Good news! Readers are now the gate-keepers to good books!

The writing industry is changing. And in my opinion, for the better! I am the author of more than 17 historical romances. I started my career back in 2005 when I received my first contract with a traditional publisher for a Christian Pirate trilogy, and it’s been a wild ride ever since--a fun ride!  But, much like a roller coaster, it was a ride I felt I really had no control over. There were highs. There were lows. There were scares and disappointments. And lots of books to write with tight deadlines!  What many readers don't understand is that it is publishers and the industry in general that dictate the content of those books.Yup. A writer will submit multiple proposals for novels, but it is the publisher who decides which story line they like, if any. More often than not, they reject each one and send the writer back to the drawing board. Or sometimes, they even tell the writer what type of story they want.. .i.e. time period, general plot, etc.  Rarely does a publisher accept the story the writer really wants to write!

The reason? Publishers are businesses and businesses must make a profit and hence, they must make hard decisions about what type of books they think will make them that profit. I don’t always agree with their decisions, nor with the decisions of most publishers and agents in the industry, but I do understand their trepidation to try something new.  Especially in this tough economy. The problem with this fear is that publishers tend to play it safe and only publish books by authors who are selling well or books in genres that are selling well. They rarely step outside the box and publish something new and interesting, which leaves the reading consumer with so few choices. Most readers don’t understand that when they go to the book store and browse the shelves, they are only seeing a tiny percentage of all the great books that are out there. (I’m talking about books that are both published and not published).  Even if a book gets published, it isn’t guaranteed a spot in a book store because stores only purchase best-sellers from best-selling authors. Take it from someone who knows this firsthand. Then of course, the great books that never got published don’t stand a chance.

With no insult intended, I liken agents, publishers, and book stores to three trolls guarding the bridge that leads to a successful career as an author.  They are doing their job by only allowing certain authors to pass and keeping the rest back. But in the process, they are also holding back from the reader a host of fantastic books.   It took years for me to finally realize this. I was new to the business, naïve, and extremely thankful to have a contract. So, when my publisher told me I couldn’t write about this or that, and they wanted stories set in this time period, but not in that time period, I complied because I so desperately wanted to have my writing published. But somewhere along the way after 14 books, I got burned out. I lost my love of writing, my spirit of creativity, and sometimes even my desire to continue.

I thought I had some really cool and unique ideas, but no one seemed interested.  Some of them my agent wouldn’t even send to publishers. The rest, my publisher rejected. They wanted prairie and Amish stories, they told me, not pirates or mermaids or Vikings or time travel!

Then the E-book craze began. The world of the Kindle and Nook and Ipad, and all of a sudden these online companies made a way for authors to upload and sell their own work! And I found myself getting excited. Finally I could write what I wanted to write, what I was passionate about, what inspired me.  Finally I could read books that interested me, in time periods that interested me. This was such great news for both Readers and Authors!  Now, readers have a much wider variety of books to choose from online stores. 

The only problem?  Readers must become much wiser consumers. Since agents and publishers quickly discarded poorly written books from even entering the publishing arena, without them, many amateur writers are throwing junk out on the market. So the reader must become the troll for their own specific tastes and requirements.

The good news?  There are tons of great writers putting their masterpieces out there in a multitude of genres, time periods, voices, and interest.  This is also good news for an author like me because now I can write the story I want to write. I have just written and published my fourth independent novel, Charity's Cross, a clean adventurous pirate story filled with love and romance. I hope you’ll check it out. (Over 150 5 Star Reviews!)

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In the meantime, it’s a new world for both writers and readers. An adventurous world, and in my opinion, a far better one!  Thoughts?


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