Something I've really noticed in recent years is how, when friends become published authors, their online persona changes markedly because (I can only assume) their publishers are forcing them to promote, promote, promote, promote, promote.
Just today, I glimpsed a headline which implied that one of the things behind the Unbound liquidation clusterfuck was that the company had invested £1 million in software that would prophesy how good prospective authors might be at attracting supporters to crowdfund their books. Strikes me that a big part of "what it's really like to be a writer" these days is that it's really like being a marketer. Part of me just wants to shrug and go "pfft! Late-stage Capitalism", but... jeez, how depressing.
(Most of my own self-created job nowadays also seems to be marketing, which is equally depressing, though at least I've the option of blaming myself).
I think it's been going on a while. When I got my last 4 book deal in 2015, one of the first questions was about my social media presence.
And I have tried sooo hard, on almost every single social media platform out there, including having two of everything initially, ones for Sanjida Kay (thriller writer) and ones for Sanjida O'Connell (literary fiction and non-fiction).
I concluded that social media - especially now that everyone has a platform, pretty much - doesn't sell books. Plus it's bad for your mental health.
I think it works if you're already a bestselling author or musician and / or have had serious money and marketing put into your 'brand' by a publisher. What's worse now, for many authors, is having to be a sales person too and, as you say, getting into hybrid, self-publishing, crowdfunding or straight up vanity publishing.
By about 2018 I looked around and saw that most of my peers who seemed to be doing well were supported by a silent partner actually earning the income to pay the mortgage. It feels very Victorian - the inherently wealthy and privileged can afford to be writers.
Social media certainly does sell books (it's how I get almost all of my sales) but it's an art, and expecting every author to be a jack-of-all-trades who can, or should even want to, master that art is just wrong. Many authors approach to social media seems to be to repost anything which mentions them, which tends to come across as a stream of "oh look, here's a person who bought my book", "here's another person who bought my book", "and another person who bought my book" which, I'm sure you can see, tires very quickly and could even be counterproductive.
(Watching Tom Cox's social media in recent months has been fascinating, as he tries to claw something back from his screwing-over by Unbound, and has managed to sell well over 5,000 of his books through social media alone)
But, yeah, it's also damaging to mental health. This is a big problem for me at the moment: without social media, I would not have a publishing company. With it, I can sell books, but fall repeatedly into patterns of addictive use which have me staring at a blue screen all night and then on into a hypomanic episode. Ho hum.
As for support by silent partners: god yes. Another symptom of the Financialisation Of Everything which also means that all the musicians and actors we hear of nowadays seem to come from private schools and have wealthy parents.
That's great you are selling books, Dan! I should have been more specific - social media doesn't usually sell books if you are a writer (not a publisher, publishers are pretty good at this and have a dedicated budget and staff - in your case, you!), you don't have a big platform (Tom Cox has a large platform) and you don't want to / can't afford to spend huge amounts of time on social media.
Agreed that writers are not the best at self-promotion though! Perhaps you could do a masterclass or article on how writers should publicise themselves with all your hard-won knowledge for Wild Writing and Mycoleum Mind readers?! I'd love that and I'm sure our readers would too.
I'm really flattered that you'd ask me to do a masterclass/article, but I don't know that I can offer much helpful advice – although I'm having some success with selling, it's in nothing like the numbers I need, and social media has changed a lot in recent years: I'm no longer as good as it as I'd like to be.
In the mid-90s, there was a fantastic website (which later became a book) called "The Cluetrain Manifesto". It was about the fact that companies, even though they are made up of humans, talk to us with very inhuman voices. It proposed breaking down the "firewall" and allowing people within companies to talk to people outside those companies using their natural, open, honest, human voices.
Then social media came along, and for a short while it levelled the playing field and did exactly that. Everyone – both individuals and companies – was judged on the humanity of their online voice. For people who write in an open, conversational style, this was a fantastic opportunity. I thrived, first on MySpace, then Twitter and Facebook, because I've always found it easier to type to people than I have talking to them. I went from having very few friends, particularly in Sheffield (a city I had lived in for almost a decade), to regularly being described as "the best connected person in Sheffield".
In the last decade, that's all changed. Social media conversation has become poisoned and balkanised; people are afraid of revealing too much of themselves for fear of being cancelled; and the default mode seems to be to go looking for arguments rather than for conversations (apart from here on Substack, where something of the old ways still survive). I still have a fair few connections, which helps me with sales, but they're slowly falling away.
It's interesting that you say that "Tom Cox has a large platform". When I first became aware of Tom, around 15 years ago, I don't think he was well know as a writer, and it was not due to his published writing that I started following him: it was because he was open and honest and conversational and human. The argument that he has a large platform is a circular one: he built his following, I'm almost certain, through being good at social media.
So if I were asked for my advice, it would simply be: be human. Unfortunately, I'm no longer sure that it's enough. (Plus it doesn't half demand a lot of time!)
This resonates so strongly with me, Sanjida! (Especially as I too am a friend of the lovely Sophia and remember her telling me about her quirky new idea — which turned into the phenomenal The Queen Investigates series. I’ve had a steady career with ups and downs— the ups in terms of awards not sales — and like many writers I thought everything would change when I got a deal with a Big 5. It didn’t for exactly the reasons you outline here: “disappointing” sales. Most readers loved the book — but there weren’t enough of them. I’m self publishing the sequel and that will be a new adventure. It’s so true that we can’t measure our worth as writers by our sales. Thanks for this very honest and illuminating post.
Thank you Sheena. It feels frustrating doesn't it, especially as you think you've made it, being published and then by one of the Big 5! Brilliant that Sophia continues to do so well with her The Queen Investigates series. I had a sneak preview, but not as early as yours!
I would love to know more about your self-publishing journey. And if that's a way to make a living!
At the moment I am very much at the start of the SP journey and I’ve chosen to do it quite expensively by hiring freelance editor and designer at the top of their game — actually people I’ve worked with through trad publishing. My biggest hope for the book is that there’s nothing about its quality that’s any “less” than my trad published books. I don’t expect to do more than recoup some of my outlay! But the plan was always just to get the book out there. Whether this is the end of the SP journey remains to be seen… Your blog is wonderful by the way!
All the very best with it, Sheena! And thank you. Let me know if you'd like to do an article or a masterclass for Writerly Musings and for Wild Writing on your SP journey!
Yes and Yes! "Everyone and everything has to align to make a book a success", resonated with me, but why do I still beat myself up over my only full-length published novel?
Thank you Sally. Your story resonated with me, as you can see. It's irrational to think it's our fault - but we still do - and sometimes publishers think it's our fault too. We just have to enjoy the process!
Something I've really noticed in recent years is how, when friends become published authors, their online persona changes markedly because (I can only assume) their publishers are forcing them to promote, promote, promote, promote, promote.
Just today, I glimpsed a headline which implied that one of the things behind the Unbound liquidation clusterfuck was that the company had invested £1 million in software that would prophesy how good prospective authors might be at attracting supporters to crowdfund their books. Strikes me that a big part of "what it's really like to be a writer" these days is that it's really like being a marketer. Part of me just wants to shrug and go "pfft! Late-stage Capitalism", but... jeez, how depressing.
(Most of my own self-created job nowadays also seems to be marketing, which is equally depressing, though at least I've the option of blaming myself).
I think it's been going on a while. When I got my last 4 book deal in 2015, one of the first questions was about my social media presence.
And I have tried sooo hard, on almost every single social media platform out there, including having two of everything initially, ones for Sanjida Kay (thriller writer) and ones for Sanjida O'Connell (literary fiction and non-fiction).
I concluded that social media - especially now that everyone has a platform, pretty much - doesn't sell books. Plus it's bad for your mental health.
I think it works if you're already a bestselling author or musician and / or have had serious money and marketing put into your 'brand' by a publisher. What's worse now, for many authors, is having to be a sales person too and, as you say, getting into hybrid, self-publishing, crowdfunding or straight up vanity publishing.
By about 2018 I looked around and saw that most of my peers who seemed to be doing well were supported by a silent partner actually earning the income to pay the mortgage. It feels very Victorian - the inherently wealthy and privileged can afford to be writers.
Social media certainly does sell books (it's how I get almost all of my sales) but it's an art, and expecting every author to be a jack-of-all-trades who can, or should even want to, master that art is just wrong. Many authors approach to social media seems to be to repost anything which mentions them, which tends to come across as a stream of "oh look, here's a person who bought my book", "here's another person who bought my book", "and another person who bought my book" which, I'm sure you can see, tires very quickly and could even be counterproductive.
(Watching Tom Cox's social media in recent months has been fascinating, as he tries to claw something back from his screwing-over by Unbound, and has managed to sell well over 5,000 of his books through social media alone)
But, yeah, it's also damaging to mental health. This is a big problem for me at the moment: without social media, I would not have a publishing company. With it, I can sell books, but fall repeatedly into patterns of addictive use which have me staring at a blue screen all night and then on into a hypomanic episode. Ho hum.
As for support by silent partners: god yes. Another symptom of the Financialisation Of Everything which also means that all the musicians and actors we hear of nowadays seem to come from private schools and have wealthy parents.
That's great you are selling books, Dan! I should have been more specific - social media doesn't usually sell books if you are a writer (not a publisher, publishers are pretty good at this and have a dedicated budget and staff - in your case, you!), you don't have a big platform (Tom Cox has a large platform) and you don't want to / can't afford to spend huge amounts of time on social media.
Agreed that writers are not the best at self-promotion though! Perhaps you could do a masterclass or article on how writers should publicise themselves with all your hard-won knowledge for Wild Writing and Mycoleum Mind readers?! I'd love that and I'm sure our readers would too.
I'm really flattered that you'd ask me to do a masterclass/article, but I don't know that I can offer much helpful advice – although I'm having some success with selling, it's in nothing like the numbers I need, and social media has changed a lot in recent years: I'm no longer as good as it as I'd like to be.
In the mid-90s, there was a fantastic website (which later became a book) called "The Cluetrain Manifesto". It was about the fact that companies, even though they are made up of humans, talk to us with very inhuman voices. It proposed breaking down the "firewall" and allowing people within companies to talk to people outside those companies using their natural, open, honest, human voices.
Then social media came along, and for a short while it levelled the playing field and did exactly that. Everyone – both individuals and companies – was judged on the humanity of their online voice. For people who write in an open, conversational style, this was a fantastic opportunity. I thrived, first on MySpace, then Twitter and Facebook, because I've always found it easier to type to people than I have talking to them. I went from having very few friends, particularly in Sheffield (a city I had lived in for almost a decade), to regularly being described as "the best connected person in Sheffield".
In the last decade, that's all changed. Social media conversation has become poisoned and balkanised; people are afraid of revealing too much of themselves for fear of being cancelled; and the default mode seems to be to go looking for arguments rather than for conversations (apart from here on Substack, where something of the old ways still survive). I still have a fair few connections, which helps me with sales, but they're slowly falling away.
It's interesting that you say that "Tom Cox has a large platform". When I first became aware of Tom, around 15 years ago, I don't think he was well know as a writer, and it was not due to his published writing that I started following him: it was because he was open and honest and conversational and human. The argument that he has a large platform is a circular one: he built his following, I'm almost certain, through being good at social media.
So if I were asked for my advice, it would simply be: be human. Unfortunately, I'm no longer sure that it's enough. (Plus it doesn't half demand a lot of time!)
So true, Dan. Be human. And be prepared to put the time in if you want to succeed on social media…
This resonates so strongly with me, Sanjida! (Especially as I too am a friend of the lovely Sophia and remember her telling me about her quirky new idea — which turned into the phenomenal The Queen Investigates series. I’ve had a steady career with ups and downs— the ups in terms of awards not sales — and like many writers I thought everything would change when I got a deal with a Big 5. It didn’t for exactly the reasons you outline here: “disappointing” sales. Most readers loved the book — but there weren’t enough of them. I’m self publishing the sequel and that will be a new adventure. It’s so true that we can’t measure our worth as writers by our sales. Thanks for this very honest and illuminating post.
Thank you Sheena. It feels frustrating doesn't it, especially as you think you've made it, being published and then by one of the Big 5! Brilliant that Sophia continues to do so well with her The Queen Investigates series. I had a sneak preview, but not as early as yours!
I would love to know more about your self-publishing journey. And if that's a way to make a living!
At the moment I am very much at the start of the SP journey and I’ve chosen to do it quite expensively by hiring freelance editor and designer at the top of their game — actually people I’ve worked with through trad publishing. My biggest hope for the book is that there’s nothing about its quality that’s any “less” than my trad published books. I don’t expect to do more than recoup some of my outlay! But the plan was always just to get the book out there. Whether this is the end of the SP journey remains to be seen… Your blog is wonderful by the way!
All the very best with it, Sheena! And thank you. Let me know if you'd like to do an article or a masterclass for Writerly Musings and for Wild Writing on your SP journey!
I’d love to!! Thanks so much for asking.
Congratulations on the new story in the Comma Press anthology Sanjida!
Thank you Ken!
Yes and Yes! "Everyone and everything has to align to make a book a success", resonated with me, but why do I still beat myself up over my only full-length published novel?
Thank you Sally. Your story resonated with me, as you can see. It's irrational to think it's our fault - but we still do - and sometimes publishers think it's our fault too. We just have to enjoy the process!