Writing for the joy of it

Barbara here. I know, it’s been a while. More than a while. This fall and winter have been so full of distractions and world craziness that weeks go by without my even thinking about Type M. For this I apologize to both our loyal readers and my fellow bloggers for my neglect. What little focus I have is devoted to my WIP, which is limping along at a snail’s pace, and to all the day to day responsibilities like walking my dogs, keeping them and me fed and my house vaguely clean, etc., etc.

But I do love Type M and all the authors who contribute their thoughts, struggles, triumphs, and expertise every week. I was particularly struck this week by Shelley Burbank’s last post about her liberating change of focus from trying to write books that sell to writing to create the best story she wants to tell.

Most Canadian authors have been dealing with this dilemma for years. The Canadian book market is very small and overpowered by the much larger UK and US markets. Canadian publishers struggle to compete with the larger UK and US promotional budgets and Canadian authors are generally buried in the back of the store, whether online or physical. The "big five" publishers control the market and are interested in big sales figures. Essentially, you can write the kind of books that sell big, or you can write the stories you want to tell and get a "real" job, marry rich, or have a decent pension. Since 2000 I have been published by a successful Canadian publisher, which was created specifically to tell Canadian stories by Canadian writers. Like other authors, I was told early on by several agents that if I wanted to go bigger, I had to set my books in the United States because Americans weren't interested in Canadian settings. One of my writer friends was asked to move his medical thriller series from Montreal to Buffalo. He did, and had a successful run, but seriously? 

Obviously there are exceptions, Louise Penny being an obvious one, but I guess from the big publishers' perspective, not enough readers would pick up something about Canada.

I believe to make a book truly sparkle, a writer has to love the story they are trying to tell. It has to come from the heart, not the business brain. I made the choice early on to tell Canadian stories and to tell the kind of stories I was passionate about. My country, my people, our issues and our perspective. We are not the US or the UK, and the one time I did try to tell an American story, I found I couldn't get inside the characters' heads. And as a writer as well as a psychologist, I always start my stories inside my characters' heads.

Here I am, twenty-five years later, still writing about Ottawa in all its hidden layers, but glad I have a pension that lets me do what I love.

A novel way to connect with readers

 This is a very quick post because I am already late with it and many other things need to be done. But I want to report on a very interesting a successful experiment that a group of local Ottawa authors tried yesterday. 

The first ever Ottawa Christmas Book Fair. It was the brainchild of enterprising Ottawa author Peggy Blair who pitched the idea in September and within a couple of days eight of us had signed on. Besides Peggy, there were Mary Jane Maffini, Brenda Chapman, Mike Martin, Amy Tector, Don Butler and John Delacourt. We rented a hall at a local legion for five hours and developed promotional activities like appearances on local radio and TV, write-ups in community newspapers and newsletters, and posted this poster all over time. With that many people, there were lots of imaginative ideas and useful contacts.

On the day of the event, we set up tables and decorated them in holiday themes. Each of us had our own table  and managed our own sales. We had baked or purchased goodies for a treats table, advertised the cash bar at the legion, and now we settled in to wait. We had no idea what to expect. Would anyone come? It's a work day and already getting dark by 4 pm.

They came! We were flooded with readers who'd come specifically to buy mysteries and each of us was kept on our feet and meeting readers for over three hours straight. I have no idea how many people came although Peggy estimated 150. I have no idea how many books I sold, but readers were leaving with armloads of books. I didn't even have time to eat anything nor visit my fellow authors to check out their books. By the end, we were all exhausted but so relieved and happy that it had gone so well.

Will we do it again? Absolutely. And plans are already underway for other collaborative, mystery-focussed events. So stay tuned.

More thoughts on marketing

 I'm always astonished when my day to post arrives and I'm delighted to read the posts by others. Charlotte's post on marketing was informative and alarming. If preorders and marketing strategies have already determined the future sales of a book, why am I going to book signings and readings, or reporting reviews on social media, or keeping my website up-to-date? Or even writing this blog.

Partly, I think it depends on what your goals are, both for writing and for promotion. I know I am really lucky, in that I am retired from a "regular" job and have a modest income from pensions that keeps food on the table before I even factor in my writing income. I am grateful that this gives me the freedom to tell the stories I want to tell, knowing they will never make me a bestseller. Yes, it would be nice to make more money because there are always things and experiences I'd like to have, like taking an African safari or going on a theatre tour to London or New York. But I would hate to be writing a book that didn't inspire me, just because it might sell more copies. 

Early in my career, I had an agent who told me to write a book set in the United States and make it more like the bestselling thrillers. I was told the "big" publishers don't want a book set in Canada because they don't sell. I understand that publishing is a business and that they buy products that they expect will make them money, but their money goals are loftier than mine. I want to tell stories that reflect my culture, my experience, and my land. Luckily I found a home with a Canadian publisher whose motto was just that. I love to write, but it's the passion of storytelling that drives me, and if I lost that, I doubt there would be much point in writing at all.

So what about marketing? Ultimately it's the challenge of making yourself known to the audience that might enjoy your kind of book. If they do, they also spread the word through their own social media and friendship circles. I have a pretty good idea who my target audience is. Louise Penny was apparently once asked who read her books and she replied "intelligent women with colds". The answer is brilliant, and I think it applies to many mystery writers. I know men read my books, and Millenials too, and maybe even busy people who can only sneak a few minutes of  reading into their day. But the bulk of my readers are educated women who enjoy the challenge and subtleties of a good mystery and who have the time to read. 

I leave the mega-marketing to my publisher (the targeted advertising and review copies, the bookstore and library sales reps, and so on). I focus on the one-to-one, by engaging on social media (mostly Facebook and Instagram), setting up bookstore signings and library readings, and attending book clubs. I actually love doing all those things, because they involve direct interaction with book lovers and readers. Nothing is more inspiring to a discouraged writer than meeting someone whose eyes light up as they describe reading your book.

Charlotte's post was comforting in a strange way. I know I'm probably missing swaths of potential readers by not using TikTok or BookBub or Goodreads, or sending out newsletters, etc. But maybe, at the macro level, it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. What do others think?

Soldiering on

 I read with interest and dismay Charlotte's post on the rising cost of books, which is forcing publishers out of business and driving away readers. It echoes what I myself have worried about. Inflation is affecting the cost of goods and also forcing people to choose between life's pleasures like reading and food on the table or a roof over their heads. Books themselves are not immune to the pressures of inflation, nor are the authors and publishers who produce them. Yet trying to price books to reflect when they really cost means people won't buy them and fewer writers will write them, which would be a terrible loss to the richness of our lives.

There are a number of other pressures affecting the demand for books as well. Entertainment through TV and the many streaming platforms provides a hundred ways to lure us from the written word to the visual, easier to digest world of animated storytelling. I say easier to digest because most of the time, reading demands more active engagement, concentration, imagination and effort on the part of the consumer than sitting in front of a screen. And nowadays a screen is always at our fingertips, ready to draw us in, whether we are on the bus, walking down the street, or preparing dinner.

How can we counter this? I am not one of those doomsayers who thinks the book as an entertainment medium is dead. Not everyone reads, but those who do, love it. We find an enchantment and depth that is rarely present in the more fleeting visual media. We can read at our own pace, whether we race breathlessly to the end to find out what happens, or slow down to savour the power or beauty of the author's words, or reread parts to check details we missed. But if authors can't make any sort of living (most of us barely make a living as it is) and publishers can't pay their staff and stay afloat, there will be less diversity and richness in the choice of books, and the only ones that will survive will be the blockbuster bestsellers by tried and true writers or with tried and true formulae. A lean diet indeed.

Are there solutions? What about used books? They are much cheaper and have the added benefit of keeping things out of the landfill. Used bookstores are popping up all over the place as an answer to the  struggles of the retail book industry. The problem with used books is that neither the author nor the publisher makes a single cent from the sale of a used book. Authors make a paltry percentage on the sale of every new book – it's called a royalty and the typical percent is 10%, often less – and publishers rely on book sales to pay not just that 10% to their authors but also to pay for their editors, marketers, publicists, proofreaders, cover designers, and so on. Used books put no money back into the publisher's bank account.

Which brings me to the second solution that's being proposed. Ebooks. Why should they be priced as high as paper books, when a single digital file is used to produce the ebook, which can then be downloaded by hundreds or even millions of readers at no extra cost? There is an argument to be made that ebooks should cost less than paper books for this very reason. I think the price is kept close to the same in order to subsidize the cost of the paper one, and also to ensure that people continue to buy paper books. For now, there are still a lot of people who prefer paper (myself included) and others who don't own an ereader..Both formats have their advantages and disadvantages.  

However, paper and printing costs are only part of the publisher's costs. How much will depend on the number of copies printed, the quality of the paper, the length, etc. But much of what the publisher spends, whether it's a self-published or traditionally published book, goes to pay the editor(s), proofreader, designer, cover artist, publicist, accountant, and all the sales and marketing people who work to actually get the book into the public eye. And once they have paid all those costs, paid the author's 10%, and given the bookseller a slice of the remaining pie, the profit margin is very slim. 

It's a mug's game, really. Those who are in it, from the author to the publisher to the bookstore owner, are usually in it not for the piles of money but for the love of books.

My new Amanda Doucette book, WRECK BAY, is coming out in January. Despite the dire predictions about dwindling book saes and shrinking markets, I am still going to work hard to let people know about it. We authors are usually excited about our works and eager to share them with readers. I hope to have a couple of in-person launch parties in Ottawa and Toronto, because there is nothing like talking about the book to real people rather than to a disembodied thumbnail photo on the edge of the screen. And I am also thinking of setting up some good old-fashioned book tours like the ones I did in years past, driving to libraries and bookstores within a two-day radius of home to do readings and signings. Winter weather always presents a challenge in Canada, where snow and ice can create havoc with the best-laid plans. But winter doesn't last forever. 

I don't begin to break even on these trips, but that's not the point. They are fun, they get me out of my garret, which has been really isolating during the pandemic, and I make connections not only with readers but with librarians, and booksellers, who are an author's best friend and biggest ally.