Hello lovely readers, I hope this finds you well! (And no, I haven’t shrunk, I’m just a minion surrounded by very tall men in this photo!)
We seem to be steamrolling towards Christmas now, and I’m busy trying to keep a handle on the end of the year. All my events are over so I’m hunkering down and planning to write, write, write just as soon as catch up with my backlog of admin and life tasks, appointments, and so on! I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t at least try to protect my early morning writing time!
In a few weeks I’m going to have some really exciting news to share about my publications next year - no new books just yet, but some great developments with TV deals and republishing old titles. And I was totally inspired by the event I recently did at The Lane bookshop in Perth, where, alongside crime-writing legends David Whish-Wilson and Alan Carter, I was tasked with coming up with a mini mystery for the audience to solve. I enjoyed it so much (and the audience seemed to as well) that I’m thinking about how to present it so that you can all have a go, and whether to write some more. What do you think - would you like some bite-sized mystery stories to solve?!
WHAT WOULD AUTHORS LOVE READERS TO KNOW?
I decided to write this after reading the most recently published YTD sales of Australian fiction so far, in which the tenth bestselling book in Australia sold 16,000 copies. An author selling this number of copies earned an absolute maximum of $56,000 for their physical book sales - and if most of the books sold at a price closer to $16 then that figure will be more like $25-30K. Which means every other author who is NOT on the list is earning LESS than that - unless they’ve figured out how to write multiple books a year or they have another income. In fact, in a survey done a couple of years ago, the average yearly income for authors was $18,200AUD - and the same picture repeats itself worldwide. And then there’s the constant news about declining reading rates… argh!
This isn’t the whole picture, of course: some authors can also earn from ebook, audio and TV deals, backlist titles, international deals and speaking events - and all this can add up. However, for many extremely talented and hard-working authors, the struggle to make any kind of substantial income from their writing is very real. Therefore, the best thing we can do for authors is to get the word out around the realities of writing for a living, and remind everyone how important it is to buy books! At the end of the day, quality work takes time, and AI-generated books are not the answer (shudder).
So here are 20 things I think authors would love readers to know:
Author careers are never secure: the market changes constantly, and support from publishers can change too - particularly if an editor who championed the author’s work decides to move on. It’s very hard to maintain any kind of career in writing unless you’re in the top 0.0001%.
Most authors cannot earn a liveable wage through their writing and have other jobs too. This is no reflection on the quality of their books - in fact, their other jobs often add depth and inspiration to their work. However, it does heavily impact the time and opportunity that many creatives have to produce great, fully considered work. It makes the industry prone to overwhelmed, burnt-out creatives.
New books only get a few weeks in the spotlight in bookstores and on front pages of online stores. This is a vital time for author sales, and a book’s potential for success can be thrown off by all sorts of world and local events, which might take people’s attention away from reading.
Authors would love you to read the first page or chapter of our book rather than judging it entirely on cover or blurb.
The biggest gift you can give an author is telling everyone you know that you love our book.
We really need readers to actively champion books. Reading rates are declining and books are in a battle with much shorter forms of entertainment. Therefore, we love it when you read our books in public: on the beach, on the train, etc.
Authors also love hearing from friendly readers - it spurs us on! And we’re happy to answer questions too.
Authors would much prefer you to sign up for our newsletters rather than follow us on social media (although both is great too!), as this way we can keep in touch with you directly (without the interference of the algorithm) and tell you about our new work.
Self-published indie writers are not publishing lower quality books - they are simply using a different method to reach readers. Of course, there are also some under-edited, cash-grab books out there - but this is not indicative of the entire self-publishing industry.
Authors are really grappling with AI - if and how it can be used as a productivity tool, and whether it’s going to start stealing all our words and livelihoods. It’s an anxious time, and we’re grateful for all forms of support as we try to write meaningfully amidst an unknown future and an ocean of AI-generated work.
Authors are very worried about readers reading AI slop - particularly the idea of books that have been sold using a big author’s name under false pretences. It’s going to become very important to visit an author’s website and follow the links if buying online, to make sure you’re buying our book and not being scammed with a fake alternative (alarming story about this here).
Authors have to say no to a lot of requests, whether it’s events, book club visits, or reading others’ work and providing endorsements. This is never personal, it’s because it’s way too easy to get overwhelmed by doing lots of writing-adjacent activities while our own writing begins to suffer (or stalls completely). Most authors hate saying no, but we know (or quickly learn) that it’s essential to proactively safeguard our writing and family time.
We value reader kindness. We are trying our best to write a great story - so if you think we’ve failed, it’s kinder to move on to something you can rave about than to tag us into a stinky or snarky review. (We do appreciate and accept the more nuanced critical take - but don’t tag us in those either, we come across enough of them on our own!)
Please go to author events! And please, where possible, let the organiser know if you can’t attend. It’s always hard if an author thinks 20 people are coming and only 5 turn up.
Please share authors’ social posts if you like them. It all helps us to get the word out!
Authors love independent bookshops because they are boutique stores with passionate staff who often have detailed knowledge of all kinds of books and stories. Please support them whenever you can.
Authors might get much less per book when you use a streaming or online library service - sometimes down to less than 10 cents per copy.
If you see authors relentlessly promoting new books, please give us grace. We’re very aware of how gross self-promotion can be, and many of us are introverted to some degree and feel a bit daft about all this book-bothering. And yet we’re doing our best anyway, because we’ve learned that if we don’t talk about our book and try to spread the word, who will?!
No matter how many books we’ve already written, we always worry about our work in progress and how the publication will go, because things are constantly changing in the industry. While one book might fly, there’s no guarantee that the next book will too.
Finally, DYK: The hardest question you can ask most authors is ‘What’s your book about?’ We often find it really hard to sum up our books in a few sentences - so we have to practise a lot!
If you’re a reader, what do you think? And if you’re an author, how did I do? What did I miss, or is there anything you disagree with? Let me know in the comments below.
And if you’d like to read more, the list above works well as a companion piece to:
LATEST NEWS IN MY WORLD
When She Was Gone was released in Portugal last month, which means I’ve been using Google translate to read what has been so far, some lovely reviews. It’s always so rewarding to watch these stories travel all over the world, and I’m very grateful to the publishing team at Porto Editora for all their efforts. It’s also had a name change - in Portugal it’s called Every Second Counts!
Meanwhile, I’m bedding down to spend the next 12 months doing fewer events and a lot more writing. I’m in the middle of a draft at the moment, which some of you may have heard me talk about as my ‘Agatha Christie story’ and I’m going to be working hard to get that done over the next few months.
Finally, if you haven’t got to The Hush yet and you’d like to listen to it on audio, Audible Australia have a special happening at the moment and you can get it for $6.99.
Thanks for all your support, and until next time wishing you many hours of happy reading!