Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Closed Shop

Recently I stepped above my permitted level in the literary world and requested to join the CWA. The Crime Writers Association is an association for people who write about crime. I figured it would be useful to share thoughts with my fellow genre writers. A £50 membership fee was requested for which I was prepared to pay to place myself in the world of fellow crime writers, given that I had now a properly published a novel with crime written into the genre.

I made a polite enquiry for which a polite rejection was quickly received. They had checked up on me and decided in their wisdom, that as I had contributed to the cost of my own publishing, I was not worthy of membership. I thought about swearing at this point. To be honest I thought about swearing a lot. What a bunch of elitist…fill in the blanks.

Are they really that scared of small publishers or even self publishers who can’t make their way in the mainstream market because God forbid, it’s more competition. There are millions of new writers in the market place, to be fair some are better than others, but the level of competition for a decent story to tell is impossible without a previous history within the closed shop of the literary clique.

Now I clearly might be burning my bridges with said CWA for the future, but what the f***, they have already declared their colours. New talent is the way of the world, it’s what makes things fresh and challenges each of us to do better at what we do. If these closed shops insist on existing, they will die out like the dinosaurs they are. Books may decrease in value, the reward for writing may be less and less as production increases, but surely more books in the world is a good thing. More people reading and expressing their thoughts in literature. The music industry is learning from it, time for the writing industry to do the same.

Revenge will be mine, that’s what I keep telling myself.

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Comment by C. A. Lofton on October 8, 2011 at 9:12am: Nevada Drake,

Yes there are. A review company may do your book review for 'free' but if you need the review within a certain time frame might charge an express reading free which is the case with readersfavorite. Others may have contest, awards, membership or subscription fees as attachments,etc. It all depends upon the review company with regards to a reading fee.

Comment by C. A. Lofton on October 8, 2011 at 9:37am: Nevada Drake,

Yes there are reading fees. A review company fee may range from $40.00-$400.00+. Your book review might be 'free' but if you need the review within a certain time frame an express fee might be charged as is the case with readersfavorite. Others may have contest, awards, membership or subscription fees attached to their services. It all depends upon the review company what add ons come with 'free' reviews. Unless there are pop ups, adds galore, thirdparty information sharing,etc someone is paying for what appears to be 'free'.

Comment by Nevada Drake on October 9, 2011 at 3:27am: Ah, thank you. I must have missed the word 'review' somewhere or didn't make the connection.

Comment by Steve Norris on December 26, 2011 at 5:04pm: I think in this case Lori, it might be down to your conscience to solve.

By being upfront about the Christian theme in your writing you may be appealing to a smaller more niche market, but one that fits well with what you are doing. If you glossed over this in your marketing you may appeal to a broader market and let them discover the themes within for themselves.

Forgetting the religious context of your work for a moment, I can use a different comparison in my writing. My work deals with racism, politics and religious conflict, though it is important in the context of the story I present neutral views on both, so don't claim any moral ground within. In fact because of the divisive nature of some of the controversies within, I gloss over it and concentrate on the message which is more about the consequences of peoples inability to listen to each other. That way I let people work out their own interpretation from the story. Your stories probably don't sit on the moral fence in quite the same way I do but the logic in the marketing could be the same.

I don't know if this works for you or not. But if one thing is limiting your access to market, something that can't easily be changed then maybe the answer is try a different approach. Can't tell you whether that's right for you or not. You're the writer. Good luck with it.