Nobody can afford to treat money this way.
I have a meeting tomorrow with my agent and my Night Shade Books publicist, and we’re going to be talking about all the things we’ll be doing to launch MJ-12: Inception and, in doing so, introduce the MAJESTIC-12 series to the world. Why am I taking the time for this, rather than spending it on either A) the edits to said book; B) the outline of MJ-12 book two, or C) almost anything else?
For one, my involvement in marketing and publicity is a necessary thing. My publicist is great and hard working and all that stuff, but I’m just one title out of many she’ll be working on. And it will indeed fall to me to write the guest posts, respond to the interview questions, do the podcasts, etc. So of course I want a say in what those things are. If I didn’t do those things, they would not be done. Period.
Second, this isn’t my first rodeo. It’s my fourth, in fact, in terms of books. I have a ton of contacts, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. We authors do occasionally talk business and swap ideas, and I know by now where folks have had success with free books or swag, giveaways, etc. As a corollary to this, my day job is in marketing communications, so there’s experience there too. I know my way around a marketing plan.
And finally, I generally take an active interest in the business side of things. I’m a former Wall Street reporter, after all, so business topics don’t scare me. I’ve learned how book sales and distribution work, why MJ-12: Inception is better off coming out in hardcover rather than paperback, how bookstores determine which books are face-out and which ones are on end-caps and tables (i.e. publishers pay for placement), and who makes what money when.
I am frequently amused by those authors, both would-be and established, who say they don’t pay attention to the business side of writing. It’s usually in the context of not wanting to sully themselves with something gauche (an exaggeration here, mind you), a lack of time to commit to it, or a discomfort with the notion of promoting yourself and your work though business channels.
I am here today to tell you, dear reader, that it is not gauche, that you need to make the time, and that your own best advocate is you. The business side does not equate to the Dark Side, with artistry and self-expression being the de facto Light Side. If you want to be an author, you need to accept the business side as a thing not only that you have to do, but something worth doing well.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a masterpiece, and I will brook no argument to the contrary. It’s a film that manages to be many things at once: A heart-wrenching romance, a character study, a contemplation of a certain time and place, and an epic, kick-ass Wuxia film. The acting is superb, the directing brilliant, the writing spot-on, the cinematography dynamic and lush, and don’t even get me started on the music.
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Michael J. Martinez 