2014 was a big year for my writing career, and I’m hoping that 2015 will be even bigger. Here’s how I’m planning on making that happen.
Going Hybrid
I’m planning on joining the growing ranks of authors who publish both traditionally and on their own, aka ‘Hybrid Authors.’ I’ve got a couple of options on how to pursue self-publishing, depending on how some things that are currently up the the air end up resolving.
Talking Shop
Last year, I got to talk about the business side of publishing at a couple of panels, to great acclaim. Like, kind of surprising attention. People are hungry for accurate, no-BS information about the industry, and I’m in a unique position to share that information, as a publishing professional with years of experience on both the staff and author side of the business.
To that end, I’m going to be focusing more of my blogging time on talking about the publishing industry in an organized fashion. This achieves several goals – it gets the information out there for people to use, and it helps me get the information down so that I can share it in multiple ways (see self-publishing ideas above).
I’ll also be proposing and hosting Business of Publishing panels at conventions across the year, starting with ConFusion next week in Michigan.
Books!
Ultimately, this is all about books and storytelling. I have one novel scheduled for this year, Hexomancy, the third Ree Reyes novel (fourth story in the series when counting Attack the Geek). The novel is written and currently with my editor. Hexomancy completes the first major arc for the series, bringing several storylines from the previous novels together for a geek-tastic plot-splosion.
But Hexomancy is not all you should expect from me in 2015, book-wise. More on that when the time is right. For know, be assured that what I’ve got in store will appeal to fans of my current work, while also moving into new ground in ways that I think are very cool.
If you want to keep up with what I’m doing for 2015, I’d point you toward my newsletter, which will be seeing more love, more exclusive content, and more giveaways this year.
Life
But that’s enough vague-blogging for now.
The biggest thing I’m doing in 2015 is getting married! This will also take up a fair bit of my attention, though my fiance and I are working on making the wedding celebrations suit our interests more than fulfilling the agenda of the Wedding-Industrial Complex. Goofy dancing, yes, zillion-dollar flower arrangements, not so much.
Here’s to 2015 and all of its promise.
Congratulations on the marriage! I look forward to your posts on the publishing industry (as well as a wedding-industrial complex). Have you written anything about the pros and cons of self-publishing?
Daniel,
I haven’t really done a comprehensive pros and cons of self-publishing post, because I haven’t self-published yet. I have done a lot of research into self-publishing, but I’d rather wait to speak on the differences until I’ve had more first-hand experience with self-publishing. I expect to write about my SP experiences this year, and by the end of the year, I hope to have enough experience to feel comfortable writing a business-POV strategy comparison.
I’m looking forward to the comparison, but what I should have said is “How do you predict self-publishing will benefit your career as a writer?”
From what I’ve read from other people, successful ventures into self-publishing look like small, ephemeral publishing houses. The writer pays editors, publicists, artists, graphic designers, lawyers, etc. to all come together to work on one very polished product (a book). Then the writer hopes that investment will eventually be paid off by sales. Assuming that that picture is accurate, what makes it a good idea for someone who already has book published traditionally?
Also, hm, maybe this is something we can talk about in our podcast 😉
Ah, that I’m happy to answer here in brief and talk about more in the podcast.
I’m expecting that self-publishing works will serve several functions:
1) They will let me write for a specific audience in a commercially viable manner. The sales requirements for self-published works to be viable are notably lower, since the per-sale revenue is higher.
2) I’ll learn how to manage a larger business. I’ll get to be a managing editor, art director, publisher, and sales & publicity director.
3) My self-published works will create creative tissue between my works, since I can control the back matter and drive newsletter subscriptions directly from the books themselves.
4) I’ll be able to publish more regularly and at a lower price point, filling out my portfolio, as well as creating free works to serve as introductory pieces for my various series.