Telling stories, selling books, finding readers

 

It’s self-evident, of course: The more you roam with a certain pack, the more of them you’ll see. So it is for me these days. Everywhere I look, I see story-tellers, writers, authors. They are not behind the barrier of celebrity and distance. They are right there on my screen, right here in my own community, available, accessible, welcoming.

Some of them write short posts on Facebook or Instagram, but many of them put their writing out into the world through more formal channels — blogs, online magazines or websites, and also in book form — actual books with covers and paper pages, published by a press or self-published, either way available for purchase.

But writing and publishing the story is one thing (two things, really), actively promoting it to find readers is another thing entirely. Google throws up 1.2 billion hits in response to a search for “books published but not promoted”, the top hits making clear it is nigh on impossible for your work to find readers if you don’t — or someone doesn’t — actively promote it. This, too, is self-evident, though knowing something doesn’t necessarily make it easier to do. Hardly a day goes by in any of the several online writing groups I have joined that a post doesn’t appear that goes something like this: “I’ve just finished my book. Now what? I’m not a marketer.” I at once love the pure innocence of the writer and wince at the ignorance of what putting a story out into the world actually entails these days.

In the past, a traditional publisher would hold the author’s hand through the process of writing and then also shepherd them through a promotional schedule designed to find readers through whom money would trickle (or gush) to all involved. Read Diana Athill’s delightful memoir, Stet, that recounts her days as editor at André Deutsch to experience that era vicariously. These days, I understand, even traditional publishers no longer guarantee to do this for their writers; these days, whether self-published or traditionally published, the author must bring their own promotional force with them to the process. It’s gruelling, self-doubt inducing, and imperative.

To get the word out means finding your way through the thousands of books being published and pushing yours to the top of the relevant readers’ minds. It’s hard to accurately pin down how many books are released annually around the world, as sources range from hundreds of thousands to one million. Those are big numbers, creating a huge pool for any writer to drown swim in. Within those big numbers, what rates as a “best seller” is a quagmire of genre and timing, and, I would suggest, the author’s own ambitions. If the New York Times best-seller list is unrealistic, maybe “anyone beyond my mother reading it” would satisfy a writer.

Regardless of the marker of success, certainly a marker of literary citizenship is word-of-mouth sharing of good books worth noting. Below, I share four that have come into my reading orbit via writers I know personally, whose work should find its way into the bigger world.

The Case for your Cause by Febe Voth: a non-fiction guide on how to weave stories to inspire giving. With decades of experience under her belt, Febe is an acknowledged expert in the field of fundraising. We met while taking our master’s degree in applied communication and became not only friends but colleagues in the business of writing and editing. Febe's book, which I edited, distills her expertise into a highly readable guide, indispensable for anyone involved in raising money for a good cause.  

The Clothes make the Man by Finnian Burnett: a novella about Arthur, born Amanda, whose quest is to live as himself and for the world to see him as he is. Beautifully written in flash-length pieces, this story broke my heart while giving me much to think about in relation to gender and identity, love and acceptance, and the simple wish to be seen by others as we see ourselves. I met Finnian in an online writing group, loved their award-winning flash-length writing, and asked for their opinion on a micro piece I had drafted. Finn’s generous response cemented them for me as a new pillar in my evolving writing community.

The King of Elkport by Sage Tyrtle: a quirky story about longing and belonging that has one foot in the analog world of 1987 and one in the digital 21st century, with a thread of hope bridging the two. The writing is crisp, the story imaginative, the central question compelling: If we could, would we change the past? I met Sage online via the low-cost writing workshops she organizes through The Crow Collective. The video promo trailer she created for The King of Elkport inspired me to buy her book; the video is outstanding and the book does not disappoint.

The Stygian Collection edited by Pamela Kat Johnson: a Kickstarter-funded collection of “tales from dark horror and murder mysteries to surreal poetry and philosophical musings”. To be released in June 2023, this will take me outside my usual reading experience, and I am looking forward to it because I know the quality of work produced by Pamela (whom I know from our days in the Manitoba Editors’ Association) and Holly Rhiannon (Pamela’s daughter, the creator and manager of this publishing project). This is the first of their new literary endeavours that include practicing “art for art's sake”; hats off to them for raising the funds needed to get these 24 writers’ work out into the world. 

NOTE: Today's post on Brevity blog is all about writers, authors and getting a book published. Luck comes into it; so does hard work and perseverance. And today's post on Jane Friedman's publishing industry blog is all about books and cover designs. 

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.