How to become a famous writer?...

It's amazing the number of people out there who are eager to offer their "expertise" on how to become a bestseller, especially when the vast majority of them have never been bestsellers.

The "thing" right now is self-promotion. Even the major publishers are beginning to "strongly encourage" their new writers -- and sometimes even their established writers -- to promote themselves and their work through every possible venue.

Personally, I feel writers are making a huge mistake in buying into this crap hook, line, and sinker, and I believe they will regret it. Publishers should bear the responsibility of promoting, marketing, and selling the product, especially since that's their end of the business and since they receive 85% or more of the revenue generated by said product.

The creator of said product might get 15%. If he or she is lucky. And out of that 15% will most likely pay an agent 15%, plus pay taxes on the income, and then pay expenses. Not much overhead for writers, but when you start out earning only 15% of the revenue generated by your product, that's a good thing.

Publishers already have mechanisms in place for promotion and advertising; writers do not. Publishers are capable of promoting on a national, even international, scale. Writers are not.

Look, what you keep hearing is that the internet is going to change everything. That writers can now have an impact on their sales because, hey, we have the internet now.

And I say, sure, use the internet. Have a website. I personally don't believe a blog generates enough book-buying traffic to make a difference, and it takes away from the time you have to write and get paid for your work. But if you want to blog, then go at it.

The fact remains that right now, today, the internet is still an evolving thing, and we don't really know what it's going to be tomorrow. Maybe one day everybody will do everything via the internet and email -- and maybe not.

In the meantime, spending every dime of your advance and most of your time promoting the hell out of your work is probably not going to net you much -- and may lose you much more. Because you have to have the time and energy to produce that next chunk of work, that next book or short story or magazine article or whatever, if you want a successful career.

Our job is to produce the product, to create a work of entertainment that others will want to read/listen to/enjoy.

And, you know, that should be enough.

I might buy a book on how to become a famous writer that was written by a famous writer. Ariel Gore? Her I don't know.

All I know about Gore is her former website "Hip Mama." I stopped buying writing how-to books a couple of years ago and don't regret it.

Forget fame. Fame sucks.

I have a question for you: Who is Ariel Gore?




You don't see JK Rowling teaching people how to be famous, do you ?

There is promotion, then there is !!!!!!!!!PROMOTION!!!!!!!!!! I think authors should do some promotion, like interviews, and go and talk to school kids in your home town. Talk with a writer's group.

Even AW is a form of promotion. I've bought books by some of the people who post here. I probably never would have if they hadn't had some sort of link to their book.

But as far as the ridiculous and expensive PROMOTION, it's probably a waste of time.

Of course we should do promotion and publicity. But to think that we have to spend so much effort in it -- not to mention money -- to be a "famous" author without much emphasis on the quality of our work... that's just topsy-turvy to me. Interviews, appearances, workshops, open mikes, etc. are all fine. But if a writer is only doing that to be "famous," I think the priority is wrong and the writer is bound to be very disappointed.

Ah-write a great book-they seem to find a place if even the trouble is great?

This tends to kinda make the auther-um-well-famous?

Well said, CheshireCat. I agree with every word.

The Internet was going to change everything in 1998 too, when I published my first adult novel. Then it was "every author needs a website." Now it's "every author needs a blog." Do such things increase an author's visibility and sales? Who knows? To me, this is similar to the issue of author blurbs on book covers--something so ubiquitous that its presence doesn't matter nearly so much as its absence. You may not be influenced by author blurbs, but if a book doesn't have any, you wonder why. So if you don't have a website or a blog, you may be in trouble--but if you do, you're basically in the same position you'd have been in fifteen years ago before websites were a big deal or blogs were even thought of, before self-promotion became an expectation. Basically, you have to run faster and faster just to stay still.

I also wonder sometimes whether the pressure to self-promote, or at least the perception of it, isn't leaking over from the vanity publishing world. Ten or fifteen years ago, vanity publishing was Vantage Press, which charged $5,000 and gave you boxes of books to put in your garage; it was expensive and cumbersome and therefore self-limiting. But POD and the advent of cheap services like Xlibris and iUniverse and PublishAmerica unleashed a tsunami of self-publishing, with thousands of authors all trying to find a way to get their books into the public eye. That desperation to self-promote, it seems to me, along with its attendant myths and lousy ideas, has infected everyone.

- Victoria

No, according her, after HP 1 was published by Bloomsbury, she just went on to get a grant to write HP 2. You don't see her get busy at open mikes and conferences. In fact, her agent told her "don't expect this to make a lot of money" and she was fine with that. It wasn't because she was doing all the promotion that HP got picked up by Scholastic. It's the quality of her work that got her famous.

victoriastrauss said:

I also wonder sometimes whether the pressure to self-promote, or at least the perception of it, isn't leaking over from the vanity publishing world. Ten or fifteen years ago, vanity publishing was Vantage Press, which charged $5,000 and gave you boxes of books to put in your garage; it was expensive and cumbersome and therefore self-limiting. But POD and the advent of cheap services like Xlibris and iUniverse and PublishAmerica unleashed a tsunami of self-publishing, with thousands of authors all trying to find a way to get their books into the public eye. That desperation to self-promote, it seems to me, along with its attendant myths and lousy ideas, has infected everyone.

- Victoria

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Very good point, and it makes sense. Half the spam in my mailbox seems to be from vanity-published authors trying to get blurbs or "advertising" their "latest" novels.

I think the best way to become a famous writer before you're dead is to self-publish a book of very creepy poetry and then assasinate the President.

I mean, you're famous from death row, but everyone will read your poetry, no?

Or drive 900 miles non-stop wearing a diaper tracking your astronaut boyfriend's new girlfriend... then write a book about it.

CheshireCat said:

The "thing" right now is self-promotion. Even the major publishers are beginning to "strongly encourage" their new writers -- and sometimes even their established writers -- to promote themselves and their work through every possible venue.
.

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Actually, just the opposite is happening. Major publishers have traditionally sent writers on books tours, and done all sorts of things to encourage writers to promote themselves. And the bigger, and more established the writers, the more self-promotion they expected. They are now getting away from this more and more.

Just about a hundred years of experience and research shows that promotion of any kind is usually wasted, and book tours, for example, even by established writers, almost never sell enough books to even pay the cost of transportation.

If you want to be a famous writer, then you have to write a book a few million people will not only read, but talk about. The stuff on this website might help a self-published writer, but it's all poppycock.

And I can only ask "Ariel who?"

Look, all these self-proclaimed "gurus" are out to sell their gears. Now, if George Clooney comes out and say, "Here's how you can become famous, too," I may actually listen. For a bit.

Jamesaritchie said:

Actually, just the opposite is happening. Major publishers have traditionally sent writers on books tours, and done all sorts of things to encourage writers to promote themselves. And the bigger, and more established the writers, the more self-promotion they expected. They are now getting away from this more and more.

Just about a hundred years of experience and research shows that promotion of any kind is usually wasted, and book tours, for example, even by established writers, almost never sell enough books to even pay the cost of transportation.

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Well, tell that to Putnam. They still stubbornly believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that author tours are a good thing; I have two good friends who write for them, and both still go out on tour every year. Both are NYT bestselling authors, and neither needs the exposure.

I know other publishers are beginning to see the writing on the wall, but when one of those friends went on tour a few months back, she told me that it was the same as always, she came into whatever city right behind a string of other authors from other publishers. So tours are still happening -- and undoubtedly still losing money.

I also have friends writing midlist who are definitely being encouraged to do their own "mini tours" in their area, arrange signings and scramble for promotion any way they can.

You'd think if everybody knows it doesn't work, they'd stop encouraging it, wouldn't you?

Any other business but publishing.

I began to realize my agent should be my former agent (which he now is) when he sent me a letter urging me to spend a few thousand dollars promoting my forthcoming book, and gave me the names of several services that would have been happy to take my money.

Jamesaritchie said:

...book tours, for example, even by established writers, almost never sell enough books to even pay the cost of transportation.

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The value of a book tour is probably more in the free media attention than in the books sold at the event.

Don't forget the babes at book tours.

I can't wait to show up for my reading and witness the throng of hot babes awaiting my signature at the bookstore.

Seriously, though, I go to readings and signings locally, and I'm always surprised at who can pack the room and who can't.

Cees Noosebaum packed the room. Standing room only.

Julia Alvarez was almost empty. Fortunately, my own giant ego was able to count as three or four people, but this wasn't quite enough to fill the room.

As an addition to what Cheshire Cat posted, I remember back in 1981 how the PC was going to change the world. 'A paperless society' no longer dependent upon books and trees!




ETA: Oh, and the best advice on how to become a successful writer is free. We here call it, SYW.

Siddow said:

I think the best way to become a famous writer before you're dead is to self-publish a book of very creepy poetry and then assasinate the President.

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Is that my first commission?

I like "how to writing books" like Stephen King's, where's it's partly memoir and partly "I think this is how I do it."

I find that "HOW to WRITE like a PRO in TEN DAYS!" sort of books are, almost completely, bullshit. Whether they're teaching you to write, or to promote yourself like a vendor on a street corner selling watches from the inside of your coat.

There's a book in my local Waterstone's called "Write Your First Draft in 30 Days!!"

What a load of old toot. What you have after 30 days is an outline, and we all know what I think of those.