The Secret to Winning in Publishing
By Heather Webb | May 25, 2023 |
It’s been a rough year in publishing. (Isn’t it always, though?) We keep getting hit with articles about sales and consolidations and literary agencies folding or firing people. Then there’s the AI problem—don’t get me started. I’ve been on the road to various events and writing retreats in the last six months, and I’ve spoken with a good number of author friends and I keep hearing about “soft sales” and fear of what’s next. It’s all too much doom and gloom for my taste, because you know what? There is something next. Storytelling is fundamental to our existence, so we will find a way to deliver those stories, even if things have to change a little bit…
Speaking of change, putting all of that doom and gloom together has validated something for me that I’d long ago suspected, and it appears to be true now more than ever. It’s the secret to winning in publishing. And it’s in plain sight.
The secret to winning is to learn how to pivot. To be flexible. To get loose and stretch and change directions.
You may need to pivot if you’ve suffered endless rejections on a particular project (or several), if your sales are flat, if it’s “not the right time in the market for this book,” if you’re burned out on your genre because no matter how many novels you write in that category, you can’t seem to make any traction…and more. There are lots of reasons to pivot. And there are lots of reasons we despair and become bound up over the idea of changing directions. Moving into unknown territory can feel scary. The truth is, however, that pivoting isn’t a bad thing. If fact, it may be the best choice you’ve ever made.
First and foremost, pivoting equals freedom.
When you pivot, you’re freed from your past and your track record and your numbers. Pivoting offers a new beginning, breathing room, and plenty of fresh opportunities. You may take a new pen name. Try a new genre. Work on a collaborative project. Find an agent or publisher better suited for your work. Become the publisher yourself, and be the one you’ve always wanted. It may spark ideas you’d never considered. Perhaps you learn a new aspect of storytelling beyond books.
Authors who are “winning in publishing” learn to pivot over the years of their writing career, and they lean into the renewal and the freedom it brings. It’s how they create their successes. When they hit a bump in the road, they buckle up their seatbelts and put their foot on the gas. They don’t despair (for long). When they find themselves in the midst of an emotional reaction to some perceived failure, they don’t flail and shut down. They don’t keep doing the same thing over and over again. Neither do they beat themselves up (for long). They learn to let go. They lean into the new and fresh. They relish the idea of being free, of finding the fun in the challenge again.
Pivoting may also mean a whole other kind of freedom. This kind of freedom is understanding and accepting where your boundaries lie. Perhaps you’ve had enough of the rat race, the thin promises, or the ups and downs of a business that never offers a guarantee. In this case, pivoting away from the business of publishing is the best answer. That’s perfectly okay, too. Listen to your needs. Take a break from writing, or perhaps let it become a hobby you enjoy doing to nurture yourself. Let it become fulfilling rather than depleting. Sometimes learning to let go is exactly what you need, for a time.
Ultimately, it’s important not to view pivoting as a failure. Creative pursuits—or rather, careers in the creative arts—are more challenging than most. They are only for the lion-hearted and some would say, the foolhardy (raises hand). So, look ahead at your path. Where might it deviate from the one you’ve planned? Where might you venture in a new direction? Where might you grow into another part of your creative self that you didn’t really know existed? Go there, when the time is right. Don’t become bogged down in the doom. It’s fleeting, like everything else in this life. Instead, pivot, refresh. It might just be the best thing that ever happened to your writing journey. It may just be the secret to winning in the way only you know how.
Have you had to pivot during your publishing journey?
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. As a freelance editor and an adjunct in a MFA in Creative Writing program, Heather has helped many writers sign with agents and go on to sell at market. When not writing, she feeds her cookbook addiction, geeks out on history and pop culture, and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. To date, her books have been translated to seventeen languages.
I have seen that pivot accomplished in a number of fiction careers. Most often it’s when early books don’t sell well, an option is dropped, or in some other way it becomes evident that just getting published isn’t enough. As one former client put it to me, “I was staring failure in the face.”
A successful pivot is a letting go and—just as you say Heather—is an embrace of freedom. It is going from writing the way that you should to writing the way that is you.
Another writer I know made a hugely successful pivot. I asked him what made the difference. He said, “I stopped writing from here”—he pointed to his head—“and I started writing from here.” He pointed to his heart.
Good post.
Thanks for your profound comment. You always make us think a little more deeply, Don. I love this: “I asked him what made the difference. He said, ‘I stopped writing from here’—he pointed to his head—“and I started writing from here.’ He pointed to his heart.”
I could see where this is absolutely the case. When you’ve come to the point that you have nothing to lose, you go for it. Why hold back? Thanks for stopping by today! (And looking forward to seeing you in Salem.)
I terminated the rejections and self published. I’m thrilled. My books have received great reviews and I have never been more creatively fulfilled. I’m currently pivoting to creating a cookbook just for promotions, and it is such fun. Who would have thought?
I love this, Debra! Good for you for taking your fate–and your happiness–into your own hands. I bet putting together a cookbook is going to be a lot of fun. I’m obsessed with cookbooks, myself. Best of luck!
My pivots have always been away from my assumptions. After a career in writing and editing, I assumed that I would easily sell everything I wrote. Pivot. I thought I would do amateur-sleuth mysteries. Pivot. I thought self-publishing would bring my work directly to an eager public. Pivot. I thought I would stop even trying, because what was the point? Pivot. Still working, but not assuming anything at all.
Michael, I share most of your wrong-turn assumptions, though my amateur sleuthing is confined to trying to find the car keys. I am pivoting to working on two new small book projects for my own pleasure—because I get more pull from the creative magnet there—rather than expectation of any lofty commercial results.
Heather, thanks for the post!
Go where the pull is for sure, Tom. I forget who said something like “If you can do anything else but writing, do it,” and there’s some truth to that. Writing for pleasure is literally THE BEST.
This makes good sense to me, Michael. Publishing is one of those rare careers where having experience and degrees and intelligence and hard work don’t equal success. In fact, those things may add up to nothing. It’s such a difficult and hard learning curve. I have to chant to myself regularly that “publishing is not a meritocracy,” and that the real reason I’m writing is because I love it and that has to be enough on some level. May not pay the bills but I’d write in some form regardless. Perhaps not as feverishly or as often, but I’d still do it. It’s a calling, isn’t it. Thanks for stopping by today and good luck with your WIP
Great post, Heather, and thank you for your excellent advice on pivoting. It is applicable to our lives as well. I’ve changed directions several times in my personal life as well as professional, and it is truly about doing what you can do to thrive. When too many rejections get discouraging, I stop submitting and focus on my stories. I’ve recently returned to doing magazine work because I enjoy it but the longer stories continue to call so carving out time for them. I still haven’t learned to balance them both. I go through spurts with the fiction; always, there’s interesting research that I have to explore so the fiction gets interrupted. But I’m a happy reader and writer and feel we are blessed to have this writing life. I’ve been at it now for 20 years and it’s good.
I love that you find so much joy in various kinds of writing, Vijaya. You’re so right–we’re blessed to do what we love, in the end. Not much else matters when all is said and done and the curtain falls. Thanks for your comments today!
Such a wise post, my sister of the heart. I have pivoted so many times, and I have the string of names to prove it. It’s a wild ride, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Thanks, my friend. <3 I only recently learned of your past lives. I marvel at your ability to reinvent. Your success proves to me that persistence–and staying positive through major pivoting–wins. You're always such an inspiration!
Great post! It makes me think of all the times I’ve pivoted even on a single project – from middle-grade historical nonfiction prose to adult poetry in several voices (inspired by an AWP panel on historical sources and contemporary poetry) to middle-grade poetry in several voices to middle-grade poetry in one voice and publication. That process took eleven years. But the next project, YA bio in verse, took only six years, and the next YA novel in verse, two years. I’m making progress!
That’s a great point, Barbara. Sometimes we need to pivot even in our thinking about a particular project for it to work. Best of luck with your new YA!