E is for Everybody
(Writing is) Berry Hard Work, by JD Hancock, courtesy of Flickr
I love self-publishing. Obviously. Sometimes I think we all need to take a moment to step back and truly appreciate what this amazing revolution in the publishing process and therefore the publishing industry has done for writers. I’ve been writing since I was ten, and part of me always knew that I wanted to make a living as a writer (I’m gonna be a writer when I grow up!), but when I stuck a toe into the interesting world of submitting my books traditionally, I did not think the water was fine.
From that very first, half-hearted effort, I did not like the way the submissions process for traditional publishing worked. It just rubbed me the wrong way. The hierarchy involved and the number of hoops a poor writer had to jump through to get a book published left me cold. So when I heard about this new and amazing self-publishing thing back in 2010, I knew it was for me.
And the rest is history, as they say. I’ve worked hard—VERY hard—written a lot of books, reinvested my money in better and better cover designers, editors, and now a publicist. I put a lot of heart into improving my craft and networking with fellow authors. And I definitely put my money back into my career, both in terms of marketing and traveling to book and industry events. I work. And then I work some more. As I recently said to someone who asked me to do something for them which would have taken up lots of time, I have to work in order to keep working.
Yes, E is for Everybody. Everybody can self-publish these days. And that’s wonderful and amazing! Everybody can be the author that they’ve always wanted to be. Everybody has access to the tools and the means of production. Everybody who has ever wanted to reach for that dream of being an author can do it now, whether they want to stick with the tried and true traditional publishing process or whether they, like me, feel so much more comfortable with the DIY approach. It is a blessed and wonderful thing that everybody can do this.
Except that not everybody can do this.
I started publishing almost four years ago. Like I said, I’ve worked very hard at it. I’ve spent a lot of money in the process. ($12,000 reinvested in my writing career last year alone—no joke) I’ve published 21 books, finished the first draft of #22 yesterday, and am working on various stages of outlining #23 through #27. I do this as a full-time job now, and I treat it as such.
Yeah, some of these reader/writer conventions I go to are really hard work! I mean, you run into cover models all over the place!
I mention that, because E is also for Entitlement.
I have a good friend who was involved in a bitter argument earlier this week. Fortunately, I’ve avoided being a part of this argument so far. As I understand it, there are self-published writers out there who believe they are entitled to sales, entitled to be a success, because they have written a book and put it out there. Evidently, these misguided souls believe that they are entitled to have readers disregard poor (or non-existent) editing and slap-dash covers. They lament that they can’t afford to market their book, and therefore it is the duty of their friends and family to purchase their book in order to give it a boost in the rankings. Also to give it glowing, 5-star reviews. If I’m relaying the argument my friend found herself in correctly, this segment of authors believes they are entitled to crowd support and a degree of success because they were brave enough to publish.
Well, I agree that these folks deserve a sincere round of applause for writing an entire book and then having the courage and boldness to publish that work for the world to see. Huzzah, guys! That’s a major milestone! But to assume that phase one of hard work should be supported, by right, without putting in phases 2 through 500 of the rest of the hard work of being an author? No, I can’t get behind that.
In life, not just in publishing, nobody is entitled to anything. Entitlement is one of the biggest problems in our culture right now. Sure, Everyone can publish a book, but Everyone is not *entitled* to be a success. Success is and always has been a result of painstakingly hard work (or astounding luck). Jumping the first hurdle of a long, long race is not winning the race. Even our Declaration of Independence says it—that we’re entitled to the *pursuit* of life, liberty, and happiness, not that we’re entitled to get it automatically.
And that’s fine. I actually feel like the greater part of the joy of this career is not in the successes I’ve had, but in the journey to reach for them. I love writing. I’d be writing books even if no one else ever read them. It’s just what I was meant to do. And I enjoy the chase of marketing and looking for more and better ways to make sales and gain life-long readers and fans. I don’t feel like I’m entitled to any of it, but I sincerely hope that it will come as the result of constant, consistent hard work.
And that’s how I feel about that.
