My wife and I joke all of the time when we read a book from an author that we have always enjoyed and then the book just tanks. We then find that several books in a row from that author are equally as flat. What happened? We had such high hopes for this author and then things just fall apart?
In reality, this happens to a lot of people in a lot of various hobbies, skills and occupations. The individual simply quit learning and growing as an author. They became too relaxed and comfortable with where they were at in their career and started taking things for granted.
Strong authors, the ones that do have long careers in this business have found a way to always grow and learn. In fact, editors and agents want to see this in the authors we work with. We want the author to have the ability to dissect what they are doing on every project they are working on. We want them to be able to self-diagnose their writing and their stories.
At the completion of each book you write, it is crucial to pick it up and start examining everything you did with it. What were some things that worked, and why did these things work? Did you make changes in how you wrote the book? Why? Did those changes work?
Along the same lines, you need to take the time to constantly read and continue to learn your craft. Writing is not something that you can simply claim you have learned all you need to know the moment you have been published. This is something I have said here on the blog before. I am always constantly amazed at how published authors quit taking workshops, quit attending conferences other than to do book signings and really do seem to shut the educational side of this business off. This, in my humble opinion, is a huge mistake.
We have to remember that the publishing world is constantly changing. This is not simply in how we deliver the books to our readers, but the style of writing our readers like and will buy. If we do not continue to learn and grow, you become pretty dang stagnate.
No comments:
Post a Comment