I recently read a very interesting statistic on Irene Watson’s informative website at Reader Views http://www.readerviews.com/services_articles.html. In 2005, 282,500 books were published worldwide. Staggering, right? Not really. Not when you compare that number to 2010, in which 3,100,000 were published! Island Shifters, my big, amazing novel, suddenly seems incredibly puny. How on earth will a reader find my novel in that crowd? A novel that will not appear in any search engine results. A novel that will not be accompanied by fanfare or book launch parties or video trailers. Press releases? Amazon “best” lists? No. None of that.
I now realize that Island Shifters is a needle in a haystack. The surge in independent publishing has provided the means to allow writers to realize their dreams, but it has also unleashed a plethora of choice into the marketplace. And, not all of it is good. Anybody can write a book. Correction. Anybody can publish a book. Unfortunately, the result is that readers must sort through quite a large number of haystacks to find a worthy needle.
It goes without saying, that a writer’s work still has to stand up to public opinion. While every author undoubtedly believes in the merit of what he or she has written, the story still has to pass muster with a pretty savvy readership, and they alone will have the deciding vote. They alone will elevate the good from the bad.
I will continue to do what I love to do. Tell stories. Writers write because they love to write. Period. Still, it is enormously gratifying when a person tells me that they enjoyed reading Island Shifters. The fact that someone has taken time out of their busy life to read something I crafted, is the definition of success for me. Anything else is icing on the cake.
In the end, it all comes down to creating characters and plots that resonate with people. And, if I do it well and this leads readers to my haystack, well, that just means they are getting closer and closer to finding that puny needle.
~Valerie~
I now realize that Island Shifters is a needle in a haystack. The surge in independent publishing has provided the means to allow writers to realize their dreams, but it has also unleashed a plethora of choice into the marketplace. And, not all of it is good. Anybody can write a book. Correction. Anybody can publish a book. Unfortunately, the result is that readers must sort through quite a large number of haystacks to find a worthy needle.
It goes without saying, that a writer’s work still has to stand up to public opinion. While every author undoubtedly believes in the merit of what he or she has written, the story still has to pass muster with a pretty savvy readership, and they alone will have the deciding vote. They alone will elevate the good from the bad.
I will continue to do what I love to do. Tell stories. Writers write because they love to write. Period. Still, it is enormously gratifying when a person tells me that they enjoyed reading Island Shifters. The fact that someone has taken time out of their busy life to read something I crafted, is the definition of success for me. Anything else is icing on the cake.
In the end, it all comes down to creating characters and plots that resonate with people. And, if I do it well and this leads readers to my haystack, well, that just means they are getting closer and closer to finding that puny needle.
~Valerie~
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