Digital Book World: Writing is not enough

Photo by Sabine Cherenfant

From Jan. 13 to Jan 15, leaders in the publishing industry reunited at the fifth annual Digital Book World Conference + Expo to talk about ways to help the industry successfully adapt to the digital era. Although the conference was mainly focus on helping publishers find innovative ways to maintain the publishing industry, writers should definitely heed the topics discuss in the sessions. They play a very important part on transitioning the publishing industry to a digitally aware market. Below are some points I gathered that all writers (artists in general) should keep in mind:

• As a writer, your brand is very important. Indeed, this is not a secret. We live in a world where social media can either make or break you. As a writer, you must have an online presence. Build your own community/followers. Take advantage of social media to make your mark. 
• Fan loyalty drives sales. This was a very important point made by one of the speakers at the conference. Moreover, As Ashleigh Gardner of WattPad noted, when you interact with your fans (especially on social media), you boost their interest and in turn build a stronger loyalty. Follow your followers. Get to know them. 
• Consider both self-publishing and a publishing company. Self-publishing is very tricky. Writer, Dana Beth Weinberg stressed that you have to persist until you successfully sell your book. You have to keep writing. You will also need to hire professionals to edit the book, format it and design the cover. Yet, with tools like amazon.com and other marketplaces, you can easily sell the book. Most importantly, all of the revenues come to you. Weinberg also pinpointed that both methods are segmented. None is better than the other. Authors who use both methods gather more revenues than authors who use only one or the other. Furthermore, as Matt Macinnis of Inkling said, people value authority, which is what publishers bring. They gave your book the stamp that approves it as a material worthwhile for readers. 
• Book-to-book consistency ensures sales growth. As a writer, you have a lower chance of having your books flop when you are consistent in what you put out.
• There's real opportunity in failure. Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks held a presentation on the role of failure in helping you look at yourself. As she stated: "You look at yourself more when you fail." Failure gives you a chance to discover other solutions, become more innovative and take your time to analyze the things you are doing. 
• Make sure your book is available in a digital format. There's just no way around it. 
• Be forward-minded. Be aware of the start-ups out there. Most importantly experiment with them. Do not dismiss any of them because you can't predict which one will work and which one won't. As one of the speakers explained, no one can pick winners because based on research, the winners are never the ones on the experts' list of best start-ups.