The power of specialization is obvious to every writer who dreams of walking away from the oppression of the day job and devoting his or her full-time to the craft. Imagine the all books we could write—perhaps two or three a year—if we weren’t limited to an hour or two of writing each day.
If you think artisan publishing offers a shortcut to becoming a full-time writer, I have bad news for you: artisan publishing is actually a shortcut to becoming a full-time publisher.
The difference between a writer who is published and a publisher who writes begins with the contrast between the passive phrase, “a writer who is published,” and the active phrase, “a publisher who writes.” One of the reasons for the traditional separation between authors and publishers is that it allows each partner to specialize: the writer delivers a finished manuscript and then the publisher goes to work.
There’s so much to do as an artisan publisher that you can’t afford to specialize. Serious writers understand how much time and effort it takes to go from idea to finished manuscript. Publishers understand how much time and effort it takes to go from finish manuscript to book for sale. You’ve got to be a generalist if you’re going to do everything that needs to be done between the idea and the book. Even if you engage freelance editors and designers you still need to understand enough of what they do to be able to review and approve their work.
But it’s worse than that. You actually need to become a serial specialist. Many of the nontrivial tasks—like writing and design—require focus and skill. And yet just as you’re getting the hang of it you need to move on to something else. In practice this means you’re constantly relearning things. If you feel like you’re being pulled in too many different directions when you try to write now, you’ll find artisan publishing more frustrating than fulfilling.
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I've been writer/publisher for the last year. What I've found, is that I write the book. finish the book, edit the book (and all that entails), and then and only then do I think about the publishing aspects of the book from promo and marketing to covers and formatting. I have to separate each different component otherwise I will go crazy.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right: trying to do too many things at once is a recipe for madness.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's just old age, but I find that when I repeat the writing and then the publishing I have to allow myself time to relearn each job.
Writing a series is not that different. When you start the next book, you've got to reacquaint yourself with your characters--not the major things, but all the minor details that had become second nature as you drafted and revised but are no longer in your working memory.