Tag: Publishing

The Future!

Posted on by CV Whitfield

“Always in motion, the future is.” – Yoda, Empire Strikes Back.

We can sit and do nothing. We can sit and worry about it. Or we can get up, plant our feet on the ground, and take advantage of it.

This is my attitude about publishing. The future is rapidly approaching. The fate of storytelling as we know it could flip in on itself. Not only for novelists, prose writers, short fiction writers but also the comic writer and the comic artist.

Technology is now so advanced; anyone can write and publish a book with little or no fuss (and/or budget). Tools like Amazon or Lulu allow you to place your story online and sell it digitally to millions of Kindle readers or tablet users. WordPress is a brilliant platform for sharing creative content absolutely free!

Then there’s crowdfunding sites to “pre-sale” your product so you absolutely know the demand of your market (and reader)! Sorry big presses; this is the future. One needs to adapt or get out of the way. The time of worrying if a major publisher will accept your work (or story) is over. With the right enthusiasm and motivation, a storyteller can sell his work and bypass them altogether. And actually make a full-time career out of it; paying the bills and paying their taxes.

Right now, you can get lost in a very big sea of content and creators. But soon, millions of people will know where to look for it besides the local Barnes and Noble or Walmart. Comic book stores will become digital stores selling both digital and physical items. And publishers like DC and Marvel need to learn quickly how to stay relevant. Or by 2024, these guys will be only selling reprints of archive stuff or hoping another billion dollar movie can be made. I see Marvel (or DC) being a one room office with a staff of little just trying to protect their copyrights.

I am inspired by the future. And honestly, I still want a big publishing deal. Yet, I know it’s not the only option anymore. I challenge all of you to go to IndieGoGo or Amazon to look for independent stories. Support the next generation of writers and creators! Or be the next generation writer and put you stuff out there, any way you can!

0

It’s been weaponized…and that’s F’ing scary!

Posted on by CV Whitfield

Today, is a great time for writers. It’s also a scary time too!

20 years ago, when I started a real effort to be a professional writer, I knew it would be a very hard and vigorous journey. I also knew there were no guarantees that I could actually pull it off. It was like buying a lottery ticket. One could think about it, research numbers and then finally buy a ticket and still not win anything. That was just the publishing world. Not everyone was ‘lucky’ enough to get their break.

Fast forward to today, and now almost anyone — actually everyone can write a book and get it published. Granted, I’m referring to the new ability to self-publish. I could have self-published in 1999 as well, but it would have been horribly expensive and a financial burden to my family.

With services like Lulu and Amazon, you can now get your book placed digitally on the internet. They offer consumers the ability to buy your book, both digitally or print-on-demand, and you can financially benefit from it. Now, you still need to put some work into marketing and publicizing it or it will just get lost in a sea of thousands — millions of new books.

Now, I will consider the self publish route so I get more control of my creation. I will still shoot for a traditional publishing contract too. Yet, I have a new fear. A very real one. That fear is the — INTERNET! Or more precisely SOCIAL MEDIA.

It has been weaponized. And it can destroy people’s careers. I say this as a worst case scenario of course. But it should be a real fear for writers. What-if, my book is successful? What-if, I’m the next J.K. Rowling?

And then, someone is offended by something I wrote. What if they interpret that my book as something it isn’t and go to social media. Now I have to defend it. Or defend my life and my career. Because today, creators can be accused, tried, and punished by popular opinion and its far more damaging than a court of law nowadays — and usually this destruction bipasses due process and the courts. And this is scary.

So, everyday I tell myself to be kind. Be humble. Tell my stories they way I want and how, if I was just a reader, would like to read them. This is my confidence — AND I will SUCCEED!


0