Great writing/publishing advice from an experienced author

For a while now I have been reading this great blog by Crawford Kilian, who is a published novelist as well as college professor. His posts are always interesting and he fills them with tons of useful tips, advice and general wisdom from someone who knows the writing/publishing business.

A recent post, Writing fiction in bad times, is no different. But it caught my eye because he compares the world of publishing from around the 1930s (where a writer could make a good living selling fiction to magazines) and today – where its hard to eek out a living as a novelist, much less just writing for magazines.

And if you’re an unknown writer trying to get a novel published? Forget it!

In times like these, no publisher is quite insane enough to take a chance on an unknown writer with no agent. The publisher has long since sacked the underpaid sub-editor who would normally read submissions from such writers.

The post continues:

Unknown writers would get a prompter answer from the Norse god Thor than from such agents.

That’s pretty darn bleak – but it’s the nature of the beast (publishing) and a sign of the times we live in (crappy).

But the part of Kilian’s post that really struck me was the advice he gives near the end, on steps writers can take to jumpstart their careers and take measures into their own hands. Some of his advice is a little surprising, considering he has published numerous novels the old fashioned way.

His first suggestion is to simply make copies of your work (a short story, for example) and hand it out to friends and family. Let the comments (both positive and negative) come and see what happens. While this probably won’t land you a large publishing deal with Random House, it will at least get you used to people reading and commenting on your writing (i.e. developing a thick skin).

Kilian’s second suggestion is where it gets interesting. He says to self-publish through a reputable self-publishing company that can produce a decent looking book for you. Then, fill up you car’s trunk with copies of your new book…

…and then distribute those copies to local bookstores on consignment. If you publish your own book, you’re a publisher. Maybe you’re more of a businessperson than you thought, and you’ll actually enjoy the experience.

This kind of grassroots publishing is already catching on and many authors who began by self-publishing their book, now enjoy fairly lucrative contracts with traditional publishing houses. And as large publishers become more closed-off to new and emerging writers, I think we are going to see a lot more of this.

One major setback to this grassroots publishing, however, is that you really have little chance of seeing your books on the shelves of your local Barnes & Noble and/or Borders. The chains like to be able to return unsold copies of a book to the publisher for refund credits – something unheard of in most other industries.

The one big piece of wisdom I took away from Kilian’s blog post was that writers need to take matters into their own hands, especially when times are tough. The technology has arrived to let authors become their own cottage industry and virtually eliminate the need for a middle-man, like an agent and large publishing house.

Of course, this wisdom has been floating around the intertubes for a few years now. But it takes on more significance when a writer like Crawford Kilian, who has been down the traditional route many times before, but is also embracing new technology (like his blog!). Thank you Mr. Kilian!

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