Doin’ the writer rock

To become a successful writer in the new publishing era, you must channel your inner rock musician.

That was the take-away message I got from a post by Jason Boog over at Galleycat, “What publishers, authors and journalists can learn from Indie Rock and music blogs.”

The publishing world is changing in many of the same ways as the music industry, according to Boog. To thrive in the new paradigm, authors will have to adopt strategies that have been successfully pioneered by Indie artists and music blogs.

Among Boog’s music-biz inspired suggestions: Reach out to aspiring writers; Don’t be exclusive; Create real-life events to drive revenue. 

My favorite tip was to “work for every fan, from blog interviews to hanging out after the show.”

For writers, that should be an easy one–we love hanging out at the bar at conferences. And most of us are already trying to connect with readers and other writers by blogging, doing newsletters, and using Twitter and Facebook.

I did quibble with Boog’s Lesson #1, which he got from a rock band manager, “Most successful indie rock stars earn a teacher’s salary through record sales, touring, and merchandise. For publishing, that means we have to adjust our expectations.”

What adjustment? Most of us have already adjusted our monetary expectations–it happens the moment we get our first advance. When you divide the advance by the amount of time we spend writing, we’re lucky to make a teacher’s salary. And royalties? They’re like the life of a spider, a very uncertain thing.

I shouldn’t say this, but there’s one possible problem with the idea of writers becoming like rock musicians: On the outside, most of us aren’t exactly cool. We don’t look hip. Most writer’s conference attendees look like refugees from the Village of Middle-aged, Friendly People. 

Our imaginations, however, are extremely cool. That’s the stuff that goes into our books. That’s the stuff we can share with readers and the world.

I can’t sing a note, but I’m eager to absorb these lessons of the rock world. I’m still a bit worried about the cool thing, though. At least TKZ has John’s Bad Boy picture on the front page.

It’s a start.

Do you agree that writers and publishers should become more like musicians? What would that entail?