The Queensland Writers Centre, of which I am a member, distributes a newsletter each month (with a trendily obscure cover) with “helpful” advice to writers.
As there is no letters to the editor section or any other mechanism for comments, suggestions and feedback, it does appear to be a closed shop! In this digital age, they don’t even have a forum or allow comments on their own blog!
Unfortunately, like most of the publishing industry (it used to be a profession), it has its head buried in the sand and only occasionally blinks around in a lame and often late effort to discover what is really occurring! Like the entire publishing business inAustralia, it is, sadly, ten years behind the times. Publishers,companies, critics, agents - you could slap a glass dish over the lot and call it Jurassic Park! Oops, that’s been taken, hasn’t it.
The letter from the CEO in the latest edition of the Queensland Writers Centre newsletter almost made me chokeon my tea. Apparently, she is in New York on a three day conference to discover the unique ways to use the internet and other associated ways for authors to earn money! Nice work if you can get it and good on her.
However, she was agog with the revelation that she actually met a writer who controls all publishing of his work and made over $50,000!
Well, hello there!
I have been web publishing for over six years (under five different author names – brand names - mainly USA & UK) and I control everything! No need for a publisher or an agent, no advances. I make money per book (and, BTW more than 38% margin ) and I do very well, thank you. The amount I earn is between the lovable tax man, my accountant and me but I know I earn far more than if I went down the old dinosaur route, probbaly more than most Oz authors who publish through a publisher.
And the bonus is I have direct contact with my readers who are not backward in emailing me and discussing my books. Even have fan clubs on the web and forums! And I don’t leave home.
No critics complaining about paragraph structure, no annoying book launches or interviews with people who can’t even pronounce my name and no invitations to appear on the ABC’s dreadful book show with whatshername.
Life is pretty good.
Catch up, writers! It’s a new world and if you have got something to say, can tell a good story, you’ll find your readers. You don’t need a publisher or an agent and you defintely don’t need a self important critc to censor or promote your work.
6 Responses to “Queensland Writers Centre”
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Hi Greg,
Thanks for the blog post. Congratulations on your success. All of the benefits you listed are great reasons for authors to go direct to audiences, and many of them have followed your example. However, we talk to thousands of writers every year and many of them have not yet equipped themselves with the same knowledge or are using the readily available digital tools and distribution platforms that you have been using successfully for six years.
At QWC, we’re interested in helping more writers make the transition to better and more profitable business models, especially by retaining control of their content. My letter was pitched towards writers who are still looking guidance towards these models.
We welcome your feedback, which you are always welcome to contribute through a number of channels including email, website, Speakeasy blog, Facebook page, Twitter, phone or even a good old fashioned letter to the editor.
Best wishes,
Kate Eltham
CEO, Queensland Writers Centre
I don’t twit. And, to paraphrase George Clooney, I’d rather have a rectal examination on live TV by a fellow with cold hands than be involved in Facebook!
Email? Didn’t I send you an email?
As I said in my blog post, I looked on the web page for places for comments and in the newsletter for a Letters to the Editor section – could not find any. If there are those avenues, you should make them more user friendly, more obvious. Then, people might actually use them.
Unfortunately, the publishing industry in Australia does not welcome criticism. Understandably, a loss of significant power and influence is difficult to come to terms with and there is confusion in other quarters (newspapers, Australian Government with its futile censorship) when attempting to understand the sometimes unpalatable truth of the digital age.
Thanks for the commercial, anyway.
Greg,
you’ve opened a can of worms here.
Newspapers are screwed unless they understand how to use their IP. And the Oz Government is also screwed if it thinks it can censor free speech.
Can’t remember when I bought a book from a bookstore as I usually buy online from the US. Most chain book shops in Oz “dumb down” their offering. And the shop assistants know nothing.
Keep fighting the fight!
Sam V.
The publishing business has many problems, not just confined to your country, Greg. Writers especially are trying to discover the possibilities, the new ways of presenting their art. It’s not easy but as you’ve said, can be done.
Always enjoy visiting your blog!
these associations are more interested in feathering their own nests than actually listening & or helping members
it dont matter if you are a writer or bottlewasher, the executives are politicians
don’t bother with these groups anymore. No help, no point.