Author Notes #6 (February 2024)
Authors feeling the squeeze; being careful with contracts; librarians are now freedom-of-speech fighters in the US; and some different ways we can connect with readers
Welcome to February’s Author Notes, a monthly post in which I highlight a few things that have caught my attention in the writing and publishing industry over the last month.
1.
The general word on the street is that things are a bit tricky in author world right now. Sales are flat. Advances are down. Courses that were once snapped up are proving hard to fill. Schools are condensing or cancelling their author bookings. So first of all, if you’re an author reading this, rest assured that you are not alone – many of us have been feeling the pinch. Over the last few months I have been known to have a few moments of behaving like that chicken in Moana because of the scary uncertainty of this kind of news and the ongoing difficulties in securing enough new contracts to provide me with a liveable income. I have managed to make my living from my writing in recent years, and I’m not sure yet whether that will continue. However, for some weird reason I’m feeling strangely buoyant right now. I think it might be a case of ‘stubborn optimism’, a phrase I became familiar with thanks to one of my climate-change scientist friends (her cohort have been steeling themselves for a long time now). It appeared again in an enviro email I received this week, addressed to, ‘Dear Stubborn Optimist’, which I rather liked. Stubborn optimism is defined as ‘the force that enables us to create new realities. It is about making the choice to tenaciously work to make the current reality better.’ Time for us creatives to get stubbornly optimistic, I reckon. Who’s with me?!
2.
For the first time in my working life I’ve had to turn down an adaptation opportunity that would have been great for one of my books. This was for an audio adaptation (radio play), and I couldn’t do it because another company has already produced the audiobook, and their contract ties up ALL audio rights. I was lucky this didn’t happen with You Don’t Know Me, because that was also already sold as an audiobook when Listnr snapped up the adaptation rights a few years ago. Their dramatic six-part series went on to have 300,000 downloads last year, as well as topping the charts and being shortlisted for various awards. More significantly for me, it caused a spike of interest in my work as a whole - and none of it would have happened if the wording in my original audiobook contract had been slightly different.
While I can’t do much about this situation, it’s a reminder that the rights conversation is very important, because it’s been noticeable over the last decade that publishing companies are increasingly tying up more and more bundled rights in their contracts. For example, when I began signing contracts, audio was not a regular inclusion, but once the market took off, the audio rights quickly went to publishers as standard. Authors are squeezed a lot because of things like this, and it’s too easy to forget these small but super significant changes to contracts when we’re wondering why we can’t make as much money nowadays. It’s a salient reminder to take our contracts seriously and look carefully at clause definitions and profit splits, etc. etc. Our future selves will be grateful.
3.
I often thought about being a librarian when I was a kid, and I think if I’d been asked where it landed on a list of dangerous occupations I would have put it right at the bottom. So the news coming out of America about the constant threats and intimidation around libraries and librarians continues to boggle my mind. A recent Publishers Weekly article makes for terrifying reading, and also quotes a New York Times piece thus: ‘As America’s libraries have become noisy and sometimes dangerous new battlegrounds in the nation’s culture wars, librarians like Ms Neujahr and their allies have moved from the stacks to the front lines.’ Wow, and my gratitude to Ms Neujahr and her fellow librarians, who are working in these terrifying conditions to get the right books into young people’s hands. One of my favourite authors, Jodi Picoult, regularly talks about book banning as her novels are often affected, and this situation is definitely one we need to keep watching and talking about.
4.
Have you heard of Shepherd.com? It’s a passion project designed to help connect authors with readers, run by a small team headed by Ben Fox. I’m a big fan of the way Ben does things, because he’s really transparent and accountable in what he’s trying to achieve, and he details his stats as well as his challenges and successes. There are various possibilities to get involved and you can become a founding member to help him continue to build the site for a small fee, so please check out www.shepherd.com. I’ve joined in as a founding member, and I’ve written a couple of articles on there so far: The best dystopias to make you think about women’s experiences (shepherd.com) and Sara Foster's 3 favorite reads in 2023 (shepherd.com).
5.
My well-read younger sister is suggesting I should get on Booktok! I’m very Booktok resistant, but she insists that it’s the only place she goes to in order to find her next read (she’s 34 and I trust her to keep me up to date with these trends – and she also reads widely across genres). I’ve had other conversations with those in the know, and I gather that a growing number of booksellers spend a lot of time watching Booktok in order to decide what to order in for their stores. I did have a brief lurk on TikTok but I think it was before Covid, so it’s a while ago now. Does anyone else know of authors doing good things/anything on Booktok, or is it still more of a reader space? When I get the opportunity, I’m going to have another little browse to see what’s happening on there nowadays, so I’ll report back!
SHORT NOTES AND SHOUT OUTS
I went to the Perth Writers Festival at the weekend and it was excellent – congratulations to all involved in putting it together (shout-out to
) and to everyone who took to the stage. My favourite quote of the day was from Amal Awad, who said of her work as a writer, ‘My job isn’t to tell people what to think, but to get them thinking.’ And Tess Woods did a brilliant, heartfelt speech appealing for people to support peace in the Middle East, and to lobby their MPs for action. I don’t underestimate the courage and energy it takes to speak up in this moment of history, and I applaud all those who keep striving to be heard on behalf of those who don’t have a voice right now.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ON MY SUBSTACK
COMING UP
Next week, on Friday 8th March, I’ll be talking about my writing life at Harvey and Australind libraries for the Libraries Literary Festival. More details here.
And that’s it for my February Author Notes. As always, thanks for joining me, and I’m keen to hear your thoughts in the comments. I love creating these posts and I hope I’m providing you with lots of creative value. Within the next couple of weeks I’ll be recapping my first six months on Substack, reflecting on what I’ve learned, and turning on my paid options, so watch out for that one. I have some great offers, but there will always be plenty available for those not in a position to upgrade. And if you’re reading this and haven’t yet subscribed, hit the button below to get my posts sent straight to your inbox.
Your posts are SO good Sara!