Evaluating Writing Organizations as an Indie
Upfront I should note, while this blog was inspired by the events of the RWA’s public debacle, I won’t be going into many specifics about it, since I’m hardly well informed. Thankfully, author Claire Ryan has built an outstanding timeline to document everything that has been, and is still, going down. You can check it out here, and absolutely should if you work in writing or publishing. What happened to them could easily happen to other orgs, and Romance is a massive part of our industry. If you think this won’t have ripple effects outward, then you don’t yet grasp just how tremendous that genre truly is.
As I said though, I don’t really want to get into what happened with the RWA. Rather, I thought it would be more interesting to take a gander at writing organizations in general. Because as the indie market has risen, a parallel industry has evolved next to traditional publishing. It’s a new market of people doing technically the same job, but in very different ways, ones that current organizations don’t necessarily support as much as the old methods.
Before we get any deeper, it’s important to note that I am coming to this with an outsider’s point of view. I don’t have membership to any writer’s org. In the beginning, that was because places like SFWA didn’t permit any indies whatsoever, only in the past few years have they slowly been making entrances for non-traditionally published writers. A while ago, I actually did join SFWA, only to let my membership lapse a year later because I’d honestly forgotten all about it. That was how little use I got out of my membership.
Now look: some of that is on me. In a system that big, there were unquestionably things that would have been useful to me if I’d taken the time to really dig in and learn about them. But to flip that around, if I have to really dig to find things that are useful to me, then perhaps the org isn’t well-suited to my particular needs. Because make no mistake, there are people who get tons of perceived value from their memberships. But, and this is admittedly anecdotal, every one of those people I know of who do love those orgs tend to be working in the traditional publishing system.
Why is that? We could honestly speculate for days, and I’m much too stupid to know all the factors at work, however there is one piece of the puzzle that seems fairly obvious: networking. Writing organizations tend to put a huge emphasis on networking and interconnectivity. Conferences to meet other authors and agents/editors/publishers, forums to talk shop with others in the genre, awards celebrating their members where everyone attends a ceremony, mentorship programs so those with more experience can guide newer folks. All of which are fantastic things, by the way, let’s not lose sight of how useful those features are for the right members.
Networking is the lifeblood of traditional industries, publishing very much included. In the act of writing a book for traditional publication, actually writing it is only step one. Next comes finding an agent, editor, publisher, potentially publicist, all before you’ve actually gotten a single word in print to start building your reputation. That’s one of the reasons writing organizations still thrive under the traditional publishing models.
It’s also part of why so few indies actually need them. Once you get past the phase of “joining this/doing this will make me feel like I’m a real author” (no judgement, that was very much written from experience) looking at these sorts of organizations becomes a matter of breaking down if the fiscal/time investment is worth it for what they provide. Since indies have to do all our own marketing, and we weren’t allowed in these orgs when our industry was in it’s early days, most of us either banded together in some promotional capacity or figured out how to work social media. Search around, there’s no shortage of groups for any genre where people can ask questions, get advice, and read about how others in the field are doing.
We’re already an interconnected community without the need for any membership fees or board meetings. All those traditional publishing connections organizations offer? Most of them won’t be of use to us, save for the few who still really want specific career goals like large-scale bookstore placement. Awards are certainly nice, but there are plenty to be had that don’t require all the hoop jumping. Looking in from the outside, there’s just nothing these organizations seem to offer for the indie market that is unique or special enough to be worth the effort of joining. That’s not to say none of them do, though at the very least it represents a lack of effective marketing.
But you know what? I actually do appreciate the notion of writing organizations, as a whole. I like the idea of people in the same field banding together to make things collectively better. This blog hasn’t been about trying to take them down a peg, more just explaining why they lack appeal to people on my side of the market. Truth be told, I would love to see something spring up that did cater to the needs of modern publishing a bit better.
So, to end on a positive note, here are some features that would compel me to join a new writing organization:
1. Group Insurance. Yes, I understand that to create a policy like this is a huge undertaking, and demands a shitload of people to become fiscally viable. Funny thing, you know what there’s a shitload of? Writers. Cute bits aside, this would be a game changer for untold authors out there. For those without a partner or parent’s plan, insurance can be the hardest part of shifting from a day-job to full-time writing. An organization that offers a good, affordable health plan? Holy shit, people will be breaking the down the damn door to join.
2. Access to Lawyers. For those of you who haven’t done as much corporate work, this is a benefit offered at certain places. In a classic workplace, the services comped and discounted are wills, wedding/divorces, basic stuff that’s not too time intensive. In this version, it would be more about having access to things like legal counsel or contract review, as well as reasonable rates when they’re needed in larger capacities. For example: some talentless dipshit is trying to trademark a generic word and sending takedown notices, so you’d know immediately who to call for legal next steps.
3. Freelancer Index. One of the hardest parts of starting in this industry is not having your team yet. Books don’t happen by one person’s hands, save for very limited circumstances. There are editors, cover artists, beta readers; you get the picture. When you’re starting, you have no idea how to find one, what a fair rate is, or if they’re any good. I would love an index of freelancers letting you know what their rates and preferred genres are, along with links to samples of their work where possible. It would make finding the right fit worlds easier for new authors, get the people doing great freelance work connected with more business, and generally take a lot of the headache out from trying to find someone in those early days, not to mention providing options for more experienced authors looking to branch into new areas.
If you’ve got a secret burning passion to start the first big indie writing org, then I can at least promise those features will be deeply appealing to the vast bulk of your audience. One day, I do hope we get to see something like this. Despite the shitshow with RWA, the basic principle of all collaborative organizations is as true today as it ever was:
We’re always stronger when we’re in this together.