Tomorrow, I’m going to be talking about writing, my experience of the publishing industry, and why us writers are better off ‘going it alone’. You may or may not be aware, but a brave new world is upon us. My advice, from one writer to another . . . GET IT OUT THERE. And take ownership.
I spent two extremely frustrating years going down the conventional publishing route . . . and I had a really good book, and I had a really good agent, and I had the likes of Random House and all the others sniffing around.
In a nutshell, if you’re writing crime, recreate Inspector Morse. If you’re writing chic lit, re-imagine Bridget Jones. You get it? That’s what they want. And nothing else.
Can they flog it in the bookshop at the airport?
But for us that love writing, and for us who love reading, everything has changed.
Did you know that Virginia Woolf set up her own publishing company to get her books out there?
More tomorrow . . .
The publishing game has changed, while perhaps it’s never really changed. I’m excited for tomorrow’s follow-up to this post!
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Thanks Darius, I’m looking forward to writing it later. I think for a long time there was a sort of gatekeeper system in operation – the whole book industry controlled by a selection of publishers and agents. Thankfully, this is changing and us writers can take back control.
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