If You Want to be a Successful Writer, the Person You Most Need to Please is…

You thought I was going to “yourself,” didn’t you? That’s actually not who I have in mind.

Nor is the person you most need to please as a writer “the critics,” or one particular critic. Or even your editor!

The person you most need to please is … your reader. Basically, your fans. The people who actually pay for your book?

I know. What a concept.

Critics are kinda sorta important, because they can help connect you with your readers. But in an era of ebooks and GoodReads and social media, critics aren’t NEARLY as important as they used to be. You used to need good (early) reviews to get into the chain stories (and even into the indies). And, of course, good reviews always help you with your editor, who uses them to bolster support for you at your publishing house. They make everyone feel good.

But good reviews don’t necessarily lead to sales (and they never really did). I just finished what may be the worst book I’ve read all year, and I turned to Publishers Weekly, because I was curious to see how it was reviewed.

To my shock (and annoyance), they raved and gave it a starred review. But it didn’t surprise me at all to see the reader ratings on GoodReads and Amazon are quite low, and the book doesn’t seem to be selling (despite a very commercial topic).

Increasingly, I think readers want to make up their own minds. At the very least, they listen most to referrals from people they know and trust, not reviews. (I know that’s what I do.)

But your readers? Your fans? If they don’t like your book, you are DOOMED. It doesn’t matter what the critics think. Most people aren’t even aware of those reviews anyway.

I’ve listened to all the arguments about whether the publishing industry is better or worse now than it was five or ten or twenty years ago.

But in this respect? The fact that readers have access to many, many, MANY more books now, and much more say is how those books are generally received?

I think this is a thousand times better than the way things use to be. After all, the way I see it, the point of “books” isn’t so some faceless reviewer or contest committee can decide for the rest of us which books are “good” and which aren’t. The point is literally for all of us to decide for ourselves.

But getting back to the bigger question: if you want to be a successful writer, how do you do it? Under any business model — either traditional publishing or self-publishing — the way you get to keep writing is by selling books. And the best way to sell books is to please the people who buy them.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But in the insane world of publishing, it’s very easy to forget.

P.S. For the record, I’m all for pleasing yourself with your books too. But honestly, I’ve found that what I like about my books is generally the same thing that my readers and fans seem to want and like. So I’m all good.

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