writer writes, promotes, learns newer and newer technology and manages a business. The She-Writer is a FORCE OF NATURE. The He-Writer is MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE.

The thing is, the Modern Writer is one of the most highly skilled people on the planet. We create new worlds and civilizations from black letters. We research, write, network, market, promote, run a business, learn a MOBI from a jpeg, and on and on, though we don’t have Predator Drones…yet .

We Have to Do it ALL?

So your WANA-Mama is here to tell you the rough truth. It is ALL important. Sure, some things we will do better than others. I write and do social media WAY better than promotional stuff. But that is why I have a TEAM. I have WANAites who will just looooove to get their sticky little paws all over my next book once it is ready to release. These people LOVE throwing parties and dreaming up games and contests. Not my strength…but it doesn’t have to be.

I feel that the authors who hammer on that the ONLY thing that matters are books and content, that is their strength. It is easy to tell others that the only thing that matters is a good book when you start the game with 10, 20, or 40 titles. It sort of feels like the one and ONLY time I played RISK with my family members (who cheat, btw). They felt that tanks were the key to winning the game. Well, sure, they had tanks…ALL of them. If you have ALL the tanks, then tanks are a pretty good plan.

The hard truth is that, to some degree, we are going to have to be able to be at least proficient in ALL of these roles. We need to write good books (plural), but we also need a platform and an ability to promote. This is why I work so hard teaching you guys on this blog, and I am also developing new classes and more classes to help make all of manageable, because it IS A LOT, but we are not alone!

Writers now must learn hand-to-hand combat (craft), but we also need advanced weapons training (technology), balanced with a little satellite communications & cryptology (social media and networking) and military strategy (business). We must be masters of gathering intel, or just let Porter Anderson do it for us (Go to Writing on the Ether). But the fact remains that, to survive and thrive in this new world, we need to work together. There is strength in numbers. We are not alone.

We are the Modern Author.

What are your thoughts? Have you been excited about the changes in the industry? Do they scare you? Do you feel more empowered or do you really miss the old ways? Hey, I am nostalgic. No shame in loving the traditions of old. What resources do you recommend to your fellow WANA peeps?

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of March, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of March I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . Both books are ON SALE for $4.99!!!! And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

This Week’s Mash-Up of Awesomeness

12 Things that Will Kill Your Blog Post Every Time by SEO Moz Pro

Six Reasons Author Should LOVE Timeline on Facebook over at Girls with Pens. Thanks Lisa Hall-Wilson. Frankly, FB isn’t going to give us a choice, so we need to learn what the heck we are doing. Great blog and yes, I switched.

BEAUTIFUL post by Colin Falconer. Where the Wind Blows Steady Down the Plain. Just gorgeous writing!

Cute post by Mark Klapowitz Remember When TV Programs didn’t Have Animated Promos for Other Programs?

Two Ways to Make the Most of Goodreads by Jane Friedman

The brilliant, talented Jody Hedlund chimes in about marketing on Are Your Efforts Unique or Do You Blend In?

25 Things You Should Know About Word Choice by the amazing Chuck Wendig.

Just Say It Sucks by Ginger Calem. What? That mascara doesn’t give me 9x thicker, fuller lashes?

For something different and REALLY interesting, Piper Bayard’s writing partner, Holmes gives us the skinny on Iran and Nukes and what it means.

Amazon–Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

 

Last week, I picked on The Big Six in Bracing for Impact–The Future of Big Publishing in the New Paradigm, so today we are going to talk about Amazon. There seem to be two camps when it comes to Amazon. Either they are a tool of Satan and are actually responsible for the cute kitten trafficking to fund drug cartels in Guatemala, or they are the great and benevolent Optimus Amazon Prime, the one to free the enslaved creatives from their oppressive Big Six Masters.

Which is the truth? More on that in a moment. A little story first to help this sink in…

Some of you may or may not care know that I actually earned my B.A. in International Relations with a heavy emphasis on political economy (specifically dealing with the Middle East and North Africa). Back in the day, I wanted to be a foreign service officer or an analyst. So what did I do? I booked a flight to Syria.

The day after graduation, a cohort and I boarded a plane to Damascus. Our goal was to modernize a small paper company. We sought to streamline production and minimize inefficiencies. We were young, we were smart, we were…seriously dumb out of our depth.

Our plan was to help a paper plant stuck in the 60s come join the rest of the world in the 90s. We believed we could help them become competitive in a digital world so they could be competitive in the 21st century. (Sound familiar?)

Yes, that was the plan. What did we actually do?

We spent most of our time waiting on our driver to come pick us up from the refugee camp where we were staying. Yep, waiting…and more waiting…and counting goats. And, beyond that? We tried to chew ourselves free from the bureaucratic red tape that kept us from doing anything meaningful…and we drank a lot of Turkish coffee.

Why the trip down Memory Lane? 

Little did I know back in 1999, that, a decade later I would become a voice for writers in a new paradigm. See, back then I thought my passion was politics, but it was actually people all along. I traveled halfway across the globe to one of the most dangerous places for a blonde with a big mouth and zero common sense to be. And, though I failed back then, I am better prepared now…to help you guys.

Huh? I’ll explain.

The Problem with a Monopoly

Here is the thing. Syria is a dictatorship, and being a dictatorship, they really don’t care for a free market system despite any rhetoric about wanting to modernize. The paper company we wanted to streamline? They were the ONLY paper company, so anyone who wanted to wipe their tush or blow their nose, HAD to buy it from this company.

Those at the top were, well, on top. They didn’t need to listen to well-meaning college graduates who might have actually helped them be more efficient and make more money. They already had a lot of money and they controlled anything paper.

Failure will teach us far more than success ever will…

That time in Syria taught me a lot. Aside from the sound pop on the snoot to teach me I didn’t know as much as I thought I did, I got a solid dose of the downfalls of a monopoly. You see,  success was the paper company’s worst enemy. They had a lock on an important commodity and no competition. With no competition, they got lazy. There were gross inefficiencies in production and distribution and quality control was dismal at best.

But why would they change? There was no one else consumers could go to.

Talk is Cheap

I also learned that talk is cheap. Companies can say they care, that they want to be efficient, that they want to offer good products. Heck they can say it until the cows come home and that doesn’t mean a thing. It is generally only when there is an outside threat that these companies will get their act together.

So what does this have to do with publishing?

Part of why The Big Six have been able to be so grotesquely inefficient has been due to the fact that, historically, they’ve controlled distribution. They held the keys to the kingdom. Big Publishing didn’t have any decent competition, so no credible threat, thus there was no real impetus to do things faster, better, cheaper.

Oh, but that has changed. Yet with all these changes and innovations, does the future look brighter for the publishing industry and for writers?

Not so hasty…

Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

Amazon is the 500 pound gorilla in the room, only we can’t see it because it is hidden neatly inside a giant digital Trojan Horse. Don’t get me wrong, I buy plenty of stuff off Amazon, and they have done a lot to help shake up the industry and get New York hopping. Without them, I don’t believe we would have seen so many miraculous changes so quickly.

Ah, but every fairy tale has a dark side…

I really hope New York gets its act together, because, once the competition falls away and Amazon burns New York to the ground? What happens to the writer? What happens when we fall asleep and it is safe for Amazon’s Trojan Horse to unleash the gorilla?

Amazon right now is in the courting phase with writers, and it is using us (writers) as a weapon to kill our former masters. Ah, but if Amazon really gets its way…what then?

When NY is razed and Amazon has no real competition, do they have to keep giving us the same sweet royalty rate? And they already have a nasty reputation. They pulled that little stunt with a publisher who dared to cross them. Two years ago, they removed all the “Buy Buttons” off all the Macmillan titles. So, if Amazon will use the brass knuckles on a major publisher that crossed their path…what about us? The little guys? What happens when a writer miffs them and they unleash the gorilla?

Lord Acton so eloquently said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” and that statement is as relevant today in 2012 as it was in 1887, because while industries change and technology changes, humans are timeless. So what happens when it’s Amazon’s turn to hold all the keys to the kingdom? Will they use them any differently than those they crushed to gain them?

The Perks without the Works

Unlike NY, Amazon isn’t searching through all the millions of wanna-bes for a handful of investments. Anyone can publish quickly and cheaply. Writers are running to them! The problem with this is they get all the benefits of being a publisher without any real sacrifice.

A lawyer friend of mine noted that when writers publish on Amazon, we all agree to the same blanket contract. This gives Amazon all the perks of being a publisher without concerning itself with any of the traditional protections for the writer.

And, I understand that writers haven’t been treated all that great in the past, but we need to ask the tough question. Is this future better? Is trading one dictator for another a good plan?

Amazon having total control is a particularly frightening scenario for indie and self-published authors, because many aren’t repped by agents with the legal know-how to fight any injustice. Oh, I suppose we could sue, but Amazon has armies of high-powered attorneys to make a lesson out of any of us who tried.

I know this sounds a little Orwellian, but when everyone else is gone, what is to stop Amazon from having “technical errors” that just happen to lose YOUR books? What’s to stop another “Buy Button” glitch? What’s to stop them from demanding we all sell our books for $2.99 and if we don’t comply, we suddenly start having “technical errors”?

Yes, I read a lot of Asimov in my formative years.

Amazon is great at selling the cheapest stuff. They sell everything from camping equipment to push-up bras. Books are just another commodity…right?

Books are not TVs and Writers are not Camping Equipment

See, NY has its share of problems, but one thing NY has going for it is the LOVE of the written word. They VALUE it. Now, they might be valuing it in a way that isn’t competitive, but at the end of the day, they still VALUE it in a way that I believe eludes Amazon.

To Amazon? The gorilla doesn’t have the same sentimental connection. The bottom line and making money is all that matters, and, sure, they love selling motorcycles, but the romance genre alone is worth BILLIONS.

Caveat Emptor

Some people say, “It’s just business.” Yet, Amazon has not had any problem going to the mattresses to dominate the market and drive competitors out of the game. I guarantee you that, if Amazon does manage to finish off the major competition, they will soon open their own brick-and-mortar bookstores on Barnes & Noble’s grave. Why do I say this? In my book, the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. How will we writers feel about this type of “business” when we land in the cross-hairs?

You will know them by their works…

Great, Amazon wants to bring affordable and convenient shopping to the consumer. Awesome. But the question becomes, what are they willing to do to increase their profit margin?

Publishers Weekly announced on February 1^st of 2012 that:

Amazon is continuing to report record growth. The electronic and general merchandise segment that includes the Kindle devices posted a 51% fourth quarter increase and a 57% gain for 2011.

So, as a former wanna-be analyst and paper salesperson (post-Syria), what do these numbers say to me? They spell potential big trouble in the future. See, I know what it is like to be the sales guy. Sure, when you are opening up into a new territory with no competition and you have a 57% gain in a quarter, you are hailed a genius! A hero!

Ah, but the numbers always look good when penetrating a new market. It’s like turning on a water hose to fill an empty pool. Every drop looks awesome. But once the pool is full?

Those numbers don’t look as impressive and the board of directors want to know where you, the salesperson failed. Why aren’t we seeing the same profits? What do we need to do to see 57% gains every quarter? The shareholders want to see profits!

And this is usually where the trouble begins.

This is the point that the benevolent dictatorship monopoly turns into a tyrant, because it is all about the bottom line and the spreadsheets. They lose all sense of reality and fail to see that no company can make 57% gains every quarter into perpetuity. This is where they start gutting geese writers for golden eggs best-selling books.

Sure, Amazon is great now that everyone is allowed to publish, but what if, in a few years, they no longer like that business model and they only want shiny darlings like Eisler and Konrath? What’s to stop them from becoming Big Six 2.0? What’s to stop them from jerking around our royalty rates? What’s to stand in their way and keep them from trafficking cute kittens to fund Guatemalan drug cartels?

Writers

We seem to be the ones that get left out, but we are the most important. We weren’t well-represented at Digital Book World or even the recent ToC (Porter Anderson explores this in depth in the latest Writing on the Ether.) Yet, without writers there are no stories, no books to sell.

Take heart, my peeps. We hold more power than we know.

How do we make New York wake up, snap in line and treat us better than they have in the past? How do we keep the belly of the Amazon Trojan Horse closed and the greedy gorilla at bay? How can we help ensure that the indies popping up all over have a viable marketplace to grow and put down roots and fairly compete?

We band together, we get educated, and we become empowered. Our author platform is the most powerful tool at our disposal. It makes NY take us seriously, and it will help keep Amazon playing nice. I would even be so bold as to say that our platforms will determine the future landscape of publishing.

An author with a platform is a citizen, an author without one is a subject.

There are too many authors who want to just write and hand the books and the business to someone else. That is a dangerous and risky plan.

No Platform=No Options

An author with a viable social media platform is empowered, and is more than just an author. Writers plugged into the WANA community are transformed. They are a new breed of faster, smarter and strangely good-looking writers. They are a WANAuthor. WANAuthors are citizens of the new publishing paradigm with a voice and a vote.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

We Are Not Alone

Writers! Remember, We Are Not Alone (WANA) and together we are stronger. This is a great time to be a writer, and the future looks bright, but we are in this together. We are no longer indie, self-pub or traditional…we are WRITER-KIND. One global race comprised of storytellers, inspirers and educators with one mission…to fill the world with amazing books.

In a world where power corrupts and talk is cheap, we need each other more than ever. Our platforms and our voice keep the despots in check because we have the power to remove them from office take our business elsewhere.

What are your thoughts? Fears? Concerns? What do you see on the horizon and what are your solutions or suggestions? Hey, together we are stronger, but we are also smarter. I read every comment, so raise your voice!

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of February, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of February I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . Both books are ON SALE for $4.99!!!! And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

This Week’s Mash-Up of Awesomeness

Those Who Can’t Self-Publish, Really? by Girls with Pens

The Big Six Publishers are Dead-6 Critical Factors for the Future by Richard Monro

Speak Strength to Yourself by Shelli Johnson

100 Tips to Alleviate Self-Doubt by Matthew Turner at Jane Friedman’s place

NYTBSA Bob Mayer has another perspective about Amazon over at his place.  The Reality of Amazon and the Digital Publishing World.

Publication–Perfection Not Required by the amazing Jody Hedlund.

25 Things I Want to Say to So-Called ‘Aspiring Writers’ by the word-pirate Chuck Wendig

Let the Good Times Roll AWESOME post by the talented Ingrid Schaffenburg

Women Peeing Outdoors by Natalie Hartford. Hey! It’s funny and makes the mash-up eclectic.

Jenny Hansen has an AWESOME lesson about Triberr (Triberr is a tool to manage all those blogs you like to read).

Bracing for Impact–The Future of Big Publishing in the New Paradigm

Have you ever witnessed a car accident? Have you ever seen the accident coming before it even happened? I have. I recall being on a road trip to Florida and we hit a terrible rainstorm. The flooding was so bad that all the cars were slowing down to maybe ten miles an hour so as not to hydroplane. I recall a bright red pickup went flying past doing at least 70. I remember screaming at this driver that he was crazy and he was going to get someone…

…and then I saw it.

The world suddenly sharpened and time seemed to slow down. Far up ahead, I saw a small compact car change lanes into the truck’s path, but I was powerless to stop what I knew would happen next.

Impact.

Two people died.

Yet, despite hundreds of thousands of collisions, we see this time and time and time again. People on cell phones while driving, texting while driving, drinking and driving and doing all the things WE ALL KNOW are gambling with life. Why do they do it? Because they think that they will be the exception even though others have tried and died.

History repeats itself because we fail to listen.

So why am I talking about this? I am frustrated. Publishing has had at least seven years to make a better game plan. It has seen the music industry AND the film industry get turned upside down, gutted, then parted out. Why, then have they failed to innovate?

You can’t do this! You are going to CRASH! 

Quick History Lesson

The music industry, in my POV, has a little bit of an excuse only because it was one of the first industries to be hit by the digital tsunami. They saw it coming, too, but instead of anticipating change? Their plan was to pretend nothing would change and prop up the idea that, “People will always want to go to music stores and buy CDs.”

And it was this thinking that allowed iTunes to kick their tails.

Was change all bad?

For some change sucked…a LOT. But, the music industry was grossly wasteful. It failed to understand that the consumer–the music lover–was really who they needed to be pleasing all along. The industry made a bad business call; they supported the record store over the music lover and it HURT, and you know what? It should have hurt them. We should not reward waste.

Digital didn’t implode music; it liberated artists from waste, neglect, and stagnation.

We won’t even start on the film industry. Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy last month, so I think that sums things up.

So now we get to publishing.

I love New York. I love traditional publishing and always dreamed that one day I’d see a Big Six Publisher on the spine of my book. Still do sometimes. But when we love someone we are honest and we understand that excellence begins with honesty.

The truth will set us free. We cannot change and make a plan if we fail to accept reality. Whining is not a plan and complaining is not a strategy.

The Problem in Publishing

What has me on such a tear? Blame Porter Anderson and his AWESOME Writing on the Ether where I found THIS little nugget:

The Author’s Guild post, Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink: The Backstory. Some key lines stood out to me.

For book publishers, the relevant market isn’t readers (direct sales are few), but booksellers, and Amazon has firm control of bookselling’s online future as it works to undermine bookselling’s remaining brick-and-mortar infrastructure.

Translation?

Whaaaaaahhhhh. Amazon is being a big meanie and isn’t playing fair.

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with their statement? Readers aren’t relevant? Um, maybe why Amazon is kicking so much @$$ is simply because it understands that the only thing that is relevant and ever has been relevant is the reader.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of monopolies at all. In fact, I am screaming and yelling and trying to get NY to make a plan because I want them to become competitive in the new paradigm. In fact, I have been yelling for FOUR YEARS and trying to get NY to listen, while agents continued to tell writers that social media wasn’t all that important and that readers would always want printed books.

A YEAR ago, I laid out a plan on this blog for NY to harness its strengths and recover. I even e-mailed the blog to Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers and to some agents in NY…and no response, unless one counts the form letter from Michael Hyatt’s personal assistant blowing me off.

Hey, can’t say I didn’t try.

I have wanted NY to pull its head out of the sand, and you know what? I still do. Competition is good. It keeps a market healthy. I want NY to avoid the fate of the music industry and the film industry, but I have been shouting for four years and now time is running out.

We are watching an entire industry capsize because we are…trying to save Barnes & Noble? The indie bookstore?

And the band played on…

People will always love CDs paper books and want to browse in music stores bookstores.

News Flash–Um, the music industry was in the music business and their job was to get music to people who liked to listen to music. They were in the music business, not the record business or the CD business.

Publishing, you guys are in the story and information business, not the book business. Your job is to get information (NF) and stories (Fiction) to readers who dig information and stories….regardless of format. Kinko’s is in the printing business. YOU are in the information/story business.

Hanging onto the print paradigm is like ordering another drink as the Titanic sinks.

It gets better…

Established authors, for the most part, do fine selling through online bookstores. It’s new authors who lose out if browsing in bookstores becomes a thing of the past. 

Browsing Roulette is the marketing plan for new writers.

Oh…dear.

I have been teaching how to build an on-line author platform capable of driving sales for YEARS. WANA has helped create some tremendously successful indie authors. Heck, how do you think Bob Mayer started out on social media? Remember him? The guy who’s selling thousands of books a day? Why not look to see who taught him social media and maybe see if she could help your writers, too? Bob thought it was a good idea.

In fact, WDW Publishing even offered an discount so agents and editors could order WANA in bulk at a discounted price to help ramp up their authors on social media. Guess how many orders we’ve filled?

To my knowledge? Zero. To quote Jerry Maguire, “Help ME, help YOU.”

WANA methods have continued to produce success after success. WANA methods are responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of books for ALL kinds of authors. WANA isn’t just a concept, it’s a movement. We are The Love Revolution, baby. Yet, instead of NY embracing social media or even WANA, browsing is NY’s marketing plan to help new talent get discovered.

*head desk*

The Trouble with the Browsing Plan

Last I checked, a book’s position in a bookstore was real estate negotiated by an agent, so here’s the hard truth. New writers? Forget about your books being in airports, first of all. Oh, and we can also forget about being at the front of the store. That’s for VIPs only. And the tables? Yeah, don’t count on being there either.

Most likely, new writers, you will be spine out on a shelf. Sure hope your last name begins with a letter the puts you at eye level or you are screwed in trouble. And we wonder why the failure rate for first-time novelists is so staggering.

But the Browsing Plan looked so promising.

Time for Tough Love

I know some might feel I am being mean, but nothing can be further from the truth. I LOVE bookstores. I grew up in them. But when we prop up inefficiency, we stymie creativity.

Artists have had to innovate and get creative. NY hasn’t propped up failing authors out of misguided sentimentality. Why do bookstores get a pass? But, since I do not believe in criticizing without offering solutions, here are some ideas.

Solutions for Big Publishing

The Big Six are hurting because of Amazon. Fine. But instead of whining and adopting strategies like “agency pricing” why not learn? After all that has happened in the past ten years, I have to ask the hard question. Why doesn’t the Big Six have their own e-publishing divisions? WHY, WHY, WHY?

Let’s Get Creative, Folks!

An e-publishing division could get books to market far faster. This way, when a regime crumbles, a candidate is elected or a natural disaster strikes, you can sell LOTS of books while people still care. You can take advantage of trends (like, um vampires) while they are still hot instead of gambling that you can predict the next craze or waste time chasing your losses.

In a world addicted to instant gratification, one and two-year lead-times are DEATH.

The New Kids on the Block

New York, if you guys had an e-division, you could take on new untested writers that agents deliver with very little risk. If a new writer sells so many e-books, she earns a print deal and can earn a spot in a…bookstore. Publishers don’t waste paper printing books that don’t sell and bookstores don’t waste shelf space on…books that don’t sell.

Now you have a system that rewards talent and hard work and you can afford higher royalty rates. Agents and writers are happy. Yay! More authors get a shot at proving their book is what readers want, and readers can feel secure buying your books because they trust traditional publishing for quality. Now you guys are doing your real business which isn’t printing, but, rather, finding talented teachers, inspirers and storytellers and connecting them to eager audiences.

In my opinion, there is no reason that the Big Six publishers can’t use e-publishing for vetting out new authors. How many books can a B&N shelve anyway? Let B&N keep carrying the bigger name authors and a handful of other hot authors/books in printed form. They need room for all their Nook displays anyway.

But what do the bookstores do?

There is no reason that a B&N clerk can’t be there to help guide a new Nook owner through a touch-screen to check out the latest e-published titles, too. Come on! Use some imagination! Just need to step up and embrace the service industry. Ten years ago y’all were whining that people didn’t read and now that they do? No whining.

You’ve already invested in the Nook, so why not partner with NY and invest in better POD technology? Customers can browse digital touch-screens and, if customers want a paper copy? They can have one. Swipe a credit card and hit “print.” Offer them a free cup of coffee and then they can pick up their POD book when they’re ready to check out.

Indie Bookstores! Want to Thrive in the New Paradigm? There’s an App for That…

Independent bookstores can find new life in the digital age. Why? Because we still dig nostalgia. In a world where everything changes, it is comforting that some things remain. But passive selling is no longer enough. You guys need could use a little imagination, too.

Indie bookstores could still carry titles of big authors that we all know will sell loads of hard copies. None of us worried that the last Harry Potter books would go to waste. But indie stores could embrace technology for greater advantage.

Technology is getting cheap enough that you guys could also have a touch screen where customers could order digital titles straight from your store. NY Publishing could give you an app to help customers order directly from their digital imprint (and you get sales credit).

Another benefit is that the program could be designed to capture customer information so that you (the store) and publishers can glean a clearer idea of who is buying and why. Oh, and you can probably also talk customers into parting with an e-mail address so you can keep them posted on the latest and greatest releases in both print and digital.

There are half a dozen computer geeks that could even design you your own app. How many readers would looooove a Book and Candle Indie Bookstore app on their iPhone? From that app, they get customized recommendations on what books to buy and can order straight from their phone, only you get sales credit from NY.

If you can’t compete with B&N on price, compete with service.

Sure, customers might pay a little more for an e-book using their indie app, but they get to feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that their purchases are supporting their local indie bookstore AND they are getting recommendations from a bookstore they TRUST. Your opinions and knowledge of books become a service people are willing to pay extra to use.

Be innovative! I know you can do it!

Booksellers still provide a valuable service in a world of 99 cent bargains.

Most booksellers are avid readers and can help drive sales. Just offer customers an incentive to order from YOUR kiosk or YOUR app, so you make money. Maybe we get free cups of coffee or free e-books if we order from inside your store from your POS system.

Working Together

Oh and NY? You can help booksellers out by offering incentives for pushing sales of new authors and digital titles. Since waste will be minimized, you can afford to offer financial reward for helping move titles in the digital lines.

Now the authors win. Because waste is minimized, we can earn higher royalties. Booksellers win because they can keep selling the same books they have always sold while minimizing waste and overhead and they can tap into the digital sales, too.

Publishers? You get to streamline and authors who write good books will sell lots of books and those who don’t? They still won’t sell books, only the losses will be a heck of a lot less. And, because the risk is diminished, you can afford to take risks on new authors and more authors.

Also, since you will no longer be bound by physical shelf space, you can now represent authors who have great stories that might not fit cleanly in a single genre. You can also now make money off types of writing that were, before in the print paradigm, a suicide investment. Poetry, novellas, short-stories and screenplays can now earn money.

Everyone wins. Heck if you want more ideas, check out this post from last year or better yet? E-mail me. Kristen at kristen lamb dot org.

At the end of the day, I love writers. I love publishers and bookstores. I love NY! But propping up inefficient systems, denying inevitable change and complaining only keep us from working on creative solutions.

We have watched the music industry crash, the photo industry and even the film industry. They failed to properly anticipate the markets of the future and they paid for their poor foresight. They had to reinvent from the ashes.

Traditional publishing is an institution and it does bring a unique value to the industry, but that alone is no longer enough. Amazon is looming and the future is now, so this is the multi-billion dollar question. Is big publishing going to race down that same road and crash, thinking it is the special exception? Or will they choose to learn from the past and work on creating a brighter future?

Oh, and NY? I am offering help. Seriously, e-mail me and we can work on creating some solutions. I believe you have a wonderful place in the future paradigm, but we need to stop strategizing from fear and begin using your imagination .

So readers! What are your opinions, thoughts, suggestions? The paradigm is changing so quickly most of us can’t keep up. Is this thrilling for you or terrifying? How have you dealt with the changes? Where do you struggle? How do you think NY can become more responsive in an age of instant gratification?

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of February, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of February I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . Both books are ON SALE for $4.99!!!! And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

Mash-Up of Awesomeness

Trolls, Sockpuppets and Cyberbullies by the amazing Anne R. Allen

Amazon Will Destroy You by Joe Konrath

Love the Life Givers by Ingrid Schaffenburg

Write Heart-Pounding Visceral Responses by Margie Lawson over at Jenny Hansen’s More Cowbell Blog

Why Romances are a Valid & Important Piece of Literature by my FAVE Jody Hedlund

Learn to Love the Pitch by Sarah Pinneo over at one of my favorite places Writer Unboxed

10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service over at Jane Friedman’s blog.

Really sweet blog over at Richard Monroe’s Blog A Little Girl’s Love

Oh and I just LOVE Gene Lempp’s blog. He has a neat post Designing from Bones–Demons, Daemons and Dramatic Struggle

A new fave? Came from #MyWANA of course! Jen J. Danna has a killer forensics blog. The post that caught my interest is about how to use bones to determine a victim’s age.