In one of the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett, I really can’t recall which one, there’s a moment where Tiffany asks Granny Weatherwax about signs.
Granny replies “There’s signs all over the place. Now we just have to find ones we like.” (I’m paraphrasing, as I don’t have the book right in front of me.)
I love this so much.
It’s such a wonderful commentary on how humans will do what we want anyway. Let’s look for signs that tell us it’s okay to do that. Because we might as well move forward with confidence with what we want, believing that the Universe supports us, rather than tiptoe uncertainly in the direction we choose.
Since I decided to really start working on my demons and push making a career out of this writing biz, I’ve been seeing all kinds of signs.
Lots of authors online talking about how they’ve made a career with only a few books. Lots of them saying that speed writing isn’t the only way to get there.
I recently found an article on how the market is becoming saturated, and as we move forward in the indie publishing world, volume of books is going to matter less than writing something memorable that makes an impact on people. It was just an opinion piece, and the fates only know what the market will actually look like or demand as we go, but I felt encouraged. I’ve been trying to write memorable books this whole time.
I’m in an urban fantasy fan group on Facebook — another reader there commented about how she wishes that some of her favorite authors would go back and re-edit their earlier books, because their writing has improved over the series and she wants to see the books that first got her into the author treated with that kind of skill. A lot of people commented in agreement with her. I’m doing that right now!!
I’ve started posting daily on social media about my writing, and people have been responding and my posts have been growing and getting more popular — something I’ve struggled with in the past but seems to be going more smoothly now.
And I am a pagan — I started seeing pheasants all over the place around my house. According to what I can find, pheasants represent being open to new ways of doing things, changes and growth.
So, let’s look for some signs that we like. The Universe loves and supports us and wants us to do the thing, and do it in our own unique way.
At least, believing that gives me the confidence to move forward, and I think that’s probably the most important part of all of this.
Onward!
I do find it, let’s say, noteworthy that despite the increasing relevance of ebooks over traditional paperbacks the approach to literary releases hasn’t really changed much. Books are books because that’s good for printing. And of course if you print one, well, if you want to change something about it you gotta start over from manuscript to the printing process and then you got different editions on the markets, previous readers need to buy again or live with the outdated version and so on … it happens of course. But it never was particularly suited the process.
Which is completely different from digital content. And especially digital content on connected devices. Content can be any level of dynamic, adaptable, even optional or whatnot else. Can hypothetically be accessible at any point, can be changed at any point, and so on.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is that right now very much feels like a transitional period and authors and readers alike will recalibrate what they expect “buying literature” means. Going over older releases and (hopefully) improving on them seems very much like the sorta thing that will be part of that discussion. As is Patreon support with chapter-by-chapter releases or commercialized webserials and whatnot else is currently all going on. Ideally it’ll allow both readers and authors to be better able to get that sorta content and author-reader relation they find suits them best out of this.
Yes, I totally see that — we’re at an evolution point in writing, reading, and producing stories. How and stories will change and how practices of telling them will change has all yet to be seen. But little by little, we’re starting to see it, starting to be it, starting to develop it. I’m super curious to see how that all shifts as we move forward.