The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

[Paul Whybrow]

Coronavirus – what is it good for?

Self-isolating or forcibly quarantined, alone or with your partner and family, this era is an opportunity for self-improvement. Why not make the best of it? Good things will happen, and bad and sad events will occur. I feel sorry for anybody incarcerated with an abusive partner; there have been murder-suicides worldwide.

It’s a terrible time to begin a career as a burglar! Everybody’s home!

But, it’s a good time to begin a new story or to learn new skills. Maybe blow the dust off talents you used to have. Before having a stroke in 1995, I was fluent in French and could play a guitar. I’ve acquired some French language CDs and am looking for an acoustic guitar on Facebook Marketplace; there are lots to choose from.

Why not investigate social media sites you’ve previously dismissed? I got going on Twitter this year, which has been enjoyable in surprising ways. It’s good for finding authors who live locally to you. I like the immediacy of the site, especially with agents tweeting about what they’re looking for. Pitch Wars are compulsive.

Now is a tricky time to be querying, as literary agents are receiving many more submissions than usual. On the other hand, how would you feel if your debut title had just been published, with no chance of supporting it with a book tour, including personal appearances at bookshops for signings?

Now might be the time to investigate self-publishing. I’ve tried Smashwords, Draft2Digital and Amazon’s KDP. All are relatively easy to master, though you’ll learn a lot about formatting. If you’re going to self-publish, do work on your author platform. With more people reading at the moment, you might be pleasantly surprised at your sales. The downside? Trolls who give nasty reviews.

There’s some good advice here: The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Impact for Authors and Book Publishing

Why not do a bit of housekeeping on your computer? Get rid of early versions and copies of your completed work. Save everything important to the cloud. It’s free and easy to do.

https://www.google.com/drive

https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-gb

https://www.dropbox.com

I know what I’m talking about here, for I suffered a disaster this February, as I lost my WIP Kissing & Killing in a strange way. I was updating Linux Mint from 19 to 19.3 when my laptop went bonkers, overheating which made the screen freeze. I watched while the icons disappeared one by one, including Kissing & Killing. I was 50,000 words into its 80,000 word length. I discovered that I hadn’t backed it up in any way, not listening to my own advice!

For the last ten weeks, I’ve been attempting to recover the lost files, using data recovery apps that promise the earth, but which never deliver exactly what I want. I must have tried 20 different apps, my brain melting as I tried to think like a geek. Agent Pete kindly sent me a rescue disk called SpinRite, which I’m saving for a final attempt.

Cursing myself for the idiot that I am, I’ve been having the worst of times. But, as the crisis has deepened, I’ve become philosophical about losing the sixth book in my Cornish Detective series. Set in 2020, it involves the goodies and the baddies doing lots of travelling around the UK and worldwide, none of which would be possible in the current situation. It would have needed a major rewrite, that I couldn’t have done until the crisis resolves itself. It would have been frustrating to have completed the story and not be able to self-publish it.

I’d still like to recover my work, but it’s not imperative that I do so.

Instead, I’m going to get on with what I should have been doing this year – self-promoting via my blog and website – and arranging interviews with local media, which will likely be by phone and video-conferencing.

I will return to the best of times by writing a third novella in my Art Palmer series, about a traumatised American Civil War veteran travelling through the Deep South in the Era of Reconstruction.

How are you doing in the time of coronavirus?

Are you on a diet or overeating?

Have you started a new story? Or, realised that your completed work is compromised by the crisis?

Are you exercising more...or, have you become a couch potato?

​

 

[Andy D]

Lots of sage advice there Paul, thank you. I do hope you recover your lost book! The pressure is on us all to stay sane in these crazy times I think, so whatever you’re doing be kind to yourself!

 

[Steve C]

Now is a tricky time to be querying, as literary agents are receiving many more submissions than usual.

Why is that? I can't see that suddenly more works have been completed and are ready for submission. In fact, agents may have more time on their hands for reading subs. I hope so as I am about to contact a few. Right now there may be a stronger demand for books but in the future, there will surely be a downturn as things get back to normal. Books are not an essential but a treat now and again and one thing we do know for sure is it is going to take years for economies to get back to previous levels. I fear books will for some time be low on the list of most peoples budgets. This will, I think, have more of an effect on real books as more people will turn to the cheaper internet versions but even those may suffer. The aftershock of this crisis is going to be immense.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I think it's a tricky time for several reasons. If your book is set in 2020, then it needs to include the virus crisis in a believable way, not just shoved in to make it contemporary...unless you're claiming it's set in an alternative reality. There will be a deluge of modern plague novels, so you're up against a lot of other writers.

I agree with you, Steve, that there are going to be aftershocks, but how long before we feel them? Let's say, that on average, in normal times, it's about two years between being asked for a full manuscript and your book appearing on the shelves. Coronavirus might extend that period...or, and more likely, your story will be published in digital format. There's less risk and less expense in publishing an eBook. I predict a rise in digital sales. Why let a publisher do it for you, taking a high percentage, when you could do it for yourself?

We're hoping that the crisis will soon be over, cured by a miracle vaccine, but what if it drags on for several years? Bookshops will disappear, along with much of high street and mall commerce. Books as hard copies will be shifted from Amazon-style warehouses. Long-established traditional publishers might have to combine to oppose Amazon.

It could be a perfect time to make your name as an author of eBooks. The quality of most digital stories is low, including the cover artwork. Anyone who can tell a decent story that's professionally edited and presented with an attractive cover will stand out. It could well be, that traditional publishers will muscle in on the act, as, up until now, their attitude towards eBooks has been that they're second-best.

Querying in 2020 will surely take longer than it did before. Literary agents are working from home (aren't they, &AgentPete?) so will be using video-conferencing to talk to colleagues. There's an enforced hands-off situation that will cause delays.

 

[Steve C]

I think it's a tricky time for several reasons. If your book is set in 2020, then it needs to include the virus crisis in a believable way, not just shoved in to make it contemporary...unless you're claiming it's set in an alternative reality. There will be a deluge of modern plague novels, so you're up against a lot of other writers.

Fortunately, mine is set in the 1970s so won't need any updating. Perhaps writers of contemporary fiction are delaying submissions and rewriting to include the virus. In that way, it may reduce the number of subs. at least temporarily. Mind you if I had set my book in 2020 I would just change it to 2018 or 19 to solve the problem.

Re ebooks, I couldn't hack the marketing but I am encouraged by the existence of a few publishers that work exclusively with Amazon. You are right, most ebooks are not great so hopefully, I will have a better chance there. A few of the big publishers are indeed getting in on the act and Bookouture was recently bought by one of them. That may happen to more of the independent E publishers as the established houses try to hang on to market share. Some established houses have inhouse ebook marketing teams but I am not sure how they cooperate with the traditional side of things. The two sides operate on totally different time scales.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Worth a read:

 

[RK Wallis]

Worth a read:

Egad, that's dire for the publishing industry, but who am I kidding, it's dire for the entire world

 

[Steve C]

This is terrible but only what is happening across all industry. Other than essential staff the only work going on is internet-based. It will be for some time. I hope this is not a turning point which sees the extinction of bookshops. Once it is safe to socialise again leisure industries like pubs and restaurants should see a surge of business as people make up for isolation. We are social beings and need interaction. Unfortunately, our need for stories is lower down the scale. There will be plenty of word of mouth stories told over a pint or a coffee. There are for sure some writers rushing to finish books involving the virus but they will have to be published on the net. Going the trad route will take at least a year by which time .....