Unhealthy Fantasies?
October 13, 2009
Since my agent is aggressively marketing The Fortress of Diamonds, my mind turns toward fantasies of large, multi-book contracts and book advances, along with foreign rights deals and movie options.
I've had fantasies about winning the Lotto--who hasn't? But I never expect to win. (My odds would improve if I actually bought tickets, but in general I don't).
That "never expect to win" thing isn't really an aspect of the Big Book Advance Fantasy. The fantasies are significantly more charged, the expectations are much greater.
And, I suppose, the odds are a little better (maybe).
Still, although I've talked to enough aspiring authors and published authors to understand the ubiquity of this fantasy, I'm not entirely sure it's a healthy one. It undermines the reality and difficulty of the business. It creates false expectations and hopes that influence how you go about your business. (A writer and I discussed the fact that there are a ton of authors out there that receive $5000 advances or such and then spend $10,000 or $15,000 on promotion, doing mailings, going to a half-dozen conferences, funding their own book tours, convinced that their books will catch on and earn that money back. We're both extremely skeptical). It colors your life because you're not living it now, you're always hoping to turn things around when your book hits the bigtime.
I suspect rock-and-roll bands have the same fantasies, as do aspiring actors who go to Hollywood or New York.
I don't want to judge it. I've had my fair share of it. But now, they leave me with a creepy feeling I can't quite explain.
Anyway, that's my thoughts for today. Cheery, ey?
Mark Terry
posted by Mark Terry at 6:32 AM
3 Comments:
Well, a couple months ago, I read a study on realists with their feet on the ground vs. (for lack of a better word) fantasists with their heads in the clouds. The fantasists achieved more, were happier, and more successful.
I think the trick is to find the ratio of realism and fantasism that most inspires us. Plus, there's a time for fantasy and a time for realism. Shopping and writing the book sounds like a profitable time for fantasy.
When the book sells seems like a good time for realism. Spending $10,000 to promote a $5,000 advance seems questionable to me. When I first broke $6,000 a year with writing, it was all I could do to convince DH to spend $90 a year for a website. I'm still not quite convinced it's been a profitable investment, to be honest.
Spy,
I think that's a good point. There definitely does seem to be times when your fantasies are motivating and times when they're detrimental.
It strikes me as sort of a gambler's mentality. You don't bet more than you can lose, but so many authors have bought into the "early losses for later success" theorum, without really thinking too deeply into it.
I definitely wouldn't recommend spending more than one's advance on marketing. And quite frankly since Promotion seems to be so "ineffective" anyway, I would think writers would want to do FREE internet marketing. Build solid relationships, blog, guest blog, get a free chapter out, see if you can do a podcast. Something to build even tiny buzz that doesn't cost you vast amounts of money.
Hell, I wouldn't spend $10,000 to entirely publish my own book AND market. Maybe I'm just more frugal than some people, I don't know. But a huge mistake of early small business owners (and writers consider their writing a business) is overinvesting financially and running out of capital.
If one is paid $5,000 to write, and spends $10,000 promoting...that is one damn expensive hobby they've got there.
I agree with you that it's an unhealthy fantasy. I figure if I cannot sell 1,000 copies over a year's period of my own book on my own, then I shouldn't be published in ANY format.
If I sold that many, I'd more than pay for the next book. My goals are a bit higher of course, my dreams slightly higher than that, but this is an uncertain business and it almost seems to make more sense for EVERYONE to treat it as a serious hobby/art and NOT as a "money maker" per se, until such time as the results warrant that attitude.
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