Five Publishing Personas
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers...
Five Publishing Personas
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers first, and authors second. Like all readers, they are infatuated (perhaps in love) with the act of reading and all it entails.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
They collect, evangelize, worship, romance over and reminisce about books. Sometimes it borders on irrational, because that’s what love is. And some — a good many, actually — take the next logical step and decide to become authors. Yet they remain readers first, author second. For simplicity, I’ll call them by the acronym RFAS.
There’s a parallel path to this; the foodie-cum-chef, cook or baker. Most of the fabulous cooks (or chefs or bakers) I know are devout foodies, and follow a similar trend as the readers above, but with better decked-out kitchens. Fall in love deep enough with food, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll likely dabble in the dark arts of food preparation and ultimately consider yourself — if not exclaim to the world — that you’re a cook, chef or baker. And of course ... you are. But you’re a foodie first.
RFAS are motivated by the same things that motivate readers: gratification. Personal gratification by finishing — and that means publishing — a quality book. Public gratification when good reviews come in, and professional gratification when others industry professionals recognize and endorse your book. Gratification is a powerful motivator that exists for the other players below, but is of primary importance to the RFAS.
The time-horizion — the considered future-state —for RFAS is relatively short. Typically, RFAS concentrate on two things: finishing this book or starting the next book. I don’t mean to imply that they don’t ponder writing an epic six-book series. Of course they do. But that’s still part of “next” and usually doesn’t go much beyond a rough plot outline. For most RFAS, world-building is simply procrastination from their current time-horizon, so that doesn’t count. Eventually, they’ll recognize that and get back to writing. Or abandon the notion all together and leave the manuscript (or several) incomplete. Which is a shame and comes down to failing to recognize their position as an RFAS, which is where they need to be.
RFAS focus on outputs, and they are closely tied to their time-horizion. Finishing the first draft. Finishing the chapter. Writing the book blurb. Building their platform. Posting their daily word count. All things that need to be done, and all valuable outputs. It keeps them on task, offers a simple way to stay organized in a mostly linear fashion, and increases gratification each time they can check an item off their list. Outputs are necessary and good. You’re reading one right now.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about Author-first authors.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://flic.kr/p/9paFTo
#1. RFAS (Reader First, Author Second)
Most of the authors I know are readers first, and authors second. Like all readers, they are infatuated (perhaps in love) with the act of reading and all it entails.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
They collect, evangelize, worship, romance over and reminisce about books. Sometimes it borders on irrational, because that’s what love is. And some — a good many, actually — take the next logical step and decide to become authors. Yet they remain readers first, author second. For simplicity, I’ll call them by the acronym RFAS.
There’s a parallel path to this; the foodie-cum-chef, cook or baker. Most of the fabulous cooks (or chefs or bakers) I know are devout foodies, and follow a similar trend as the readers above, but with better decked-out kitchens. Fall in love deep enough with food, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ll likely dabble in the dark arts of food preparation and ultimately consider yourself — if not exclaim to the world — that you’re a cook, chef or baker. And of course ... you are. But you’re a foodie first.
RFAS are motivated by the same things that motivate readers: gratification. Personal gratification by finishing — and that means publishing — a quality book. Public gratification when good reviews come in, and professional gratification when others industry professionals recognize and endorse your book. Gratification is a powerful motivator that exists for the other players below, but is of primary importance to the RFAS.
The time-horizion — the considered future-state —for RFAS is relatively short. Typically, RFAS concentrate on two things: finishing this book or starting the next book. I don’t mean to imply that they don’t ponder writing an epic six-book series. Of course they do. But that’s still part of “next” and usually doesn’t go much beyond a rough plot outline. For most RFAS, world-building is simply procrastination from their current time-horizon, so that doesn’t count. Eventually, they’ll recognize that and get back to writing. Or abandon the notion all together and leave the manuscript (or several) incomplete. Which is a shame and comes down to failing to recognize their position as an RFAS, which is where they need to be.
RFAS focus on outputs, and they are closely tied to their time-horizion. Finishing the first draft. Finishing the chapter. Writing the book blurb. Building their platform. Posting their daily word count. All things that need to be done, and all valuable outputs. It keeps them on task, offers a simple way to stay organized in a mostly linear fashion, and increases gratification each time they can check an item off their list. Outputs are necessary and good. You’re reading one right now.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about Author-first authors.
Previous post in this series: Preamble http://goo.gl/dZoZcQ
Creative commons photo from Flickr: http://flic.kr/p/9paFTo
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