I’ve worked a number of places in my life — surprise, surprise, writing books doesn’t pay too many bills right off the bat.
I’ve worked at larger corporations, small businesses, and middle-sized businesses that wanted to be bigger. I would definitely say that the ethics in business that I’ve seen over the years have varied dramatically. And watching these dramatic differences in how various entities do business has had a pretty good impact on my own sense of ethics and what I will and won’t do myself in my book business.
I’ve seen businesses I thought would be quite ethical actually pretty obviously scam their customers, places that were quite careful in their dealings with their customers be less than kind in their dealings with their employees, and businesses that were willing to disenfranchise potential repeat customers in order to make one sale right now. I’ve seen businesses run extremely unprofessionally continue to flourish, and I’ve seen businesses neglected until they die.
All of this has taught me some pretty valuable lessons. I suppose I ought to outline my personal goals and beliefs for running my own operation with my books.
- The customer is MOSTLY right. The point of operating a business that offers a service is offering something you think people will find value in. You’re not going to get far if you don’t take care of your people and make them happy. BUT people are people — and people get unreasonable and make silly demands and have different tastes from other people. I want to make my people happy with my storytelling, and I want to make them happy with stuff I do, but I have no intention of yielding to silly or unreasonable demands or trying to please people who simply don’t want what I offer.
- Bringing and expecting respect in everything I do — if people are dismissive or can’t give me real interactions, I will find a way to cut them out of my dealings with them, whether they are a customer or co-worker. Likewise, I want to treat people that I work with, hire, and sell to fairly and with respect. I do not want to be the person that makes everyone groan when they see her coming.
- Quality. I want my products to be the best they can be. I don’t want to offer people stories that are silly, or poorly edited, or aren’t as developed as they could be. If that means taking extra time to make sure they’re done well and done to the best of my ability, then that’s what I’ll do. It definitely means continuing education and never assuming that I’m perfect at what I do.
- Following trends only if they make sense. Trends come and go, both vendors and customers like and do different things at different times. Jumping on board a trend that’s working well for authors or customers is only something I’ll do if it doesn’t violate making people happy or creating a quality product.
- I can only do what I can do. There are some practices and trends that will come and go that I simply can’t get on board with — no matter how good an idea they seem. I am only who I am and adopting practices that make me exhausted or cranky or burned out or violate my ability to tell good stories serve no one. And as much as I might like to be Neil Gaiman, I never will be and I need to be okay with that and do what I do to the best of my own abilities and not defend that to others.
- Bottom line, if it doesn’t feel good, I won’t do it. Whether that’s emailing people too much, keeping a character alive when the story is better served by killing her, or pricing my books too high or too low, I reserve the right to act on my conscience. I also reserve the right to change my mind if I find a way of looking at something that makes sense and doesn’t feel icky. I do not want to feel icky about anything I do, and I don’t want my readers to feel icky, either.
I think that’ll do as a start. I want a directive that reflects morals, dignity, and quality. This seems to do that.
I’ve certainly learned enough over the years by observing what works, what doesn’t work, and what just made me feel slimy.
