{"id":6863,"date":"2022-08-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/is-your-writing-just-a-hobby\/"},"modified":"2022-08-19T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T12:00:00","slug":"is-your-writing-just-a-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/is-your-writing-just-a-hobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your writing just a hobby?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I got this email from a writer \u2013 we will call him Mitch. And I believe that Mitch lives on a ranch in Kentucky, can handle a shotgun, has an easy seat in the saddle, and inclines towards a leathery manner in his personal relationships. Also, I don\u2019t know why, but I see him with a small white terrier, named Rascal.<\/p>\n

Mitch writes:<\/p>\n

I fear that my writing is just a hobby and I\u2019ll never achieve my modest ambition to get a readership that covers my self-pub costs. How do you tell? What are the signs\/criteria that it\u2019s time to move on? The industry is full of encouraging people telling everyone to just keep writing. If I played guitar or painted I wouldn\u2019t necessarily expect to find an audience but so many writers do. But we\u2019re not all good enough to find an audience. I\u2019m asking you as you talk straight and don\u2019t sugarcoat things.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve self-published two books of historical fiction and benefited greatly from Jericho Writers – your video self-pub course was great and I enjoyed being a FNL finalist in 2021. [<\/em>FNL = Friday Night Live, an amazing event we run at both our Summer Festival of Writing and our York Festival of Writing].<\/p>\n

I decided to self-publish after winning a prize at a literary festival, getting multiple requests for full MS, and being offered a (scandalously bad) contract from a digital first publisher. The books have attracted some decent reviews and very modest sales. But now I\u2019m questioning whether to continue investing the considerable amount of money to ensure my books are professionally edited and presented. The time is not a problem as I enjoy it. I don\u2019t want to end up like the self-published author I know who\u2019s published 17 books with fewer reviews in total than I\u2019ve had on my two and even lower sales. But he keeps plodding on.<\/em><\/p>\n

What questions should I be asking myself?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Well \u2013 good question, and I don\u2019t really know, but here are some of my thoughts:<\/p>\n

Are your books good enough?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are an FNL finalist then your book is unquestionably strong enough that it can make sales.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say that, in the past, whoever has won our Friday Night Live competitions is almost always strong enough to get an agent and be taken on by Big 5 publishers. I\u2019m definitely not saying people should necessarily choose that route over self-publishing, just that the Big 5 do lay down a clear quality hurdle, which an FNL winner has successfully leaped.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a finalist but not a winner, then you\u2019re still there or thereabouts. So, if you were playing the trad publishing game, you\u2019d be expecting to be taken very seriously by agents, you\u2019d certainly be looking at offers from reputable digital-first outlets, and you might or might not get an offer from a Big 5 house.<\/p>\n

Either way, your books are strong enough to be published and \u2013 definitely \u2013 self-published. I won\u2019t name names, but there are unquestionably million-plus selling authors whose books are not as good as yours. So do you have the basic quality? Yes.<\/p>\n

For anyone reading this email whose books aren\u2019t yet in that zone, I\u2019d generally recommend that you work more on your books (and yourself) before publishing. Mitch is in about the right zone to get published. People who aren\u2019t yet in that zone can get published and can make sales \u2026 but real quality makes everything easier, there\u2019s no doubt.<\/p>\n

Trad or self-pub?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think for you, there\u2019s a real question about which route to follow.<\/p>\n

Historical fiction is one of those genres which hasn\u2019t been so heavily colonised by indie authors. It also tends to invite standalone writing, which is just tougher to sell than anything in a series. It\u2019s not that there\u2019s a huge market for traditionally published hist fic, but at least there\u2019s an ecosystem already present and thriving.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not my main concern. The thing about self-pub is that \u2013 with very few exceptions \u2013 books don\u2019t sell themselves. You need to be really clear-eyed and determined when it comes to:<\/p>\n