March 15, 2006
First we should define success, I suppose. Everybody's definition is different. Today I'm focusing entirely on fiction, specifically novel-writing, and I want to ask a question with the following parameters:

1. Novel writing
2. Making a living writing novels
3. Living means reasonably comfortable at the minimum, somewhere in the $50,000 a year and up range

So my question: What is the price of getting to that point?

I don't know, because I haven't even come close.

I caught bits of an interview with Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown yesterday, and he commented that in his earlier books he spent a lot of time trying to sell books out of the trunk of his car and attending little-known writing conferences.

And if that doesn't resonate with authors, I don't know what will.

And for those of you who say, See! Dan Brown did this, too, and look how successful he turned out to be!, I just want you to sit down, take a deep breath, possibly put your head between your knees and have a reality check, okay? Some asshole climbs up on his roof during an electrical storm with an umbrella in his hand and doesn't get strike by lightning doesn't mean the same thing will happen to you.

What hit me about this was he named at least two things that I do that I really don't like to do. And frankly, if you're an author, the chances are you're going to have to do some of this stuff. (Eric, I know you don't do this stuff. Damned if I can figure out how you get away with it).

I've carried books around in my car and flogged them by hand (I've still got copies of Dirty Deeds available. Interested in a discounted, autographed copy? E-mail me.). I've gone to conferences. I've done Rotary Club talks. I've hired a publicist. Done book fairs, library talks, bookstore signings, TV & radio interviews, print interviews and even hawked books at a street fair in Lake Orion.

And I gotta tell you--this is no way to run a business.

You think door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen sell vacuums better than Wal-Mart or Kmart? Hey, when's the last time one showed up at your door?

I've done mailings--at my own expense--fliers and mail-order brochures. I've written articles for free for newsletters and websites that should increase my exposure and help sell books. I've got a website.

And it resembles trying to move Mt. Everest from Nepal to south Texas using a teaspoon.

It is the single most difficult endeavor I've ever tried to do. Book promotion is like a giant black hole that sucks up time and money and energy ... and energy ... and energy. It's unbelievable how much energy it takes away from other things. Drive an hour or an hour-and-a-half to a Rotary Club, be chatty with the folks through lunch and singing and the pledge of Allegiance and all their business-y things, then get up on your feet and do your 15-minute dog-and-pony show with as much energy and skill and charm as you can muster, sign 4 books, chat with somebody for 30 seconds, then pack it all up and drive home, knowing that you've spent 4 or 5 hours, $4 in gas and made $25 and probably exposed yourself to a number of people who in many cases haven't bought a book to read for pleasure in their entire life.

But that's much of what's involved in the marketing and promoting of novels these days, unless you're very lucky and your publisher does it for you--a big ad in the New York Times and US Today, a TV ad, booking you on Good Morning, America and sending you on a 30-city tour.

So you have to ask yourself--is it worth it?

And nobody can answer that but you.

Best,
Mark Terry