Writing update! I’ve recently handed back edits on We Are All Ghosts In The Forest to my editor - if you are a paid subscriber, you’ll have seen some insider details on how that all worked. But suffice to say it is exciting to have got those edits turned around and hopefully be onto the copyedit stage (where continuity issues and commas will conspire to kill me dead).
I’m currently revising my Welsh Gothic - All The Birds Will Be Hostile - after beta reader feedback. This week that’s mostly been about adding in small epigraphs to the chapters (it’s been a bad week health-wise so progress has been sloooooow).
This blog post was inspired by a few conversations I’ve had recently with authors at various stages of their career, and someone mentioning an article I wrote at the time of my second book’s publication, looking back on my debut year and the things it taught me.
I actually wrote & scheduled this post before the recent Happenings around the 2024 debuts, review bombing and general unpleasant shenanigans, so I’ve edited to talk about some of the worries I’ve seen folks expressing around GR reviews and debut groups.
If you are a debut author, you’re probably already swimming in a veritable sea of advice, information and general flailing. So I’m not going to talk about debut year. Suffice to say I hope you are finding your path through this exciting, uncertain time and remembering to celebrate the truly amazing thing you’ve achieved.
What I wanted to talk about instead was preparing yourself for what happens next. Because much as the industry likes to put a huge emphasis on debut books and the debut year, this is only the first step on a hopefully-long road. And if I’m honest, I think it would be helpful for a lot of debuts to do a little more looking ahead and a little less staring at the ground beneath their feet, wondering if it’s a pedestal or a cliff edge.
(Hint: it’s both)
There have been several reports recently about mental wellbeing in debut authors, author incomes declining, and the brevity of most authors’ careers. These studies don’t paint a pretty picture of life as an author, and suggest that most of you beautiful, shiny debuts - a whole 80% of you - will not publish more than three books. Only one in ten of you will make it beyond six books. I look at my debut twitter/facebook group and those numbers are already holding true, which is … ugh. Dreary, right?
When we sign that first publishing deal, most of us hope we’re launching a - well, maybe not a career, given those average incomes lol, but definitely a long term publishing journey. So what can we do to try to be one of the minority who last the distance?
[Obvious caveat here: I’m contracted up to book 6 currently, due to go on sub with my 7th, with 4 more in various planning/drafting/revisions stages. So although I’ve not quite made it into the 10% yet, it is looking very likely I’ll get there]
[Second obvious caveat: I’m not a Big Name, so my income is definitely on the low side of that author average. I’m not talking about how to be successful here, I’m talking about how to survive]
So, back to that pedestal/cliff face… If I could tell you anything from four years in, it would be this:
Be aware of the cliff-face, but don’t be paralysed by it. The cliff-face in my tenuous metaphor is the fear we all face that if our book doesn’t sell enough, we won’t get another deal. There is truth in that - poor sales (relative to publisher expectations, which vary ENORMOUSLY between books) will likely lead to smaller advances and/or fewer offers next time around. Publishers are rarely open about the sales figures they have predicted for your book though, so you cannot know with any certainty what’s ‘enough’ and what’s ‘not enough’. Remember they will be in profit long before you earn out your advance, so chances are good that you’ll be okay even if you don’t get an Amazon orange banner or a Sunday Times bestseller number.
BUT even if your book does ‘under-perform’ it is not the end of the road. It just might mean the road looks a little different to the one you anticipated. A lower advance next time still means you are getting a next time, which is great! And there are a lot of publishers of all sizes & visions out there. One of them might be a better home for your next book, maybe even helping it do better than your debut. The adage that nothing sells your book as well as publishing the next one is kinda true - you’re building momentum. Be the bonfire, not the firework, so to speak.
And hey, if it’s truly not working, you can always reinvent yourself under a pen name to start afresh!
So yes, hope for the best, but don’t tie your whole self to the success of this one book! That way lies way too much anxiety.
Be aware of the pedestal, and the step down. My metaphorical pedestal is the shininess of the debut experience. It’s the way that publishing loves you right now - you’re the untarnished new thing they get to shout about. Everyone around you is telling you how excited they are by you & your book & omg you’ve cracked this whole thing! You’ve won at publishing! Finally!
It’s a wonderful feeling! This is something you’ve worked so hard for, probably for many years, and you should bask in the glow of success. BUT it is a small pedestal, and sadly a not insignificant fraction of the love and attention you’re getting now will wane with your subsequent books when there’s a whole new cohort of debuts to celebrate. So try to build your sense of self as a writer around internal metrics of success, not external buzz.
Next year is going feel very different to this one, and the one after that different again. The highs are worth celebrating, but they aren’t worth pinning your energy or your confidence on. Try to focus on the things that are within your control - developing your craft, building a community of bookish friends who genuinely uplift one another, learning new writing-adjacent skills like mentoring, blogging, event chairing etc (which will all help with the first two)
While you’re on the pedestal, don’t throw peanuts at the gallery. It is very tempting to feel like you’ve cracked some secret code and now Have The Answers, but remember you’re working from a sample size of one! Your experience is certainly helpful context for others, but it will not be the Only Way, or necessarily the Best Way for them. The landscape of publishing is mercurial and what worked for you this time around will probably not even hold true for you next time around, let alone anyone else.
There are also many routes through publishing and much as some routes get the ticker-tape parade, the truth is no one route is ‘better’ than another when you look at the longevity of authors’ careers.
For example, selling in a highly contested big money auction looks like the dream but it’s a vulnerable place to be, career wise. Whereas selling to a smaller press looks unglamourous but you’re far more likely to earn out your advance & be positioned to ask for a higher one next time. Neither route is ‘better’ or makes you a better or worse author.
When I graduated from my undergrad degree with a 1st class honours, I felt I knew quite a lot actually about zoology. When I graduated from my PhD though, I knew I knew almost nothing and had only barely started learning the skills I needed to progress. Publishing feels a little like that to me. It is a process of constantly learning and relearning both our craft and the publishing experience, and there is no point at which any of us gets to look down on, or claim authority over, anyone else (see my comparanoia post for more on that).
This is GOOD! I love that writing is a constant evolution of the self! Sure, financial security and a little less reliance on luck and stochasticity would be nice. But that aside, I love that no-one’s journey is the same and no-one’s books are the same, and we’re all just figuring it out as we go.
Okay, this is the bit I’m adding in response to the review bombing furore in the 2024 debut group. Folks, I’m so sorry you’ve all had to sit through that stress inducing madness over the last few days. I hope you’ve managed to step back from it when need be & that it hasn’t entirely tarnished the communal joy to be gained from the debut groups you’re part of. I’ve seen a few friends express worries about a couple of aspects of this & wanted to give a little perspective on those.
First off, a few one star reviews are not going to tank your book. Publishers care (sometimes) about the number of reviews or the number of ‘to reads’ - they don’t care about average ratings. Because every book gets a handful of 1-2 star ratings & everyone accepts that those are both inevitable and meaningless. So if you see this happen to your book, yes it messes with your average and it’s horrible to feel unfairly targeted, but please know it’s not going to harm your book in the grander scheme of things. (For the record, there’s a neat inverse correlation between my average GR rating and the number of award noms/wins my books have, so make of that what you will!)
Secondly, debut groups can be a wonderful way to find your tribe, make connections & generally enjoy sharing the love. Howmsoever. They can also be breeding grounds for misinformation, comparanoia, and bluntly snobbery around publisher or deal size. (see point 3 above!) They also tend to fizzle out as people leave once their book is out or they hit 2nd book deadlines or or or. So my wizened wisdom would be to treat them lightly - make friends, be supportive, but don’t invest more time or emotional energy into the group than you can afford. The benefits to your book of authors (particularly those writing in entirely different genres) sharing your posts are slim in the grand scheme of things, so don’t stick around if the group vibe is not working for you.
This doesn’t need saying, i know, but your fellow writers are not your competition. This industry is tough and a positive community will give you the resilience to build a long term career, so be that community. Viewing (and treating) your potential friends as rivals will only make you more vulnerable to stress and burn out in the long run (and career-damaging public tailspins, as this week has shown).
PACE YOURSELF. Please. Pretty please. I wrote a very long and nerdy blog on my website about the relationship between authors, social media and book sales & if you want to feel empowered to step back from some of your social media then go give it a read. TL:DR book sales aren’t on you, so do what you enjoy and no more.
Social media aside, also pace yourself with writing and deadlines. One of the biggest changes that you’re probably now in the middle of is the switch from being able to focus on one book at your own pace prior to publishing, to juggling 2, 3, even 4 (wait *counts on fingers* 6!) active book projects at the same time. With publishers setting editorial deadlines, publicity introducing a whole cavalcade of blogs, podcasts and events all with their own timelines, and your agent gently murmuring that you need to maintain momentum … it’s A Lot.
If you need more time, ask for it early. Publishers would much much rather know in advance that you’re gonna be late, and they won’t be annoyed - it is very normal. If you can’t do an event, tell folks as early as possible. Say no to things if you need to. I live with disabling illness so I have to guard my energy pretty carefully. This means asking for generous timelines from the start, and being very careful about what events I say yes to, and how I manage them. Folks are okay with that, as long as you communicate.
This is all about building an authorial life that is sustainable for you. What that looks like will be different for each of us, but if you want to avoid burn out & buffer yourself from the worst of the workload stresses, then you need to find your balance and hold tight to it.
And lastly, as mentioned above but it deserves its own bullet point, build your sense of self as a writer around things within your control.
Advance size, reviews, media buzz, foiled arcs and book boxes, bestseller lists, awards … all of these things are a) largely subjective, and b) entirely out of your control. If you stake your self-belief as a writer on such flimsy things, you will struggle when that subjectivity inevitably swings the wrong way. They are all wonderful, undoubtedly, but do they define whether you’re any good? Absolutely not. Do they define whether you’re a success? I guess that depends why you write. If you, like me, write to connect with others, then you don’t need an award or an auction to succeed.
Instead, try to focus on the wins that are less subjective - the readers who reached out to tell you they cried, the simple fact that a publishing house believed in you enough to commit to your book, the joy of sitting on a stage talking about books with writers you admire. Your friends’ belief in you, that gorgeous scene you wrote yesterday, the art that someone created inspired by your made up world. Those are incredible things, and they will carry you further than anything else.
I’m not that much further ahead of you on this road, and I’m not in any way an expert. But if my strange and difficult combination of publishing, disability and marginalisation has given me anything then it’s the ability to hold myself steady through a storm. To view both the highs and the lows as passing weather fronts and focus on my community & the page in front of me. I think that’s why I’m still here, working on what will be my 7th & 8th books, mostly sane and still madly in love with writing.
I hope you are proud of yourselves, debut authors. Only 1% of aspiring authors do what you’ve done - so you’re amazing! I hope you can carve space within the madness that is debut year to celebrate this marvellous thing, and ready yourselves for the years and books to come. You’ve come so far, you have so many adventures awaiting you ahead.