On Writing-Part 2
I consider myself to be a hack writer. Let me explain:
A hack writer is not necessarily a bad writer. In fact, some very good writers started out as hack writers. A hack writer is simply an author who has yet to break into mainstream publishing in a significant way. Instead of relying on a few high-selling titles for income, a hack writer must depend on a large number of lower-selling titles.
The barriers to entry into mainstream publishing are very high. If you don't know someone who knows someone, trying to get a publishing house to pick up one of your titles, or even take a good look at it, is much like trying to bring down a brick wall by repeatedly bashing your head against it.
Now we have the internet, which is changing everything about the old publishing game, all the way down to how books are sold. This could be the golden age of hack writers, since the barriers have been lowered and the field expanded. Some problems remain, however. There are now so many authors and so many titles available that it's difficult for any one author to stand out against all that background noise. It's not the same thing as trying to get some publisher to notice your manuscript in the first place, but now an author with an e-book is trying to get potential readers to notice, and that competition is fierce and unending.
Under these new circumstances, what can an author do? It helps to join an online group where one's works can be promoted and discussed. That takes some additional time and effort, but it does expand the number of potential readers. Think of it as an e-book e-tour. I think that the most important thing an author can do here, though, is to keep writing and bringing out new books. The more titles that are out there where people can stumble across them, the better the chances that some new reader will do so. If they like what they read, they may start searching for anything else that a particular author has written. They may also tell like-minded friends about it, and those friends may tell their friends, and so on, and so on. So, for a hack writer in this new golden age, there are now three iron rules:
1) You must WRITE
2) You must FINISH what you write
3) You must KEEP WRITING
A hack writer is not necessarily a bad writer. In fact, some very good writers started out as hack writers. A hack writer is simply an author who has yet to break into mainstream publishing in a significant way. Instead of relying on a few high-selling titles for income, a hack writer must depend on a large number of lower-selling titles.
The barriers to entry into mainstream publishing are very high. If you don't know someone who knows someone, trying to get a publishing house to pick up one of your titles, or even take a good look at it, is much like trying to bring down a brick wall by repeatedly bashing your head against it.
Now we have the internet, which is changing everything about the old publishing game, all the way down to how books are sold. This could be the golden age of hack writers, since the barriers have been lowered and the field expanded. Some problems remain, however. There are now so many authors and so many titles available that it's difficult for any one author to stand out against all that background noise. It's not the same thing as trying to get some publisher to notice your manuscript in the first place, but now an author with an e-book is trying to get potential readers to notice, and that competition is fierce and unending.
Under these new circumstances, what can an author do? It helps to join an online group where one's works can be promoted and discussed. That takes some additional time and effort, but it does expand the number of potential readers. Think of it as an e-book e-tour. I think that the most important thing an author can do here, though, is to keep writing and bringing out new books. The more titles that are out there where people can stumble across them, the better the chances that some new reader will do so. If they like what they read, they may start searching for anything else that a particular author has written. They may also tell like-minded friends about it, and those friends may tell their friends, and so on, and so on. So, for a hack writer in this new golden age, there are now three iron rules:
1) You must WRITE
2) You must FINISH what you write
3) You must KEEP WRITING
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