Blogger: Michelle Ule
What Writers Can Learn from Kodak
Part 1 of 2
Rachelle Gardner started her blogging with Books & Such Literary Agency with a bang this week. Owing to technical difficulties, some of you may have missed her important and intriguing posts about the need for change as she surveyed the publishing business through Kodak’s recent failure. If you haven’t read her posts, please, scroll down to take a look.
I’m going to spend the next two days talking about practical steps a writer can take in the light of Rachelle’s ideas and questions. Today I’ll be looking at ways writers can gain a broader understanding of the publishing business, in an effort to stay on top of an ever-changing landscape.
1. Recognize writing for publication is a small business, and apply business thinking to your work.
Unfortunately, it’s not about simply sitting at your computer and writing a story. The manuscript may be your product, but there’s more to publishing than just producing beautiful words. You’re trying to sell your story. To do that, you need to be a student of the writing business.
My father owned a small business. I grew up hearing about marketing plans, customer service and late payments. You probably know a business person and might pick his or her brain about the problems and concerns and about where that person sees the economy headed–and why.
After listening, look at your own writing business. Do you see commonalities? Areas where the business owner offered insights? Places you could change in your own writing business?
2. Learn all you can about the publishing business.
Blogs like ours are all over the Internet, but some are more insightful on the business of publishing than others. Former Thomas Nelson chairman Michael Hyatt writes daily about writing, publishing, business and productivity.
Michael Shatzkin’s The Shatzkin Files provides information about the evolving nature of publishing, particularly ebook publishing, from the perspective of fifty years in the book-selling business.
Media professor Jane Friedman also has good insight into publishing and the changing media landscape.
Writer’s conferences also can provide you with information about the ins and outs of the publishing business–from basics like how to submit your work, to more advanced information like the Career Writer’s Track at the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference.
3. Keep tabs on the changing business landscape.
You don’t need to own a Kindle, but you should know what it is and how it affects the publishing business. (Although there’s nothing like using technology to make you aware of how it could change publishing’s landscape.) Pay attention to why Borders went out of business and the pressures on independent booksellers.
Understand the role writers need to play in the marketing realm and where your unique selling points can help to promote your book. Know who owns the publishing house to which you’re aiming your work–are they fiscally solvent?
Notice what happens to popular writers, and the things they do that end up in the news. Why did J. K. Rowling sue a publishing house? Is Salman Rushdie still under a fatwa? Why did Barry Eisler turn down a $500,000 advance?
4. Don’t stress over what you can’t control
You just need to be informed; you don’t have to be an expert. Set aside a certain amount of time each week to scan headlines, read through blogs and let it go.
You don’t need to know how to put together all the different ebook formats, you just need to know they exist. If Twitter appeals to you, experiment. If you need a website, hire someone to put one together. You need to focus on what you do best–create–and let the marketplace or professionals help you with the rest.
What are you doing to be proactively business-like in your writing career?
Where do you find helpful information?
What have you learned from the problems of “big name” writers that are applicable to your writing life?
Fabulous post, Michelle. I could spend all day doing research like this. It would definitely make me a more business savvy writer. I was surprised how many articles the WSJ dedicates to books and the industry. I read them and often blog about them. In addition to following this blog, I also follow Michael Hyatt’s, and belong to several writer’s groups. I attend at least two conferences a year. All this helps me stay in touch with the industry, but I still feel there is more I could do if only I had more time.
One thing that sticks out for me as a learning point is the scandals that have resulted from authors embellishing stories or outright fabricating parts that are supposed to be true. James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces and Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea come to mind. We have a moral responsibility to our readers that shouldn’t be taken lightly. With the popularity of memoirs, we need to be careful not to take the route of television and sacrifice common sense for the sake of a good story.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
Excellent reminder of the Wall Street Journal, Cheryl. My husband regularly forwards me the articles he sees that are pertinent to the publishing business.
Your comments about Frey and Mortenson are pertinent because I don’t think either man was a journalist (I know Mortenson was not) before they wrote their memoirs. A good editor should have challenged them on all the controversial points, but in an age where people can blog anything they want without an editor, we will increasingly encounter situations like this.
The temptation to embellish a story in a time of Photoshop and non-accountability is huge and as honest writers, we should continually be asking ourselves, not “is this a good story,” but “is this true?”
(I struggled with this myself while writing my unpublished memoir, Loving God without a Label. You get so used to crafting fiction, it takes great discipline to write straight and honestly. Another story for another day . . . )
I’m admittedly not a great business mind, which is why I’m so thankful many who are are so willing to share their insights. I have a small side-business as a photographer, and the lessons I’ve learned the past 3 years in the business-side of things transfer over to writing as well: schedules, charts, a filing system, are all logistic tools that help me keep the business in order so that the creative side of things can flourish. Paying attention to what each client desires, the vision they have for their photos, the reasons for their hiring a photographer, their personalities– constantly guaging who my client actually is– this is the challenge I so love in the creative side. Writing is much the same! As Rachelle has pointed out, we are in the storytelling business. As such, we need to be acutely aware of who our audience is and, as you mentioned, perceptive of how they wish those stories to be delivered.
Thanks for the continued insight into all of this!
I’m impressed, Amanda, that you’ve been able to translate what you’ve learned about business into your own life. Has it made a positive difference? Or perhaps it is allowing you to tell if you’re actually making money or not–which is something I failed to mention in the original post.
Most of us write for a variety of reasons but is it a good use of our time if there is no payback? Or, what sort of payback are we either looking for are we receiving? How do you quantify the richness of writer friends, spiritual insights, travel opportunities and great conversations against the need to feed your children?
(Another question for another day)
In business, you often have to make difficult decisions based on “greater” needs than the present. For example, I’m passing up a writer’s conference this year so I can pay for a research trip–but, I’m still wondering if that’s a good idea or if I can pull off both. By examining my writing life as a business, rather than an avocation, can help me make that call more effectively.
Your point about identifying your reader is crucial to–how can we/do we adapt for our reader’s needs. That question will be addressed in part tomorrow.
Thanks for commenting!
Terrific post, Michelle. Love the way you’ve extended what we were talking about earlier this week to apply it directly to writers. Good stuff!
Michelle, thanks for the considerate encouragement! Whew, I am forever learning, and I’m pretty sure that will always be the case. To answer your questions…
“Has it made a positive difference?”
Yes and no. Yes in that streamlining and organizing my haphazard brainstorms and scraps of papers and thoughts tucked deep in the recesses of my mind has helped me to work through those ideas, provided easy and effective access to them when my too-feeble memory fails, and provides structure for creativity to grow. No in that I’ve sometimes found myself overly distracted by the business side of things and have had to be brought back to the heart-reason(s) that I began writing in the first place. Striking a balance… it’s a tricky thing, isn’t it?
“Or perhaps it is allowing you to tell if you’re actually making money or not…”
Yes, regarding photography anyhow, charts abound that help me keep track of mileage, hours put in, expenses, and profit. It’s a very small business, but I have fun and am blessed by working with people in this way. As for writing, well, any talk of income is all yet future in my case right now. 🙂
Thanks again for a thought-provoking discussion!
Amanda, You said you mastered “streamlining and organizing my haphazard brainstorms and scraps of papers and thoughts tucked deep in the recesses of my mind has helped me to work through those ideas, provided easy and effective access to them.”
Wow! I am impressed. I constantly add to my accumulation of newspaper and magazine clippings. Then there are the clipped-together scraps of paper, napkins, the backs of receipts, etc., all adorned with ball-pen scribblings of “brilliant” ideas, sentences, titles, etc.
To non-writers this looks like trash–and I understand why that’s true. To me it feels like treasure. I’ve mined it many times and come up with the start of a chapter or a blog post.
No one else could organize this but me, but so far I find that elusive. If you’ve found a way to handle this sort of stuff, please pass on your how-tos.