Andrea Dunlop on the Bestseller Experiment and Should Writers Ever Just… Give up?

This week’s podcast guest is Andrea Dunlop who, like me, worked in traditional publishing before becoming an author, and that allowed both of us to go into publication with our eyes open. We both knew it wouldn’t all be big advances and lavish launch parties. Many books fail to sell to their full potential, and most authors don’t have a career beyond their third book.

If traditional publishing is so bleak, then why perser… parse… keep going? I think it all depends on your attitude to success and your goals as a writer. When we tell you that publishing can be slow, brutal and the money is crap, we mean it and the truth is there is virtually nothing you can do about it. Likewise for self publishing: you have more control over the finished book, but selling it means having the budget to pay for ads and few authors have the spare cash to do it properly.

Andrea talks about writing being a ‘second reality’ and that actually sitting down and putting words to paper — the real writing — is what makes her happy. And I’m the same. I suspect you are, too. Writers have to love the process. And yes, that includes all the days where it doesn’t quite work, but there’s nothing like sitting down and creating something out of nothing. It’s magic. Love the process. Write as often as you can. The other stuff — deals, money, launches, events, signings — that might happen, or it might not, but they can never take your words away from you.

Other highlights of this episode: I have a pop at the pisspoor wording of Bookbub’s Facebook ads (which they’ve since reworded) and Mr D has a wonderful rant about book pricing. And in the extended version for podcast supporters I talk about recurring themes and how they can help us as writers. You can listen to that by supporting the podcast here.