I'm sitting inside of a library in Florida while I'm writing this, but the idea has been rolling around in my head for a few weeks now. Before I go into this, I want to tell you that I don't believe that I have all of the answers as to how we can make a living in the literary industry. I don't fashion myself to be a know-it-all guru who thinks that if everyone listens to me, then we would all have the opportunity to make a decent living doing what we love. Ideally, all of us would be making money and enjoying the fruits of our labor. But the reality is most of us (and by us I mean authors who are constantly negotiating the waters of the literary industry) will make some sales of our work, but sadly some of us will never reach the earning potential that we would like.
Some of us will make more sales than others. Some of us are better connected than others. That's a given. But one of the things that I've noticed is that while all of us that are in this industry choose to enjoy the recognition that we may receive by some of our constituents, many of us find ourselves limited in our earning potential.
We know that we are in an ego driven industry. We know that it is highly competitive and that every author and entrepreneur believes that his or her product is the next best thing created since sliced bread. We have to, because if we don't believe in ourselves, how can we rightfully expect anyone else to?
Still, when I take a step back from our profession and look at it objectively, one of the things that I notice is the lack of unity and support that we give one another. Sometimes, authors will purposely overlook opportunities to further advance their product if it somehow translates in their mind that they are supporting someone else. One of the things that I noticed is that if an author supports another author, that somehow means that they are abandoning their dream to support someone elses...and as a result, they spend so much time doing the me-me-me dance until people tire of hearing about them. I've seen it happen repeatedly. I've been guilty of it. As authors, we probably should be reading other authors' works. We should be lifting and supporting one another the same way that we expect people to lift up and support us. I don't think that people mind supporting you, especially if there is a redemptive quality to your work. But it will not hurt you to read the works of others. We are fortunate to be in a multimillion dollar industry. There's money to be had by every author. With proper marketing and distribution of your work, you are certainly entitled to a nice, hefty slice of it. But every artist knows that there is more to this industry than just your individual project. People may look at you differently if you say that there is another author who has talent and that their work is worth reading.
The other thing that I've noticed is how we conduct ourselves when doing business. Many of us have worked very hard to obtain what we have. We've invested time, money and energy into our brand; shaping it into what we ultimately want it to become. As a result, we may feel that we are the ones in charge and that the only parameters that we have to operate in is the ones that we created. In short, the attitude may be, "I'm the boss! What I say goes!" And that may be true. But think about one thing for a moment. Before you became an entrepreneur, you were a consumer, and as a consumer, you probably expected a certain level of professionalism when you were interacting with a business entity. It is no different when you are offering a service to someone. It may be true that you may not need your potential clients dollar at that moment and if they really don't like dealing with you, there will be someone else that will. But ultimately, money is money and we all want more of it. After all, wouldn't it make sense to make 50K instead of 10? Or 100K instead of 50? If that makes sense then it would stand to reason that every person that you come in contact with is a potential client with not only the means to employ your services, but to pass the word on about you to others if they are pleased with your work.
If someone makes an inquiry about the services that you are offering, they are generally doing it because they are shopping around for the type of service that you offer or they are interested in what you as an individual have to provide. Don't always assume that price is going to motivate people to want to do business with you. Price is a factor, but if the person feels that you could care less about them in their interaction with you, they will take their business elsewhere. Believe it or not, people like to feel like they, themselves have value as well as their money.
I understand that many of us have been burned before in the past by people that claimed that they could provide a service but in the end, failed to deliver what you expected. I've experienced this first hand. That is why people ask questions. Most times, if you are providing a service, they aren't asking questions of you to find out how good you are (or aren't)...they simply want to make sure that they will be getting what they pay for. If you answer someones inquiries in one-word answers, you are in essence saying, "This is my business and I'll run it the way I please or I don't need to explain anything to you." And something like that is enough for someone to say that they just don't trust you enough to do business with you. So what do you do? Well, a little bit of friendliness goes a long way. You don't have to write a novel to answer someones questions but you don't have to be overly abrupt either. Ultimately, you want the person to do business with you and you want them to be pleased so that they can either be a repeat customer or recommend new business to you. Sometimes, it's not just about getting the job done. Sometimes, its about how you do the job that makes the difference for a repeat customer.
Lastly, if you are a provider of service, please...please...please...know what you are doing. Don't sell yourself as an authority in a particular field if you know that you aren't. The person that you deal with will know it once they begin to interact with you. And believe me when I tell you that if you deliver something to your client, but it isn't what they expected, it isn't always the clients fault. Most times, you've represented yourself as being able to provide a particular service to get the sale, and then failed to deliver what was promised. Some people will blame the client saying they expected too much when in reality what they expected is what YOU said YOU could deliver. You can't blame them for that. Misunderstandings do crop up from time to time so it's always in your best interest to make sure that you and your client come away from the bargaining table with a mutual understanding as to what the outcome of your business dealings will be.
Well, that's my thought for today. If this helps anyone, great. If it doesn't, that's okay too. Let's just continue to make our industry great and for all of my fellow authors out there...keep writing!!
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