Readers

Print cover by Robin Ludwig

Most of us who have chosen to become writers have done so because we are first and foremost – readers. We have had that experience of getting lost in a story, of falling in love with a character and his or her creator, of entering a world we then longed to return to. And then, we too wanted to create those worlds, characters, stories.

I remember when I was in the seventh grade and I fell in love with science fiction and writers like Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. I announced then to all my friends  that I wanted to be a science fiction writer when I grew up, and I wrote stories in journals and notebooks, but never shared them with any readers. I didn't like my stories enough and I didn't think anyone would want to read them. As I grew older, I stopped reading as much science fiction. It has only been recently that I've realized that part of the reason for that was because there was not nearly as much good science fiction being published. Once the bigger New York publishers decided that science fiction wasn't selling in the best selling numbers like romance and thrillers, the sections in the stores for science fiction and fantasy dwindled and in a self-fulfilling prophesy, so did the readers.

But something remarkable happened when the Kindle made its debut and authors started self publishing their work, skipping all the middle men and gate keepers and going directly to readers. Science fiction and fantasy has begun to thrive again.

As we watch what is happening in the publishing business with this "democratization of publishing" we can always look at the music industry that is about ten years ahead of publishing in this revolution. Remember back when we were kids and we all listened to Casey Kasem and America's Top 40? (Showing my age, aren't I) Kids all over the country were all listening to the same music that was played over and over on the radio. Only a few top bands and singers ever had albums that became bestsellers. Enter Napster and then the iPod and iTunes and soon young people were listening to all sorts of different music, and while the big groups weren't making the millions off CD's anymore, thousands of new young bands and groups were finding their niche audiences and making a living making music. Today, most people have more music on their iPods than we ever had in our vinyl collections. If you feed people the same stuff all the time and that's all they know, they'll continue to buy it because people have a hunger for music. Give them variety, and they'll buy even more.

And readers have a thirst for stories. As publishing companies became divisions of multinational corporations and editors were forced to search only for mega-bestsellers, midlist authors (like me) got pushed out of the business and the choices for readers grew more and more narrow. Most paper books are now sold in places like Walmart and Costco where readers are given the print equivalent of America's Top 40, and if that's all that's offered, that is what they will buy.

But in the world of ebooks, rather than narrowing the readers' choices, ebooks are expanding them. I did a search tonight and found that Amazon has over 3 million ebooks available. Give artists the ability to cut out the middle man and take their work directly to the consumer, and the consumer discovers the incredible breadth of choices they have.

Yes, some of those choices (books) are truly awful, but I believe those will fail in the marketplace as they should. Just like folks are able to find cool stuff on YouTube and iTunes (amid all the garbage), people will find the good books out there in cyberspace by searching the best seller lists, reading book reviewers/bloggers, and listening to word of mouth from friends.

I've been thinking about readers a great deal this week as I've been working on the print version of my new book Circle of Bones. I've been struggling (as usual) with my own DIY version of preparing the manuscript and cover and knowing all along that the book is going to be very expensive because the book is so long and paper costs. I'll probably not be able to make any money off the sales of these books because to build in any profit for me would make them far too costly. But I know that I have fans, readers of my prior books, who don't have ereaders yet and who want to read my new book in paper. I'm going through all this for them. And if some of them read the book and share their enthusiasm with a friend or two, maybe they will they will buy an ebook or two, and I'll make my wages from them.

So while I was toiling to get this print book up on Amazon's CreateSpace, I got an email from a bookseller sharing a link to an article from a Washington Post blog about things that writers could do during book signings to help their careers. The author of the article was a bookseller (and incidentally an author who was also pimping her book with this brilliant ploy to get on the good side of booksellers) who was outlining some of the do's and don'ts of author signings. She was encouraging authors to do everything possible to schmooze with the booksellers. She wrote:

"If you are nice to them, they will always think of you fondly, and your book is more likely to be one they recommend. This is not bribery, mind you, it is basic human decency. (Note: some authors do bring candy, which is maybe bribery, but also thoughtful and delicious. I am prone to such bribery myself, and would encourage the trait in others.) The morning after your event, when everyone's names are still fresh in your mind, write a thank you note to the bookstore. This should be obvious, but many authors seem to have been raised in barns."

Now I know that my new print book will not be accepted into most bookstores because I have joined the ranks of the self-published – not because of the quality of the book, but because of its origin. What I found interesting about this article that was supposedly telling authors about how to get booksellers to hand sell their books – is that it said nothing about writing a good story that booksellers will want to recommend to their customers. This article painted a portrait of a bookseller who cared less about the quality of the book she hand sold, but rather thought that chocolates and thank you notes for her would be good reason enough to convince her customers that a book was worth buying. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love book stores and I have worked in two different stores and spent many hours (days probably) cruising the aisles of many a little bookshop discovered in a small town (especially on my recent trip down the waterway). But I don't think anyone will disagree with the statement that the paper book business has not been healthy for quite some time. The business model is broken if even the very last link to the reader cares less about finding a good book for a reader and more about getting lobbied properly.

This afternoon I got an email from a reader. He wrote:

Hi Christine, Just finished the book. Very, very good. I really liked all

the references to nautical things that are part of my life. Really draws you

into the book because I can identify with so many things.

I am loving this new world of being an Indie author – a world where I can take my work directly to the reader with writing and designing my books all on my own – a world where I can ignore my former agent's advice to stop writing about boats and such. I think the print cover above for Circle of Bones is better than any cover New York ever designed for me.  And I will always be a reader first.  I write my nautical books because I can't find enough books with all this sailing and boating in them, so I've got to write them.  For those of you who are writers out there, why do you write? Is it also because as readers you can't find enough books of the sort you like to read?

Fair winds!

Christine

Author of CIRCLE OF BONES
Available for Kindle and Nook

 

Book cover design by Robin Ludwig designs. Check out her book cover portfolio!

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