William P. Young and other nobodies rising to superstardom

Huh! Interesting article. The last two times I was at Borders, I saw this book (on the endcap with SF on the left and crime/thriller on the right. I was POSITIVE it was a horror novel! Don't judge a book by its cover and all that...



But seriously, it says, 'Where tragedy confronts eternity' on the front. That's a decent hook for a horror story. Also it's all dark and it has a spooky picture and title!

bsolah said:

It's a little bit fascinating that large groups around similar ideas often can make things big....it'd be good to find other special interest groups closer to my ideas that would be good avenues for publicity.

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Ok, I'll respond to this point in your post:

People are social beings and when it comes to books, like to read the same things. There are pros and cons to this. Do they really read the book or is it just bragging rights that they know a minor celebrity. I wonder about this when people talk about bestsellers--do they really read them or is it just to put up an appearance of being current and hip?

Also if you write for a big group or audience, they can raise you up, but they can knock you down if you don't continue to conform to the group mores. So if you were to target a group, I'd choose one that has a belief/value system you can support and write to.

It made sense. But. Here's my thing. First off i never heard of this guy. Secondly christian fiction is a whole different ballgame. Thirdly, apparently the criteria for this type of book is different cause the excerpt sucks, in my opinion. Fourth, there is a built in audience for christian fiction. The readers of that are, in my opinion ( i cant stress that enough) looking for something besides story and character. They are looking for a connection to God and if they achieve that all other requirements are moot. Fifth, marketing christian fiction is kinda easy. because a) there's not that much competition b) you make an announcement to a church and bam you've reached several hundred readers at one time and c) a lot of people are going to buy the book just to support the righteousness of God and religion. (my opinion. please don't send me hatemail. please. lol)

Stories like these always are the exception to the case. Nobody talks about the thousands and thousands of people who write a book for the fun of it, self publish and sell ten copies, and are now stuck with boxes of books in their garage.

Also, is it my imagination, or is Writer's Digest more and more pushing self-publishing as a valid choice for everyone and just as valid as a regular publishing house? I stopped reading it years ago when they first started doing this and it just looks like it's getting worse and worse.

Yeah, it does appear rather in the horror genre. Spooky cover.

I've read a few articles about this book this side of the pond too - and the reviews that gave it half a star out of five. General consensus of the UK reviewers ( that I saw, and there was a reasonably large article in one of the nationals) - shoulda stayed self - pubbed.

Cool cover, it has!

nevada said:

Also, is it my imagination, or is Writer's Digest more and more pushing self-publishing as a valid choice for everyone and just as valid as a regular publishing house? I stopped reading it years ago when they first started doing this and it just looks like it's getting worse and worse.

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The book publishing industry is entering the same revolution that the music business experienced when people finally figured out they don't need major labels to put out good music. Yes--self-publishing is the future for books the same way starting your own label was the future and has become a big, viable part of the mainstream music business.

In both cases, self-promotion sets the pros apart from the amateurs. If you can promote your work, you have a career. If not, you have a hobby. With CreateSpace.com on the scene now--an Amazon company I might add--we see the advent of what I call "CD Baby for Writers".

Brace yourselves, folks--this is the future. You can get on board or kick yourself later that you didn't see it coming.

i disagree with you on so many levels i dont even know where to start. i'm not going to either. there are plenty of threads in these forums that explain about the fallacy of thinking that all you need to do is self-promote. and comparing the indie music business with self publishing books is not viable either.

nevada said:

i disagree with you on so many levels i dont even know where to start. i'm not going to either. there are plenty of threads in these forums that explain about the fallacy of thinking that all you need to do is self-promote. and comparing the indie music business with self publishing books is not viable either.

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Ditto.

All famous writers are previous nobodies...in case nobody knew this little piece of knowledge. Just sayin'.

nevada said:

i disagree with you on so many levels i dont even know where to start. i'm not going to either. there are plenty of threads in these forums that explain about the fallacy of thinking that all you need to do is self-promote. and comparing the indie music business with self publishing books is not viable either.

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Nevada--feel free to disagree, but when you consider that the average writer who gets picked up by a publishing house is not going to get massive promotion push or a great big PR budget, it falls on the writer to do their own press and promotion. Authors who wait for their publishers to do all the work for them will be disappointed.

I know one author who really should have self-published. He personally outsold his publishers on a major scale--they didn't help him much at all, and in the end he could have kept most of the money for himself after recouping his expenses. All he did was do the same thing all good writers do---he relentlessly promoted a well-written book.

Show me a writer who doesn't promote their own work and I'll show you a writer waiting tables.

And yes---my original post was laboring under the assumption that a successful writer who self-promotes has also written something that's actually worth reading. A writer who's pushing badly written crap deserves whatever they get. And it won't be much.

Unless your name is Dean Koontz.

(sorry, couldn't resist.)

jwallace said:

Authors who wait for their publishers to do all the work for them will be disappointed.

Show me a writer who doesn't promote their own work and I'll show you a writer waiting tables.

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and where did i say that an author doesn't have to promote? i was talking about the fallacy that the only difference between self publishing and regular publishing is the promoting an author does. that all you need to do to sell a book is self-promote so you may as well publish the sucker yourself. don't pretend to misunderstand me, please.

jwallace said:

I know one author who really should have self-published. He personally outsold his publishers on a major scale--they didn't help him much at all, and in the end he could have kept most of the money for himself after recouping his expenses. All he did was do the same thing all good writers do---he relentlessly promoted a well-written book.

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Fiction or non-fiction? Just curious.

Do you mean to say this author took a book that was professionally edited and professionally bound (with professional cover art and blurbs), and hand sold more copies than were sold through regular means?

Do you really think this book would have been as successful if he'd had it printed up at Lulu, sans the pro-editing and pro-look of the book?

The sad truth is that some books make it and some books don't, no matter how much promotional money the big houses throw around. There is a bit of luck involved in this business, and it will either go your way or against you.

But as the market is today, there is more dreck coming out of self-publishing than there is quality stuff. The rub, though, is that some of this self-pubbed material could be really good if the author had practiced this little thing called patience. We see it more often than I'd like--people who want to give up querying/submitting after a dozen rejections on their first book, and just go straight to self-publishing or POD. Well, maybe the book really isn't ready for publication. But because of the vast number of self-pub/POD outlets available online now, everyone who writes a novel thinks it has to be published, and they find a way.

Heck, I was almost sucked in by the lure of it all with my first book. I was so desperate to see it in print that I would have paid almost anything. But I didn't. I wrote a better book. Then I wrote a third book, better than the first. And you know? It took seven books, but I'm being paid, and I'm working with professional editors and copy editors and cover artists, and it was worth waiting for.

Professional publication with a big house and rigorous self-promotion are not mutually exclusive. It isn't an either/or thing. Every author is responsible for either promoting or not promoting their own books, whether they are self-published or have a book with Random House. And with the internet, it's pretty hard to remain completely unknown to book buyers unless you try to stay that way.

First-time authors rarely get huge promo pushes anyway, unless they've made a major deal (and then the house really needs to make sure the book finds its audience). But first-time authors also get smaller advances. We're unknowns, we're new, we're not top priorities. It's just the way of the business.

But I have to say that calling self-publishing the way of the future was truly one of the funniest things I've read in a while. I doubt you intended it as humorous, but it was. The music industry and the book industry are not comparable--it's apples and lima beans.

ewwww lima beans. those things are just gross. why do people eat them? masochists.

jwallace said:

The book publishing industry is entering the same revolution that the music business experienced when people finally figured out they don't need major labels to put out good music. Yes--self-publishing is the future for books the same way starting your own label was the future and has become a big, viable part of the mainstream music business.

In both cases, self-promotion sets the pros apart from the amateurs. If you can promote your work, you have a career. If not, you have a hobby. With CreateSpace.com on the scene now--an Amazon company I might add--we see the advent of what I call "CD Baby for Writers".

Brace yourselves, folks--this is the future. You can get on board or kick yourself later that you didn't see it coming.

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I'm gonna give my publisher a good shot at it before switching to self-publishing. I figure a two-book deal for a bloke who started writing not that long ago means they're either crazy for giving me an advance and contract, or they may actually try and sell a few of them to recoup their cash and maybe make a little profit.

JJ

I'm hoping the Cthulhu cultists will make my latest a big seller.

l'd be so disappointed if I bought this book because it looked like either a good horror read or a very cool alone-in-a-desolate-shack-and-something-really-scary-happens-and-we-find-a-lost-baby,fawn,faun,magical being,handsome woodsman-and-take-them-in book.

Even the best-written book in the known universe isn't going to convert me to christianity or any of a dozen other religions - so I don't buy books for that type of spiritual bath. Too bad about the cover - it could have been used for a very cool mystery or horror story.

Re self-publishing: It certainly has its place, and without it important works of very limited interest (geneologies, family cookbooks, memoirs, etc.) would not see the light of day and that would be a cultural loss. But I still think traditional publishing is the way to go for fiction. Yes, I know some success stories in self published fiction - good ones - but those folks wrote excellent books to start with and worked tirelessly promoting like you wouldn't believe. All their second books (and more) were traditionally published.

Re lima beans: Not for everyone's taste, but a very adult palate, like eggplant and some squashes. Not kid food! Nevada, I think it's the texture that might be putting you off, too. Try baby limas sauteed in butter. Oh, hell, try old shoes sauteed in butter - it improves the taste of almost anything. (I'll eat Brussels sprouts this way.)

Kate Thornton said:

l'd be so disappointed if I bought this book because it looked like either a good horror read or a very cool alone-in-a-desolate-shack-and-something-really-scary-happens-and-we-find-a-lost-baby,fawn,faun,magical being,handsome woodsman-and-take-them-in book.

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Close enough--he gets a note from God telling him to go to this little shack in the middle of winter and then unknown saccharine, maudlin stuff occurs. Now, if I got a note telling me to go sleep in an isolated, rimy shack, and it was signed from God, I'd have to either get myself a lock down in the psych ward or keep an eye out for the next murder story to come up on CNN... "The Christ Killer strikes again, appealing to people's sense of religion to do them needless harm and take their puppies." Yada.

I haven't read this book, but it was selling in droves at the store, and people were salivating. Just like The Last Lecture and The Secret. Seemed pretty poorly formatted/edited upon perusal. What annoys me most, however, is that the books won't stand up on our display. They keep toppling like dominoes. Frickin' shacks.

I saw this book at Target today. Made me think of AW.