Sweet mother of mercy, my book is on sale today for $1.99 and this is a good opportunity to talk about art vs. commerce and how the way you feel about that intersection has bearing on your publishing path (a writing career thread)
No matter how long you spend writing a book, how much of your soul you pour into it, the amount of sweat and tears you shed, how deeply and fiercely you love the story and characters, at the end of the day it becomes a product to be sold. Like socks, griddle irons, wallpaper.
After the words are on the page and the book is produced, you're no longer wrestling with it as an artist. You have to step away from it as an author and approach it as businessperson. How to position it, market it, price it, distribute it, make it stand out in a crowded market.
Some people are able to do it pretty well. Others are not. I left a career as a corporate strategist to become a writer, so I find it intellectually easy to go back to that mindset...but emotionally, it's a lot more difficult.
If you're a new writer wondering whether to self-publish or pursue traditional publishing, I think one of the questions to ask yourself is: can you view your work with a cold-hearted, calculating commercial mindset? Because you'll need to do so, in order to run the business side.
Successful self-published authors I know are analytical about price points, covers, book length, series length etc. in order to sell books. Left to my own devices, I'm not sure I could happily price my book at $1.99. I remember 3 yrs of creative effort and think, "That's it?!"
Fortunately, I have a publisher behind me who doesn't have those hangups. Their job is to sell my book. There are commercial strategies for periodic ebook sales, for building up a series, etc. and I have to trust them w/ those decisions. I have emotional biases as the creator.
The author wants a cover w/ amazing art of their characters. The publisher makes a cover that signals genre and tone to the target reader and stands out on the shelf. The author wants to explain the whole book. The publisher writes cover copy that simplifies it to a catchy line.
Always, there is a productive tension b/w the book as art and the book as product. They are both. If you believe you can wear see perspectives equally well, AND act on them, that is a point in favor of you being able to indie publish.
Traditionally published authors still have to wear both these hats, but we do have a team behind us to make the decisions around pricing, packaging, positioning, and so on. Some see this is loss of control. For others, it's an emotional freedom.
Either way, part of becoming a pro author is holding both those realities in your mind. Your book must be slotted into a sub-genre, comped to others, given a cover, sold at a discount. But remember that you and your work still have your own intrinsic artistic worth.
My book is being heavily discounted to induce more readers to give it a chance in advance of the sequel coming out next year. I wince at the price tag but I know it's there for a reason. Like my writing threads? Throw me a tip. How about $1.99?
amazon.com/dp/B06XRCBRX8/…
amazon.com/dp/B06XRCBRX8/…
