What’s next?

I’m officially out of touch with what’s happening in publishing. Oh sure, get a few drinks in me and I’ll loudly and righteously proclaim that I’ll keep track, watch the bestseller list, take note of who’s getting book deals, and then utterly fail to follow through on any of that. So aside from the two writing loops I’m on, and what falls into my lap, I’m a bit clueless.

But I think back to the beginning of 2013 and there was a sense of excitement. Self-publishing was giving authors a new chance to expand their readership, and make a living. We all heard of the authors who’d gone on to make good money getting their work out there on their terms and it had worked.

Except that still isn’t the norm. I heard from an author recently who is crushed. She released several books this year, books she’s proud of, and they landed with a big kathunk. Her sales are dismal, and she’s nowhere close to making a living with her writing. And she pointed to all the names that are so vocal in their appreciation of this new avenue of publishing, where they can write what they love, and make great money and everything is perfect.

Except that is still very much the exception, and the norm are still out there, struggling to make inroads into an increasingly crowded marketplace. The author was asking a question along the lines of ‘why not me as well?” Which is a hard question to answer. It still takes a great book, and timing and lightning striking to  break out of the pack and for a while a lot of us forgot that.

But lightning can’t strike if an author has nothing out there, so there still has to be effort and craft and now marketing and media savvy. It’s still possible, but it won’t happen for everybody, and yes, this is not a happy post. Maybe it’s just the news that has trickled to me, but some of my favourite authors, really, great writers, have seen great books sputter over the past two years, books that had great reviews and solid buzz.

I can’t really think of a breakout book this past year, and certainly nothing that caused a genre to see incredible sales boosts like Fifty Shades of Grey, or Hunger Games. I’d even say New Adult peaked in 2012.

So what’s next? I honestly have no predictions for 2014. Hopefully, great books find eager audiences. But I guess we’ll see.