The Business of Publishing, 2014, Part III

Part three of my little compendium is again from Kristine Kathryn Rusch. In this post, she asks what indie writers have learned in 2014, to complement her earlier post asking the same of traditional publishers. (See Part I.)

After a litany of things she believes she’s learned, she goes on to define 2014 and the way writers, inde writers in particular, have responded to it.

The absolute unarguable end of the gold rush made 2014…

The Year of the Quitter

Writers have disappeared from the dawn of publishing. I wrote an entire three-blog series about that in 2012, listing 12 reasons why writers stop writing.

It’s sad if the writer has to let go of a dream. But sometimes, letting go of one dream enables people to find their actual dream. And that’s a good thing.

The "year of the quitter" segues neatly into

The Rise of the Survivors

I’m pretty sure more writers quit than survived publishing in 2014, but that’s because more writers always quit than survive. As I said above, the entire profession is hard, and for those people who want to get by without working hard, this profession is not for them.

Anyone who’s gotten this far is likely a survivor. While I’m not a quitter, neither am I survivor, at this point. I’m a hobbyist, I think, doing something I like and making it available for others to enjoy, if they wish, after making it the best I can within my budgetary constraints.

A runaway best seller was never in the cards for me; what I like to write doesn’t seem to resonate with many others. And since I’m an OAP, as our British friends might say, I don’t need more than a hobby.

Believe me, Ms Rusch has tons of good points I didn’t excerpt; go and read them. Perhaps light will dawn, or even better, understanding will, and you’ll be able to use her comments to help direct your business efforts.