Strong Writers Are Always Learning Craft

A recent trend I have seen are the number of authors who stop doing anything with craft once they are published. The focus now is 100% on marketing. It is all about sales. What I find interesting though, is that far too many authors pretty much disappear after those first initial books. The answer is simple. The readers have gotten tired of the fact that those authors have not grown.

Let me also stress that being published DOES NOT mean that you are an experienced author. I see over and over authors presenting at workshops, or writing articles as a reliable source because they are "published." When you see what they have published, or how much they have published, it should become clear to anyone, this might not be an "expert." Like everything else out there, becoming an expert takes time.

Now, I fully get that taking a class on how to plot, or how to create a strong character might not be something that an experienced author might need, but it is something that new authors still need. Taking courses like this, even if an author is experienced will give that writer a chance to re-think what he or she is doing.

Learning is also a matter of constantly researching what publishers are doing and what other authors are writing. Again, I see many of the published authors now use that reading time for "pleasure" reading. They are finally published, so now they can just read for pleasure. Nope!

I would also argue that reading what publisher and authors are doing is not just for how to market that book, or to find new story lines. It is a matter of following the continual trend in voice. A good example of this is to go back and read some of the writing from the early 1900's. The voice of the publishers and the authors is far different than what it is today. The same goes for looking at what each publisher writes. All are different voices.

If you truly want to stay in this business a long time, it requires changing with the times. Think of musicians like Madonna, David Bowie, and the Rolling Stones. They changed and they are still here. Will you be?