Crisis. Oh, we writers and how we know that word sooo well. I know many of you have been following this blog for quite a few years and THANK YOU. Lord knows we have navigated a crisis…or fifty. In fact, I took a break from blogging this summer to deal with family crises because kids grow up, parents age and entropy is REAL and happily destroying my clean kitchen as I type this.
What I want to address today is I GET IT. There is a lot coming down the pipeline that can feel very overwhelming. Every breakthrough, sadly, comes tethered to a crisis. It is all a matter of perspective.
The automobile was an incredible invention…unless you happened to be the dude who’d finally inherited his family’s horse buggy empire. Automated manufacturing raised the overall quality of life for millions of people while simultaneously rendering many artisans unemployed relics.
Thing is, we can’t have the sweet without the bitter. That is something that never has changed and never will.
Publishing is highly unique in that is managed to remain relatively unchanged for a really, really long time. These days? An industry that hadn’t changed since the Great Runaway Fish Wagon of 1896 now changes more than a bipolar contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
What is a writer to do?
The Mid-Write Crisis
Right now, I know a lot of authors feel ground down and worn out. I know, I have been feeling it. Widgets and whats-its and apps and audio and video and podcasts and now AI? ROBOTS are now writing frigging books?
AHHHH!
But then I sat down, put away the vodka and cookie dough, and thought this through.
This is nothing new. Writers have always been in a push and pull with market forces, distribution, and the whims of readers. Pulp fiction was a massively popular way to make a living writing until WWII and paper rationing.
DOH!
Then, to overcompensate for the curtailed paper supply, publishers started condensing all the paper into novels long enough to bludgeon the entire Clan of the Cave Bear. I know I am dating myself here, but remember going to a bookstore and deliberately buying a book thick enough to use as a weapon so your dollar stretched as far as possible?
So, the super thick books became all the rage. This was where we saw an explosion in richly verbose books from authors like Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park), Stephen King (It), James Clavell (Shogun), Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove). Then, over time, oil prices shifted the market again and the bookstores’ shelving practices evolved. Agents decided that books suddenly didn’t need to be any longer than 90K words.
Was it because readers stopped loving epically long books?
Granted, that was what publishers told us. But the truth was that book vendors could fit a heck of a lot more more copies on a shelf if they limited the word count.
Then, when big box stores took over, most mid-list writers who’d made an impressive living with their super long series, suddenly found they were in a crisis. Big Box stores only wanted to stock the most recent book in print. Instead of making money off 70+ titles, in an instant, these superstars were back to wishing on a star that the ONE book might hit big.
Welcome to the Publishing Hunger Games
I wanna be in District 12. They know how to use Book-Tok!
Kidding aside, what IS new about this profession? Truly. Delivery. That is it.
Earlier I joked about how the invention of the automobile was bad news for the buggy manufacturer, but what did they have in common? Transportation. Whether on foot, on horse, by carriage, or by EV, the common denominator is moving people and things from Point A to Point B. That’s it.
Simple.
Now what about writing? We are storytellers! Humans are a story people, meaning technically we will never be out of a job. That said, while we will never be out of a job, this doesn’t mean we get a pass to do our job the exact same way forever and ever and ever.
I used to pick on writers about the blog. We writers create entire universes that never existed, exotic, alien lands, create new languages but the minute anyone told us we had to blog? We blogged about writing…because we were writers.
***Pro Tip: Readers don’t care about the craft of writing unless we authors screw it up.
Sometimes we can get in our own way. We fail to use that wonderful creativity that helps us shape unforgettable stories and apply it liberally other areas of the profession.
It can be a lot.
We are responsible for so many more aspects of our career—web design, covers, formatting, reviews, social media, branding, audio, blackmailing, puppet shows and flea circuses—but that actually means we are also in a lot more CONTROL over our destiny.
Writers exercise more agency than ever in publishing history.
With Great Power Crisis Comes Great Responsibility
Ultimately, I would LOVE to offer you a Publishing Snuggy but this industry is never going to be One Size Fits All. Trust me, I have been exploring a lot of new ways of doing things over the summer, and it looked a bit like this….
For brevity’s sake, we aren’t going to deep dive this too much today. Before we meet again, however, here are some things I’d like you to ponder.
What KIND of author do I want to be? There is no bad answer, but a pulp writer is vastly different from a James-Clavell-Asian-EPIC-SAGA-author.
Am I good at long-form or short-form writing or both?
How are my technical skills? Does technology scare me, and if so, can I overcome that fear to deliver content in new and refreshing ways? If I am not tech savvy, do I know anyone who IS? Can I upgrade my Model-T to a Space X rocket? Or something in between?
Dream up new stories, yes, but also dream new ways to connect future readers TO your stories.
How are my marketing skills? Do I understand SEO? Is marketing/advertising one of my strong suits? If you’re a marketing SEO ninja by day? Use it! If not? Not a game-stopper. We just need to work around it.
Where am I mentally/emotionally at this stage in my life?
What operational pace can I reasonably expect out of myself? Twelve years ago, I had no trouble churning out 5K words a day, while editing, doing hot yoga, Jiu Jitsu, and rescuing kittens. But, I was also younger. I wasn’t homeschooling a gifted 10th grader while helping my aging mother.
This is a career that will have peaks and troughs of what we are physically, emotionally and mentally capable of doing. Remember, the goal is the long haul. We are in a marathon, not a sprint.
What is my WHY?
Yes, we can talk about how to handle the latest publishing crisis, but that will pass. Then there will be another crisis, and another crisis, and y’all get the point. We have to find a WHY that is robust enough to keep us going through good times and bad. We’ll get cooking and booking until we hit that NEW mid-write crisis that we’ll need to push through.
And, the most important question of all….
Am I Boring? No More Literary Meatloaf!
Believe it or not, audiences are in crisis, too. I have over 520 audio books in my library and yet still have credits sitting there unused. Despite my vast inventory, I listen to my favorite 20-30 books over and over because—to be blunt—there’s just so much BLEH on the market. I also canceled Netflix and almost never go to the movies for largely the same reasons.
It’s already annoying culling through the downright terrible, but you what’s even more tedious? Sifting through the sea of mediocrity. That’s in ALL mediums.
With as much competition as we have in the marketplace, we no longer have the luxury of serving leftovers.
One of the reasons Hollywood and Disney (and others) are taking such a beating is because they quit being brave. Instead of taking any authentic risks, they’re delivering us franchise movie after franchise movie. It’s all CGI with no real substance.
The world really wasn’t desperately in need of Transformers 15.
That, or they are taking successful stories, then making surface changes that require no creativity. Let’s make the Wicked Witch of the West…TEAL, and the ruby slippers chartreuse. Sure, because all audiences were waiting on the Wicked Witch to just be a different shade of green. Gimme a break!
***Note: I am putting this in after the fact. I genuinely had NO IDEA there was a movie version of Wicked coming out until one of you mentioned it in the comments, LOL. Hopefully they will deliver something better than most of the remakes.
Anyway….
Audiences are hungry for really great stories a HUGE secret to success these days? DARE TO BE DIFFERENT and tell a really FRIGGING AMAZING STORY! More on that…next time.
What are Your Thoughts? How are YOU in a Crisis?
Have you fallen for the myth that if you just overcome (Insert BS Life Problem HERE) then everything will even out? Is it easy to fall into wishful thinking? To stumble into nostalgia and lose your focus?
I hope everyone had an amazing summer. Me? I’ve been exploring the joys of replacing an entire sewage system (only one of many glorious adventures.)
Do you struggle to set goals with the increased pace of change? Or, are you excited with the new tools out there and accessible to everyone?
If you have something new and shiny you’d like to share, let me know about it in the comments. If there is something overwhelming you that you can’t seem to figure it out, drop a comment and maybe we can work it out together!
29 comments
Skip to comment form
Great to see another blog post from you, Kristen Lamb! While I quit a brain-crushingly dull job to ensure more time on finishing my short stories and future novels, I still foresee challenges in the future. I think that knowing the writing world is always in a state of flux is incredibly liberating. The only thing we can control is the quality of the work, so there’s no point waiting for the winds to blow in the right direction.
Love this. Do more of it.
Yay! A post! Thanks for bringing some much-needed sanity to the discussion. Yep, things change. You either learn to adapt or you get left behind. That’s what humans do.
And if that was a subtle dig at the new Wicked movie–I say it’s about friggin’ time they made that into a movie. ? It’s one of my fave musicals of all time, but I’ve never seen it performed. (And, sadly, I like it much better than the book by Gregory McGuire.) Fewer Transformers and Marvel movies and more amazing musicals that have never hit the big screen, please. (And more adaptations of new, amazing novels, while I’m wishing.)
Looking forward to the amazing new stories that come into being out of this latest change…
Author
LOL, I didn’t know there was a new “Wicked” movie. That is how predictably awful it has become. Though I haven’t seen the previews so I won’t judge.
“Am I good at long-form or short-form writing or both?”
Interestingly enough, I came to the realization a few months ago that I prefer writing shorter pieces. I’m currently working on anthologies that center around a Zorro-like character on a world of my own making (no magic, though. It’s more action-adventure, my first love!). 🙂
It’s awesome to have you back, Kristin! 😀
Nice seeing a blog from my favorite blogster.
Hadn’t heard from you in awhile and wondered why. And now I know. I so relate to juggling real life and writing. Marketing just stumps me. I’m into Publisher Rocket and taking all the tutorials. Dave Chesson is personable and friendly. He deserves all his success. So I am getting long in the tooth and wondering how long I want to write. I’d like to make a profit one year. But it’s not happened yet. Writing stretches my brain and I love that. So once my baby is launched in November, it’s back to the drawing board. Loved hearing your thoughts again
Thank you for always giving us support and encouragement! It’s such a relief to read your posts. I feel like you’re sitting me down and talking with me personally. You definitely get it–and know how to get out of it!
After 3.5 years (and continuing) of intense crises since I started my novel, I’m getting closer to the finish line. I hope to *finally* have it published this month or next. If not, I will keep updating it and keep going. It’s crazy how everything has changed so drastically in the writing/publishing world just this year. And it will continue, so we have roll with it.
Thank you again for letting us know we’re ALL dealing with major stuff, but we will get through it if we adjust and keep pushing forward.
The key is knowing why we write our books. Fortunately I don’t depend on my writing for income, as some writers do. I write not for fame and fortune, but because I must – if I don’t write these stories down, they do not let me be. They pester and plague me no end until I pay attention to them. Thus, I have the luxury of time to allow the story to flesh out, develop characters and story arc, tie in foreshadowing, etc. As a result, my two self-published novels were decades in the making, and the third one I’m working on is only about half-done after almost four years of work. (Like most writers, I have to fit writing time in between household and occupational obligations, like so much mortar between stones.)
There is a certain sense of relief that, personally, I don’t have to obsess over the latest innovation (like AI) that our culture gloms onto as the Be-All-And-End-All utopian solution to the world’s problems. I prefer to spend my time, mental and physical, writing.
Where is AI in all this? Some authors are freaking out. So are some cover designers. And Amazon is allowing a flood of AI garbage through the . . . floodgates. I’ve never been less sure of my writing career next month never mind next year. Too much flux too fast. And my own hard line is wavering. Use an AI generated cover “model” for my pen name? Maybe yes. Then I read 98 comments on FB about how that will make readers doubt my writing. But don’t all these same people happily go to CGI movies? And covers aren’t meant to be real people anyway. Thanks for another thought-provoking blog post.
Great post. You hit the nail on the head on all these subjects.
Missed you! I know my “why” very well at this point but the pace of change in the self pub world is head spinning.
Take care.
Good to have your blog in my inbox – I was wondering where you’d gone 🙂 One thing I’m struggling with at the moment is writing characters who are a different ethnicity to me, and wanting their voice to be authentic and true and not fall into stereotypes.
Wow, you’re still here. Writing things. About writing.
After self-publishing seven novels and putting one of them on NetGalley with about 100 downloads and ZERO reviews, I’ve stopped to try and ask the real hard question: Why does nobody want to read my work?
And I came up with some answers.
My craft still needs work. Every book I wrote was an exercise in trying to hone craft. Book one was 100% structure – where are the tent poles? book five was 100% about exposing character through actions and decisions. And so on…
But none of them were complete in terms of craft. Now, on book 8, I think maybe I finally have enough tools in the box to write a complete story that at least some folks will enjoy.
And I have to believe that it’s my work that needs to improve to the point where people will actually read it because that is the only thing I can control.
I recently went to a book fair and watched hundreds of people milling around looking at books nobody had ever heard of. They were there. The books were there. The authors were there. And it hit me: We are all lost in a very large ocean of stories. We can’t hear each other, never mind the audience.
It was depressing.
Even more depressing is the books by currently popular authors that I have read. I didn’t finish any of them. They’re just that bad. But they gotz the thousandz of reviewz on Amazonz. Huh?
But the little post-apocolypse book by an unknown similar to me? I loved it. Why is this woman not at the top of the page?
It’s easy to sit here and throw rocks at other authors at the behest of the stranded-in-lifeboats. But, finally, we come to the real elephant in the room:
What if I’m just not good enough? What if my stories just aren’t interesting? What if I’m just not a good writer?
There are millions of books on Amazon alone. And most of them don’t sell. Trust me, those of us snuggled up with our cocoa as we gaze at our book page and ponder the true meaning of “#2,640,171 in Kindle Store,” it becomes clear that most writers must fail. There’s just too much to read.
And so I cling to my little lifeboat, which says that the reason one of my books is ranked 2,640,171 is because that’s where it belongs. It’s not good enough.
Which means I can improve. And as long as I can believe that, there is hope.
Somebody somewhere, beyond all the blather and thunder of SEO, blogs, e-mail lists, publisher rocket and blurbs, is saying to a friend, “You gotta’ read this book.” Everything else is ASCII.
Some day, somebody will tell a friend they have to read my book. I just haven’t written it yet.
It’s not necessarily because you’re not good enough. There are loads of ‘best sellers’ that are rubbish. And with lots of positive reviews, too. (Yes, getting reviews is the big problem. I have very few, too.)
Author
Well, there is nothing, per se, wrong with writing about writing. I have been around a LONG time. I started using social media to build an audience before Facebook even went fully public. Back then, I was a n00b listening to who I believed were experts and they said, “Write about writing.” Since I didn’t know spit about writing, I did that and found I enjoyed it. But, over time, I realized that, while I didn’t mind essentially a dual career as a novelist and teacher, that is not everyone’s skill set.
Teaching is a skill all on its own. I know this from even going to conferences. I’ve been at events where the organizers brought in some mega-author who was an INCREDIBLE storyteller to teach a class…and the poor writer spent an hour looking like he wanted to chew off his own arm.
Why?
He was a gifted storyteller. His skill was not in replicating his magic with others.
Over time, if you blog on writing, you will paint yourself into a corner. To a degree, I have. Trust me, almost 2,000 blogs in and you start struggling to be creative (ergo part of my reason for a sabbatical).
As for discovering books? I totally feel you and we will possibly go over ways to remedy the discoverability problem. I don’t know if I will help, but I sure can’t hurt. And I agree. I gave up looking at reviews because some of the ABSOLUTE WORST books I read (or tried to read but they were so bad I couldn’t finish) had a gazillion rave reviews, while some of my favorites have hardly any.
This has been a problem since time immemorial for writers, just it manifests differently. But, maybe together we can figure something out.
Don’t ever dismiss the value of books on the art and craft of writing. I’m ALWAYS in the middle of one of those. No sooner do I finish one than I pick up the next. The book before last was Phillip Lopate’s “To Show and To Tell.” I just finished “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers” by Rennie Browne and Dave King. Now I’m cruising through Lee Gutkind’s “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!” I learn much from every book; some of it I apply to my own writing, and some of it I apply to my work in editing others’ books (and in that, I’m evolving into a book coach of sorts).
We may convince ourselves that what we have to say in a blog about writing has already been said, but consider these points: 1) not every writer, aspiring or accomplished, has read every writing blog out there; 2) there’s always someone new just coming into the field and looking for a place to start; and 3) your take on an aspect of the craft of writing may be THE ONE that resonates with any given writer, even if you are going over material that others have addressed for millennia.
There’s always room for more writers talking about the tangibles and the intangibles of creating a compelling story, whether fiction or nonfiction.
Thank you for writing this. And prayers for you and your family.
My question/concern is: While the delivery method has changed, has the definition of genres changed?
I write light clean romance that always, as I understand it, must end ‘happily ever after’ or ‘happy for now.’
My brother asked me about that and when I gave him that answer, he asked why anyone would want to read more than a couple books. My first answer was two words: Hallmark Channel.
But after thinking about it, I told him that if someone loved bubble baths, they would fit one in whenever they could. And the phone or doorbell would never ring, the water would stay hot, the bubbles would remain plentiful i.e. no drama. He would tell others that I wrote ‘bubble bath books.’
Author
This is an excellent question and I think I will use a blog post to answer this, if that is okay. There is a lot we can plumb from this. Thank you SO MUCH for the thought-provoking comment!
Kristen, I feel almost ashamed. You have so much on your plate and yet you still found time to help me a couple of months ago. Wow, thanks.
I’m making a more detailed outline of my story that you helped me sketch out earlier, along with a quick draft of some of the scenes, but my imagination is struggling with exactly how to slot in foreshadowing without punching readers in the face with it. I’m currently on my annual reread (in audio book form, naturally) of the Harry Potter series, but I’m paying closer attention to how J.K. Rowling dropped her hints about important elements that would happen later in the story (or in another book entirely) into an earlier part of the story. It’s all mystery and misdirection and is definitely a learning curve for me. ?
Thanks so much for this update. Just knowing about the struggles of others is making me more determined to overcome my own. My dream is still being a published author, but now it’s being a published author of more than just one book. At this rate, I’ll be writing until I’m at least 120!
I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day holiday.
Suzanne (Lucero) ??
PS Those question marks in my comment are supposed to be emojis that I slipped in. Well, now I know the emojis don’t translate. 😀
Important points. Definitely requiring much thought. Thank you for, as always, a terrific thought-provoking blog.
I love this. So much truth. And humor always helps. Thanks for being here!
“Mid-Write Crisis” – Absolute genius!
I think I am among the lucky few who are old enough to be retired from the 9-to-5 commute, with the luxury of editing for others and writing for myself. I have self-published two novels, but have done practically no marketing – been too busy occupied with other shiny objects of interest. As a result, my books don’t fly off the shelves – they aren’t really on the shelves in the first place. But I didn’t write them to become rich and famous – I wrote them because they (the books) told me I must.
Something I discovered some years ago, when a young GenZ-er, still wet behind the ears, was bound and determined to use my earmarked book money (for personal hard copies in hand) for a marketing campaign. She had nothing to say when I pointed out 1) that her campaign couldn’t guarantee me anything, but my hard-copies were just that, a real asset I could sell in person, hand out to friends and relations, etc., and 2) that if my book wasn’t marketed today, it wasn’t exactly going to evaporate – “poof!” She had never before encountered someone like me: I knew exactly what I wanted and why.
Since you sometimes speak of neurodivergent, I thought of you today when I heard an interview on the radio with a woman who is a neuro-educator; she specializes in working with children dealing with such challenges to avoid anxiety and a feeling of shame. She said something quite pithy about the differences of those who are neurodivergent: “Differences are not deficits.”
Author
I love that. And really that is WHY I loathe a HERE IS A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS! approach. Everyone is different. We have different strengths and weaknesses. We can’t apply some assembly line technique to this and it be very effective. I have some stuff I will be sharing this upcoming week that I have never shared on the blog, so I hope this will help y’all craft something that works brilliantly for YOU.
Love this post. So glad you’re back! Sometimes I’m so deep in the mire I can’t even see all the issues pushing me down there. But you don’t shy away from it all – in fact you help left me out of the muddy slime to see some light of day and remind me I’m not alone – and you make me laugh while doing it. Thanks for helping me find my courage to keep on going and remind me to find a way to do it smarter. Thank you for all you do! Write On!
Kristen, happy you are back. I missed your posts over the summer. So, same as you, crises happened in family health and still going on with young and old. it overshadows writing. I get it. I’m 85 and holding on with age-related body aches & pains. Still writing and a book sequel is in the hands of my editor! Did not have to resort to vodka and cookie dough (made me laugh)! Love your humor. Did have a computer crash and paid bucks to retrieve desktop material, now on a flash drive. New iMac and printer and I’m good to go! AI was a big help in getting details about historical events in the late 60 s for the book sequel. More relatable to the reader knowing how the characters navigated them personally. Days are numbered that I know. I just chose to live one day at a time and keep writing as if I have all the time in the world. ?? Christine
I don’t have the oomph to share a saga right now, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for your (always) honest newsletters. You are a writer who GETS it!
Author
I appreciate that ((HUGS))