The book world is changing so much, so quickly. Print books
are facing a great challenge from e-books, traditional publishing houses are
threatened by ebooks and self publishers. Even the way we think about books is
changing: is it something to treasure, is it disposable, is it something to
read on my smart phone, ipad, ereader, or something to listen to on my iphone.
(Well, not mine, a I don’t have most of these egadgets and I can’t work my
Kindle. But someone’s.)
Writers, of course, face the greatest
challenge: how to find their readership in a changing reading world, where
traditional publishers are becoming more choosy about what they print and ebook
lists are flooded by thousands of new titles every day. And, assuming they have
found a readership, writers can't just close the attic door and get on with
their writing. They have to market themselves, present themselves for
interview, constantly twitter, blog and facebook. How on earth do they rise to
all these challenges? In particular, how do those without the backing of
traditional publishing house make a success of this strange new world of writing,
blogging, engaging a readership and self promotion?
As I anxiously await the results of
my agent’s attempts to pitch my next opus to a traditional publishing house, I watch,
fascinated, at how one young writer is successfully navigating this strange new
world. Justin Sheedy started his self publishing career with Goodbye
Crackernight, a memoir of
growing up in 1970s Australia. He followed this up with Nor the Years Condemn, a fictional tribute to the boys of the Empire Air
Trainee Scheme who flew Spitfires and Typhoons against the Luftwaffe. He is
currently poised to release Ghosts of the
Empire, a parallel journey-story of one character from Nor the Years Condemn who flew the de Havilland Mosquito.
.jpg)
Justin works the facebook pages, puts in personal
appearances, chats with radio interviewers, and produces a blog to publicise
his books, even as he holds down a day job and writes the next one. And he is making
a success of it. I wondered, how does he do it? I thought, it wouldn’t hurt
to ask, would it? And so I did. I could not believe it. In the week he notched up a couple of radio chats and prepares for his instore appearance at Dymocks
Chatswood (one of my former stomping grounds and bookstore of choice: too far
to go there now!) he kindly answered a whole raft of questions about his life
and writing experience. How lucky was I?
And there began the germ of an idea. Why don’t I share
his story and experiences? Why don’t I ask other writers about theirs? And so, with
Justin’s permission, I decided to post our echat.
So, stay tuned, for my 1st of the month
author echat. It would be great to give this soon-to-be regular post a name: suggestions welcome. And I had better think of
one before 1 May when I will feature Justin Sheedy. (I am on a roll with this idea: I have already lined up Mr June and Mr July.)
.jpg)
Can’t wait to put it all together and share some wonderful authorial lessons. I might even learn something.
No comments:
Post a Comment