The Perils of Publishing For Young Authors
If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will if you are in any way close to the online publishing world. A young author, Audra Winters, is being excoriated from one end of the internet street to the other for releasing a book without first having properly learned the craft of writing. I think what has made it so bad for her is that she is a whiz at marketing. So when it came to creating hype and excitement about her book she knew exactly what to do.
The problem is that for nearly all writers, their first few novels are unpublishable. They are bad books and there’s a reason for that - you must learn how to write and you don’t learn how to write well until you are through writing badly. That means lots of practice, usually many years of it, before you become proficient at it. This is true for any craft, art or discipline, any type of work that one wants to become good at. It takes lots of practice. It also means you must read and take in other stories and not just your own in the process of writing and finding inspiration. That was another problem with her. She was more concerned with her own world, art work and just about every other thing except her actual writing of the story. I don’t judge for it. When I was in elementary school I worked on a huge novel called Baby Adventures. I worked on this fantasy world of mine for years. But it was a childish project fit for a child. Not publication when I turned twenty. Advice for this author, adding more art work and creating a complex world are all great but you have nothing if you are trying to publish a book and the story isn’t readable. Many readers are asking for refunds. This is embarrassing I’m sure for her and a lesson for other young writers watching this unfold.
I have no wish to pile on the girl, only to note a warning to new authors and writers about the dangers of self publishing. Indie writers often extol the advantages of walking this path and I am no exception. When I started self publishing during the gold rush, back in 2011, I published a short story that got me excoriated all over Amazon. I learned quickly what to publish and what not to publish. But I had been writing for decades at that point so I had enough crafting skills to write a decent story. But, I still had much to learn about tropes and genre. What I learned from the short story affair was not that I couldn’t write, but that, that short story didn’t follow the tropes of horror. Normally, I don’t give in to such demands if I really believe in a particular story, but my heart wasn’t in horror and my writing, when it came to horror wasn’t going to satisfy horror readers. I had also written that story when I was a teenager. For a precocious teen it was decent. For an experienced writer, it wasn’t that good. I learned my lesson without too much damage having been done to my career.
The wonders of self publishing today is that there are no gatekeepers to prevent you from publishing your book and getting it out to readers. The problems with self publishing today is the same exact thing!
For young writers out there, don’t become discouraged by this tea cup controversy and hide way your work. Simply keep writing and working on your craft. A writer is a craftsman. Craftsmen must work diligently and for years before they are any good to sell to clients or work for money. Read good books (bad ones too for something can be learned from all stories) watch good films and shows (and bad ones too!) Keep working on your craft as if you were a guild member or a journeyman working under a master. The master? Your favorite writers that came before you. Study how your favorite writers write the books that you love to read and become inspired by that. Don’t hide away or become afraid over social media flaps. They come and they go. Do learn from them, though. Learn from the wisdom of writers who have been out there with success for years. They know a lot. You don’t have to take everything they say as gospel truth but there is always something to learn. Most of all, if you do seem to fail at a launch you can re-launch. Remember the idea of the magic bakery. Don’t know what that is? Go find out from Dean Wesley Smith.
Today, book publishing is in your hands and under your control. respect the craft and learn it first before the marketing, and in time you will do fine. And don’t ever be in a rush to publish!
Happy writing!
