10 Ways to Thrive as an Author/Creative in 2024

Let's make this a fantastic year!

It’s been very interesting listening to commentary over the last few days around predictions for the publishing industry in the coming year, from Kathleen Schmidt in

Publishing Confidential

and from Carly Watters on Instagram. It gave me an idea for this week’s Substack, as I didn’t do my Author Notes for December (I didn’t think a NYE business post would be the go!), so I thought that instead I’d offer an author’s perspective to sit beside the industry talking points. The minutiae of the publishing business can be overwhelming (sometimes downright terrifying!), and I’ve been in the game for nearly 25 years – sometimes hanging on by my fingernails 😉 – so I can imagine how daunting it is if you’re just signing your first deal. Here are my thoughts on how authors and creatives can set ourselves up for a great 2024.

1.       Creativity always comes first

No matter how complicated and all-encompassing the industry feels nowadays, we must have a daily mantra that reminds us we have chosen a creative career – and therefore we must prioritise creating! This year I plan to be a lot more strategic about how I divide up my pie chart between creativity, marketing/outreach and business planning – and the focus will be on making the creative slice of the pie as large as possible. This will mean diarising and protecting my creative time, week by week.

2.       Strategy is essential.

Have you heard the saying, ‘You rise to the level of your goals, and fall to the level of your systems’? This has never been so important in the era of information overload. What’s your strategy for carving out writing/creative time? What’s your strategy for getting the word out about your latest creation? And most importantly, is your strategy targeted enough? You cannot do all the things. I always start by writing down my big goals, then splitting those up into manageable chunks that form my weekly to-do lists. It doesn’t unfold perfectly, but having a framework means I get there in the end. It also means I can see if I’m being realistic about my timeframes as I tend to be over-ambitious about what I can get done. I’m reasonably confident about strategies for carving out creative times, so this year my goal is to have a more clearly defined business strategy.

3.       Remember, there’s always an industry panic going on.

It’s vital to keep your ear to the ground about what’s happening in the industry, but when you’ve been doing that for 20 years you’ll know there’s always a panic. Here are some of the things I’ve experienced: Angus & Robertson/Borders going under (i.e. half our bookstores suddenly going missing). Shortage of paper. Supply chain problems. Train derailments. Ebooks threatening physical book sales. Publishing in Covid.

The latest thing to have us all on our toes is AI, and make no mistake there are some essential protections needed around intellectual property, and I shudder at the thought of AI flooding the market with new robo-books. However, this tech isn’t going away, and we can couple the fight for author protections with looking at how we might use AI beneficially, saving time in marketing and research, etc. We don’t need to get over-absorbed in the panic or put off by it. Instead, those of us who think human creativity is as essential as breathing need to work on how we can manipulate this new development to ensure us human creators continue to thrive.

4.       Evaluate advice and information about trends

Both Schmidt and Watters mentioned a shift towards shorter books. On the one hand, I absolutely embrace this: I like the possibility of writing shorter stories, and it works really well for some ideas. My intense psychological thriller The Deceit is 52,000 words, because it was written as an Audible Original (and it was still 10K over the word count they asked for). The Hush is 107K and my new book is just under 100K. However, I have no qualms about publishing a longer book this year as the story requires it, psychological suspense readers still embrace stories of this length, and my chapters are short and pacy, which I think will override the feeling of being bogged down by the extra 50-75 pages. I may look to make my next book a bit shorter, but I’m not going to panic and chop 20K out of the book already written. In a similar vein, 2024 is tipped to be focused on romance and escapist novels, but that doesn’t mean other genres won’t sell: they will just need to be top quality.

5.       Make sure to sell sell sell!

People are time-poor and flooded by information. They need a lot of help to find and buy our books, as we all have goldfish brains now and we’ll forget what we were doing if we click a broken link. It’s worth checking social media channels, websites and our books’ end-pages regularly to make sure all our books are clearly advertised, and people know where/how to buy them. Poor sales funnels can’t help convert interested readers into new fans.  

6.       Repurpose content

We don’t always need to reinvent the creative wheel, it’s well worth figuring out how to repurpose content to find new readers. My old course content has become scattered and one of my jobs this year is to collate and update it, and to make a list of all the content I have already. We can even repurpose old titles that have gone out of print by self-publishing or reselling, so that they become a fantastic marketing tool as well as a valuable part of our backlist.

7.       Don’t be afraid to test things, stop doing things, fail at things

There are so many choices and opportunities to connect with readers, online and offline that we can afford to set ourselves challenges in marketing and outreach, and withdraw/reassess if they don’t work – there’s no shame in that. Failure gives you data! So if you’re trying something new around social media or advertising it’s good to schedule a check-in point one month or three months down the line so you can assess what’s working and pivot as needed.

8.       Know, embrace and explore your USP (Unique Selling Point)

This is something I find challenging. I’m a psychological thriller writer whose books focus on family mysteries and traumas, but I also love talking about and writing dystopias, general fiction, mother-daughter stories, environmental fiction and author life/mindset. I never know whether to try to embrace one identity (which seems to be the marketing advice) or to be okay with my multi-faceted interests (which I’m always drawn to). This year I’m going to explore this in different ways: I’ve written a straight psychological suspense book called When She Was Gone, which should be much easier for bookshops to embrace and place within the crime/thriller genre (rather than The Hush, which is near-future dystopia). I’m also exploring my interests in new formats, such as Substack and self-publishing, and considering whether to assign pen names for different genres. It remains to be seen how this develops, but I realise that having a clear strategy around USP will help readers and publishers embrace our work.

9.       Build community

Neenan talked about there being more ‘closed-circuit communities’ this year, embracing uniqueness, and the hopes that more mid-list authors will thrive. This is all really positive IMO, as it allows authors much more space to embrace their authenticity rather than working to a one-size-fits-all approach. Whichever communities we’re in, our primary job is to show up regularly, be consistent, and look for ways to collaborate and support one another.

10.   Encourage publisher collaboration

I’d love to see publishers engaging more with their authors, who are often highly motivated and can be a tremendous asset during the marketing phase. I often hear of authors feeling shut out or shut down when trying to work on marketing/publicity, and this seems like such a missed opportunity for what we might achieve if we can work in partnership with good communication. Some authors might have unrealistic ideas about what to expect, but many authors nowadays understand the challenges and don’t need to have their expectations managed. And surely publishers should help authors have a realistic yet optimistic perspective on what can be achieved for each publication. I love that my current Australian publisher HarperCollins has an Author Day where they talk through different facets of the industry. This kind of thing can make a world of difference to authors, who are often isolated from industry information.

Many self-published authors are excellent at sharing information. One of the events I’ve really appreciated during the last few years is Inkers Con – and mini Inkers Con is happening online this weekend. I’m planning to attend and highly recommend it.

I hope you all find this useful and encouraging as we charge headlong into 2024. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I wish you all the support and courage you need to pursue your creative goals this year!