A full-service literary agency that focuses on books for the Christian market.

What Does This Pandemic Mean for Writers?

//  12 Comments

This is the question I’m getting over and over again from my authors. COVID-19 has changed everything. How is this going to affect us? What’s going to happen to publishing?

The short answer is: Nobody knows. But there are a few truths we can point to.

First, people are going to continue to read. If you’re a writer, keep doing what you do, because we need you.

Second, publishing has already survived pandemics, recessions, the Great Depression, two world wars, the advent of television, the growth of the Internet, and the proliferation of ways to entertain ourselves. Publishing has changed with the times and will continue to do so. My best guess is that books will still be published and people will continue to read them.

In the short term, there may be fallout. Some independent bookstores, which have thankfully been doing well lately, might not survive. That would be a big loss. (You can help by supporting your local indie right now!)

Book sales are down. There will be trickle-down effects on everyone in the book business—bookstores, publishers, agents and authors. Things might be rough for a while. But recessions are always followed by recovery.

The worst thing we can do is give in to panic and fear. Be a discerning consumer of media. Recognize fear-mongering when you see it. The NY Times had a headline about publishing’s “newly ominous future.” See that for what it is: a scare tactic designed to get clicks.

Will things be tougher in publishing for the foreseeable future? I assume so. Is this the final death knell for books? Most definitely not.

Writers: keep writing! Keep working toward publishing. The nice thing is that you don’t have to rely on the major publishers in order to get your words in front of people—there are practically unlimited ways to do that nowadays.

As a writer, how are you coping today?

Reader Interactions

Comments

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. As an indie, I can track my book sales in real time. My books are always present in the “also boughts” at Amazon for the best-selling traditionally published books in my genre, so what I’m seeing for trends might hold true for traditional sales.

    I’ve seen a drop in paperback sales for February and March compared to December and January by about a factor of 5, but December is always high with Christmas shopping and January is the people spending their Christmas money, so I’d expect at least a drop of 2x in those time frames. For e-books, my sales for February and March are up about 50% compared to last year. Of course, I have released 2 more books (7 vs. 5 out) since the same time last year, and I have really good read-through from fans of earlier volumes and of people reading one and going back to get the others. Pricing at $2.99 to make the e-books affordable for my 15% or so international readers probably helps a lot for people who read one and then want the others.

    But these numbers don’t reflect the newly reduced income for people who have had their hours reduced or been laid off. That might yet bring a downturn, but being able to price e-books so inexpensively as an indie is probably a big help in letting people feel they can afford to buy. My paperbacks and hardcovers cost what trad books do. There are real costs for printing those that require that, except when Amazon decides to deep discount the hardcovers to paperback price and lower, which they do fairly often with the 50+% wholesale discount they get, like any other bookstore.

    Hope this info is helpful and encouraging!

    Reply

  2. This really doesn’t trouble me;
    what happens, yeah, will happen,
    and though the world’s in misery
    I will keep just a snappin’
    fingers to the mystic beat,
    mark time with tapping toes
    that simply won’t accept defeat,
    for this is how our story goes:
    there will be both war and rumour,
    talk of signs up in the sky;
    take with grain of salt and humour
    for the time is not yet nigh.
    Work in trust, and worry nowt,
    for when He comes, there’ll be no doubt.

    Reply

  5. My mentor, an author friend I greatly admire, recently told me that she’s being cautious in what she sees and hears. If she continues to put in only the negative, she’s choosing fear. But if she selects more of the positive and the soul-uplifting, she’s choosing faith. That was wisdom I really needed for the day–“… Honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prov. 16:24).

    Reply

  7. Rachelle, as always, I appreciate your perspective. Your ability to take a long-range view of things is encouraging, and it’s just what we need in order to not become overly worried in the “now” of this pandemic.

    Reply

  8. Thank you, Rachelle, for a realistic and Christian worldview. This is not the end of the world. It’s an inconvenience and will be transitory. Just like everything else in this world is transitory.

    My sainted grandmother had a saying for every occasion: “This, too, will change.” We do well to remember that only heaven and hell are eternal.

    Reply

  9. I’m journaling about the experience of living through this time. I don’t expect to get it published, but hope it will help future generations in my own family understand what will be for them a historical event.

    Reply