There are three words that can help, but you're probably gonna gag when you hear them. In fact, you are likely gonna have a lot of feelings reading this one.
This is one of the absolute best posts on the subject I have ever read. Brilliant, friend. Just brilliant. You verbalized things I have thought for a long time. Authors really need to check out this post and listen to what you're saying here about business and sustainability.
As someone who's been doing this for a long time but is still obscure but not burned out, there's a lot of reality to what you're saying. It offers hope but not the empty kind. There are paths forward, but the approaches so often discussed are direct paths to burnout and disaster. This is more holistic, more achievable, and kinder to the creatives. Well f-ing done.
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that. I've been slowly building this case I feel for the last year and I'm going to be rolling out a lot more methodology in the next few months :)
Excellent. For what it's worth, I've been in the industry for sixteen years now and have been watching these changes toward the gristmill taking place. I've never felt right about it and seen so many authors utterly ruined because of their attempts to drag creativity out of themselves to sate what they think is necessary to succeed. It's so much more complex than that. Thank you for doing this work. I think you may save careers with it.
Fantastic insights. Writing is the easy part really, or at least the part (most) would do for the sake of it. Challenges start when the writing becomes an asset. I have been stuck with that for many years, on the naive premise that culture has a value beyond other commodities. Being able to just let it go and work intuitively probably doesn’t make the writing better, but allows to put it out there as an asset. Thank you for sharing.
I’m so early on in my writing career. This small platform, paywalled membership - taking other writers who live with chronic illness with me and one ebook (fully published books not far behind). The one thing I’m clear on is sustainability. Yet to see how it all pans on. Trusting and learning as I grow💚
Thanks so much for sharing all your insight and wisdom. I believe the publishing industry could transform completely. In that the minority of writers generating an income could be much increased. Belief in our own capabilities makes a massive difference. I’m new to it all though so what do I know😆
Regardless, I have my vision and I’m in full alignment with it💛🫶🏼
It's going to take some time for me to read this entire post--it's so good! I just got to the "list" part and I like all of these points you make--especially this one: "We have to compete against every product that ever been made: In very few industries are the business owners up against a 400 year old dead person for somebody's money and attention. Maybe a winery has to compete against the past sometimes, but then at least that older wine is way more expensive which prices people out of the market for it. Even film and radio only go back a hundred years, but books have been published for thousands of years, and you can read them all for a pittance. No musical artist will ever have to go up against Mozart, only a cheap facsimile of Mozart as told through a modern orchestra."
“Sir Terry Pratchett wrote over 50 books in his career and has sold 100 million books in the process. Stephen King has published 65 novels in his career. Anne Rice published 37 novels. Jane Austen wrote 6 novels. Melissa Albert has also written 6 books.
Meanwhile, I’ve written over 40 novels and have seen almost none of the success of these people. I have a pretty decent career going, but there has to be something beyond “write the next book” that’s driving these people forward. I can tell you I’m nowhere near 100 million copies sold, and I’m working just as hard as Sir Terry.”
Other success stories—it is so gaslighting, is it not?! Makes me nauseated. Hang in there! Hope you make your lucky break. So much luck and connections are involved in this industry…
Thanks. I've done pretty well for myself so far. I don't really believe in lucky breaks. I believe that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I come from the music industry! Music folks do it best. I know that the number is less than three years. You have a great run and then that's it. The unicorns or the true artist they can push beyond that burn out. This is regular business. Great article though for the masses who then hopefully won't have delusions of grandeur.
Great column, Russell. I think we can just call those leveraged assets "flywheels." Technically, they would all be contributors to one big flywheel, or a "flywheel system." But it's a nice sticky word. I've used it in my books on brand strategy to explain the concept to CEOs, who aren't as conceptual as you might expect.
I also think your admonition to jettison non-working experiments after three months is a good one. Very hard to do, especially for those of us with grit. I would have no problem putting my shoulder to the wheel and producing book after book, most of which will never break even if I assigned an hourly rate to my work.
One observation I have about the publishing industry is that success is not about the quantity of your titles. I feel sorry for "rapid release" authors who are chained to a treadmill with little remuneration and burnout on the horizon. The real success seems to come from one breakout hit, which paves the way for more books without having to kill yourself.
It seems to me that a realistic business model would be more focused on hitting that first home run, which is a whole different animal from the way book marketing now works.
Hrm...I'm not sure I agree with that last bit. I think if you look at the vast majority of authors, their success comes from having a signature series. That series might be as few as three books, but it's usually more like 10 books as an indie. Non-fiction is different, but their growth is fueled usually by other parts of their business. I think if you're trying to mainly make money on books, then you need to have a series, even in non-fiction, a la Chicken Soup, but if you are going to be speaking, or have a transmedia strategy, then it might happen for you on one breakout.
It's really hard to hit one home-run, especially since books are a volume business, and ads don't start being profitable until 4+ books in most cases. Again, if you are a CEO or building your money some other way it's different, but especially now it's really hard to make it work on just one book.
This is one of the absolute best posts on the subject I have ever read. Brilliant, friend. Just brilliant. You verbalized things I have thought for a long time. Authors really need to check out this post and listen to what you're saying here about business and sustainability.
As someone who's been doing this for a long time but is still obscure but not burned out, there's a lot of reality to what you're saying. It offers hope but not the empty kind. There are paths forward, but the approaches so often discussed are direct paths to burnout and disaster. This is more holistic, more achievable, and kinder to the creatives. Well f-ing done.
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that. I've been slowly building this case I feel for the last year and I'm going to be rolling out a lot more methodology in the next few months :)
Excellent. For what it's worth, I've been in the industry for sixteen years now and have been watching these changes toward the gristmill taking place. I've never felt right about it and seen so many authors utterly ruined because of their attempts to drag creativity out of themselves to sate what they think is necessary to succeed. It's so much more complex than that. Thank you for doing this work. I think you may save careers with it.
Fantastic insights. Writing is the easy part really, or at least the part (most) would do for the sake of it. Challenges start when the writing becomes an asset. I have been stuck with that for many years, on the naive premise that culture has a value beyond other commodities. Being able to just let it go and work intuitively probably doesn’t make the writing better, but allows to put it out there as an asset. Thank you for sharing.
You’re welcome!
I’m so early on in my writing career. This small platform, paywalled membership - taking other writers who live with chronic illness with me and one ebook (fully published books not far behind). The one thing I’m clear on is sustainability. Yet to see how it all pans on. Trusting and learning as I grow💚
Cool!
Thanks so much for sharing all your insight and wisdom. I believe the publishing industry could transform completely. In that the minority of writers generating an income could be much increased. Belief in our own capabilities makes a massive difference. I’m new to it all though so what do I know😆
Regardless, I have my vision and I’m in full alignment with it💛🫶🏼
Thank you for this! All things I've been thinking over for a while but haven't managed to put together in my head.
You’re welcome!
It's going to take some time for me to read this entire post--it's so good! I just got to the "list" part and I like all of these points you make--especially this one: "We have to compete against every product that ever been made: In very few industries are the business owners up against a 400 year old dead person for somebody's money and attention. Maybe a winery has to compete against the past sometimes, but then at least that older wine is way more expensive which prices people out of the market for it. Even film and radio only go back a hundred years, but books have been published for thousands of years, and you can read them all for a pittance. No musical artist will ever have to go up against Mozart, only a cheap facsimile of Mozart as told through a modern orchestra."
Yay! Yes, it’s something I think about a lot. Glad it resonated with you
“Sir Terry Pratchett wrote over 50 books in his career and has sold 100 million books in the process. Stephen King has published 65 novels in his career. Anne Rice published 37 novels. Jane Austen wrote 6 novels. Melissa Albert has also written 6 books.
Meanwhile, I’ve written over 40 novels and have seen almost none of the success of these people. I have a pretty decent career going, but there has to be something beyond “write the next book” that’s driving these people forward. I can tell you I’m nowhere near 100 million copies sold, and I’m working just as hard as Sir Terry.”
Other success stories—it is so gaslighting, is it not?! Makes me nauseated. Hang in there! Hope you make your lucky break. So much luck and connections are involved in this industry…
Thanks. I've done pretty well for myself so far. I don't really believe in lucky breaks. I believe that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
Right, that's the kind of luck I meant--not just "pure luck"!
I come from the music industry! Music folks do it best. I know that the number is less than three years. You have a great run and then that's it. The unicorns or the true artist they can push beyond that burn out. This is regular business. Great article though for the masses who then hopefully won't have delusions of grandeur.
Thanks! Yes, the publishing industry runs about 10-15 years behind the music industry.
I can only hope that people listen to you. Keep giving it to them Russell. Great stuff always from you.
Great column, Russell. I think we can just call those leveraged assets "flywheels." Technically, they would all be contributors to one big flywheel, or a "flywheel system." But it's a nice sticky word. I've used it in my books on brand strategy to explain the concept to CEOs, who aren't as conceptual as you might expect.
I also think your admonition to jettison non-working experiments after three months is a good one. Very hard to do, especially for those of us with grit. I would have no problem putting my shoulder to the wheel and producing book after book, most of which will never break even if I assigned an hourly rate to my work.
One observation I have about the publishing industry is that success is not about the quantity of your titles. I feel sorry for "rapid release" authors who are chained to a treadmill with little remuneration and burnout on the horizon. The real success seems to come from one breakout hit, which paves the way for more books without having to kill yourself.
It seems to me that a realistic business model would be more focused on hitting that first home run, which is a whole different animal from the way book marketing now works.
How do you think about this?
Hrm...I'm not sure I agree with that last bit. I think if you look at the vast majority of authors, their success comes from having a signature series. That series might be as few as three books, but it's usually more like 10 books as an indie. Non-fiction is different, but their growth is fueled usually by other parts of their business. I think if you're trying to mainly make money on books, then you need to have a series, even in non-fiction, a la Chicken Soup, but if you are going to be speaking, or have a transmedia strategy, then it might happen for you on one breakout.
It's really hard to hit one home-run, especially since books are a volume business, and ads don't start being profitable until 4+ books in most cases. Again, if you are a CEO or building your money some other way it's different, but especially now it's really hard to make it work on just one book.
This is an older article, but it's the newest methodology I released on it a few years ago. https://www.theauthorstack.com/p/signatureseries
I also think it depends on whether you are trad or indie, and if you have a network already built.