"The Next Generation of [Writers] Will Fail In Public"

This post is a response to this video.

The video in question is about film makers (that's why the blog title has the brackets), but I think it may have some crossover value for writers.

The main point I want to bring up is the idea of failing in public. The speaker in the video (Elle Schneider I believe) makes the point that the film industry has been run on the "wunderkind" idea. The publishing world has been run in a similar manner. Here's what I mean.

Imagine you are a publisher. You want to sell books. Maybe you love them, maybe this is just a business. In the first case you want people to buy books to share in what you love and in the second case you want other people to buy the books because of the money (but let's be honest, you want the money in both cases). So ask yourself this question Mr. or Ms. publisher: What kind of books are you going to spend thousands of dollars to print? The answer is of course "good" books. Books that you like or think other people will buy. (You won't always make the best choices, but you'll do your best.)

Out of necessity and out of business practice, you have become the gatekeeper. People who want a book come to you because they're pretty sure you'll give them something polished and worth reading.

With e-publishing and youtube it's easy to put your stuff up for everyone to see. The cost is so low that it's almost laughable (or cryable if you wasted your life savings trying to publish a book 10 years ago).

So many new writers will write and share their early works. Years ago no one would ever have seen the early works because the writer would have been rejected a few dozen times before anything even had a chance of seeing the light of day.

Of course even if you do put your stuff out there as a new writer now, chances are that it will still not be seen by many. There's just too much out there. But like youtube films and indie games, writers will have a chance to put there stuff out there and get feedback from the public earlier. This will end some careers and bolster others. Ultimately, the end result will be similar. Successful writers will keep writing until they have built an audience.

But hopefully the myth of the wunderkind will pass away and writers will see that the real way to succeed is to keep writing. Failing is part of the process, and success comes to those who are diligent.