The Fabulousness

…And do they ever.

Bob Mayer is a successful novelist, even more so now that he’s gone indie. I met him a few years ago at Midwest Writer’s Workshop in Muncie, where he summarily dismissed This Brilliant Darkness and I cried in frustration. I don’t envy the guy the job he signed up for at that conference. So many people wanting to know how to get their writing from point A to point Z without having to make the journey in between. I had been writing professionally for long enough to know I was good at it, but I couldn’t articulate the differences between writing fiction and non-fiction. (Here’s a clue—it’s like the difference between singing and speaking.) Despite my frustration, I hung on Bob’s every word during his seminar. I learned so much, and walked away a much better writer for it.

Several months ago, Tim convinced me that it was no longer going to be the Gigantic Black Mark of Death to self-publish, and that since I had already moved on from TBD, emotionally, it might be time to dust it off one last time and just epub it. And I have. In between my loving writing partner’s urgings and the actual act of *doing*, however, there was a lot of research in between.

A LOT of research.

Imagine my happy surprise to see that an author I was familiar with from my own experience was blazing a path in indie publishing. I’ve read some by Konrath and Hocking and Locke, in terms of “here’s how I came to find success in publishing,” but Bob’s posts resound with me more than anyone else’s. Maybe it’s the former Green Beret in him that appeals to me. I don’t know—but I hold his experience and opinion in high regard.

If you’re sitting on a manuscript right now, unsure of how to get from point A to point Z & Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, why don’t you give yourself a break and go read Bob’s post today about the New GateKeepers of Publishing. I’d love to hear what you have to say about Bob’s opinion.

Here’s an excerpt:

Left with those two choices, most people would say readers are now the gatekeepers. To an extent they are. But here’s the deal: writers create the product. The quality of the product is going to determine how readers react to it. The ability to promote/market the product is going to determine if readers even get a chance to react to it.

So it’s actually the writer who is going to determine their own success or failure.

99.5% of indie/self-published authors will be gone in two years. Other will take their place. And be gone in two years. The gatekeeper to a writer’s success is the writer. Here are the trends I see that will determine the few who get through the gate…

And for your convenience, here’s a link to Bob on Amazon.

(via skull-heart)

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