Self-Publishers and 100 Books

This is the argument that came through on the self-publishers list.  It was spurred on because of Amanda Hocking's success.  "She's the anomaly and most self-publishers won't sell more than 100 copies and those will be to family and friends."

Well, if that isn't a reason to not bother with actually printing your book I don't know what is.

If you haven't read Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" you should.  With everything else going on, it's set at a vanity press and there are some interesting insights.

We should accept that the competition for readers will only increase.  More readers will buy e-readers as time goes on.  No one got bored with CD's and went back to 8-track tapes.  No one got bored with CD's and went back to vinyl.  I'm not saying books are done but we are only experiencing the first wave of excitement with reading devices now.  The numbers will only build and some people will not go back to paper books.  At all.  Ever.

More writers and wannabe writers will delight in the ease of self-publishing and flood the market further.  I try to remember that there are books ranked in the mid 6 figures.  I suppose that implies that at some point there will be a lot of writers ranked in the mid 7 figures.  "Yay!  I'm # 1,000,000!  I'm # 1,000,000!"  It could make you despair.

Some people just should not be writers.  It's the same as some people just don't have the voice to be a singer.  You see it all the time on American Idol.  Someone auditions and they're terrible, they can't find the tune let alone carry it.  They're rejected.  They cry.  "You don't know how much I want this!"  They sob.  "I've wanted this my whole entire life."  (They're 20.)

My reaction is always I don't care how much they want this.  That has nothing to do with it and they didn't want it badly enough to work for it.  Take singing lessons.  Get a gig as a singer with a local bar band.  Perform at Senior Citizen Centers.  Perform for free.  Perform 350 times a year.  But these people do none of that.  They want the adulation, the trappings that go along with this whole singer thing, but the striving to be a good singer is not part of their equation.

"Oh Simon Cowell is so mean!"  No.  Simon Cowell was so honest.  Unserious people should not be coddled and especially when it's about big money and big business and a lot of people are involved.  

Unserious writers...ditto.

So am I saying if you are serious and you put in the time and effort, you will succeed?  No.  You may not have any talent for it.  You could sing all day long and without a good instrument, a voice, no will want to listen to you.

I think, maybe I'm wrong, without the spark of talent, without the true love of words, of language, of the process of writing, most people will eventually give up the whole writing thing.  It's too hard.  It's not that much fun.  Let's go clubbing.

So am I saying if you are serious and work at it ceaselessly and you have that spark you will succeed?  No.  But you have a better chance and it depends on how you define success.  If you want to entertain an audience, you have a good shot at it.  If you want to be rich and hit a windfall like Amanda, well, your priorities are already wrong and point to the seed of your ultimate failure as a writer.

The one last element in this whole success/reaching an audience bit is the idea.  This is Hollywood in spades where a high concept pushes past all the other scripts and treatments to get the million dollar deal.  If you have a hot enough idea and minimal talent/writing skills, you can still get to the top of the heap.  I don't know if that can be sustained for a career or a lifetime.  Maybe so.  Maybe not.  I'm not that kind of writer so I don't have any clues how it's done.