At the workshop “Think like a publisher” I’ve jotted down a few interesting points that I will put here for your consideration (feel free to totally ignore me, I’m not your teacher, I’m only sharing my experience, OK?).
We’re close to meritocracy in publishing. Good writing will slowly but steadily come up.
The more titles you have out, the easier it is that luck strikes.
There’s 1trillion websites – still you find the stuff that interest you. Same will be with good books – they will find their audience. Search engines help people to find what they’re looking for. Don’t worry about the volume of stuff out there, you’ll find your audience. You have 10-20 years to find them, just keep writing. It’s a great time for prolific writers!
The most important thing now is freedom. You can write what you want, whatever length you want, whatever mash-up of genres you want. Trust your readers, let them be the judges.
Start building your true fans one at the time. And then feed them.
You’re the writer and the publisher, it’s your career, you can make your own decisions knowingly. Readers’ validation is the best reward.
Now, to the eggs (books) and the basket(s) – a.k.a. distribution.
Publishers and distributors fail continuously – caution and differentiate distribution.
You can set up your own bookstore on Kobo or Sony, or set up your bookstore on your website and link to them.
Sell direct from the website with paypal – after you have some books out and your true fans start looking for you. Build the inventory first, though.
Which goes very well with Stephen’s new comment on Amazon and KDP flaws (to which you can add Kris Rusch’s take on the matter and self-publishing and other really interesting stuff as usual) AND David Gaughran’s article on Kobo and the Japanese. Not saying Amazon is going down next year, or Smashwords, but they might not be big players forever. So try to get into as many outlets as you can.
I still have to do the publisher’s web page with its own ebookstore (probably next year, when the catalog is bigger, LOL), but I’m trying to get into as many e-distributors as I can. Although I haven’t figured out how to upload to Apple – even if I wanted to go through Apple Italia, for example. Or if I’m allowed to open my own web-store on Kobo or Sony (if they’re like B&N, then it’s no, as I’m not American).
It’s all brand new and changing fast – because, hey, that’s the nature of the beast, or the World Wide Web! 😉 What’s good today might be old news tomorrow, what’s big today might be obsolete next year etc. Technology… love it or hate it, but we have to deal with it, right?
Now, on a totally unrelated (well, not really…) topic – I’m being interviewed! 😀 Check my answers on ChickLitGurrl and find out some previously untold (because nobody asked, LOL) stuff about me and Silvery Earth!
Barbara G.Tarn - writer 
Madison Woods
/ 16/11/2011I’ve wondered about the eggs in one basket deal. There’s a publisher who likes my work and I suspect I could get more work published there (short stories) but wonder about the wisdom of marketing to only one publisher when there are a lot of others out there I could try.
Will go check out your interview 🙂
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Barb
/ 16/11/2011Well, Dean also teaches how to submit to editors in NY and how to do multiple submissions… If you have more than one story, why not try other venues as well? If that little publisher folds, you can always self-publish, but still… put your eggs in more than one basket so if one breaks you still have the others! 😉
Happy writing!
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