Changing Seasons/Publishing Greetings

Well last month Krabi was a flurry of activity with the Krabi Berk Fah Andaman - the festival that celebrates the opening of tourist season here. What an event - all of the watersports competitions and cultural shows! Anyway - me and the children had a wonderful time and are blessed to have been here to experience it. Back in the Western world I know that all of you are preparing yourselves for the Christmas holidays -- yes, yes you are now entreanched in the season of "excess" -- lol

I sent my good friend and author a email a few days back, first to wish her the happiest of holidays and secondly, to find out when her next novel would be published. The email I received back was one filled with lament. She shared with me the fact that her current publisher had suddenly decided that her "work" was not "uplifiting" enough and had requested a severe over haul of her story.

Now this author is an award winning writer, with a legion of fans. True, she is a "midlist" author, and while she has become a bestseller on a few lists - she has yet to conquer the coveted New York Times bestseller list - and here in lies the problem.

Her publisher feels that while she is an excellent writer, a true lyricist and metaphorist (is that a word) her stories while often traipsing on the darker side of life - ring true. But truth, it seems, (at least for AA writers) unless it's non-fiction - does not a NYT bestseller make-- however, fantastic drama filled novels with happy endings - do!

That's what I write! I thought.

How can they - after so many novels - decide in the middle of your career - that you should change your style of writing??? I asked.

Her response was simple: MONEY

What happened to respect for the creative process, the great american novel?

Went out the window with the onslaught of the babymamadrama novels.

Damn!

Could it be you were marketed incorrectly? I asked.

Of course, but it's easier for them to point the finger at me than admit that.
Publishing is like love and war - all is fair and loyalty is scarce.

My friend went on to say that there needs to be a book written for newly contracted authors entitled: So You've got a book contract, now what?

1. Don't quit your day job because you will need the majority of that money to promote your book - unless of course you received a seven figure contract and know that the publishing house is going to pull out the big marketing guns to make sure that you become a household name.

2. Always know that you're only as good as your last book. The market is saturated with books - gone are the days when an author could ride a seemingly endless wave of notariety based on one notable work.

3. Develop a thick skin because critics, self proclaimed and otherwise - will go over and beyond to tell everybody and anybody just why your book is garbage.

4. If you happen to be an African-American literary writer, with no prestigious university, artist colony or fellowships to back you up -- be prepared for a long fight to become accepted in a communty run by whites that feel that they have their quota of literary writers of African descent -- and we all know who they are --(but I'm happy they allowed Edward P. Jones in) so even though you're style is literary - they'll continue to market you to the mainstream babymamadrama readers who may or may not comprehend what you're trying to get across.

Whew!

I think that my time as an author may be limited one. I mean, who knows when the shift in publishing is going to happen, sending my genre into the world of "obsolete" - will my books be dumped next to the AB Roller and the dot matrix printer??

Probably, my friend said, so you'd better ride this wave for as long as its cresting - because change is inevitable.