Book Review: How to be an Author, the Business of Writing in Australia
At first glance, I feared How to be an Author, the Business of Being a Writer in Australia might prove to be dense, dry and technical. Packed with publishing industry knowledge, but perhaps dull to read and difficult to digest. I was wrong. Authors Deborah Hunn and Georgia Richter pull off an elegant trick — they present authoritative advice on writing and publishing in an engaging, empathetic and distinctly Australian style.
In paragraph three of the ‘About this book’ section, I was delighted to read: ‘Every writer has their own personality and method, and every writer exists somewhere on the spectrum of orderly to shambolic’. Yes! I thought, giving the authors a mental fist bump. You understand writers!
For me, like many writers, the ‘business’ of writing — learning how to negotiate contracts and self-promote, how to navigate social media and work with a publicist — is the area of publishing I’d rather avoid. But, as Hunn and Richter point out at How to be an Author’s opening, writers who want to be published will, at some point, ‘need to be their own office manager, marketing and public relations person, and perhaps even distributor and bookseller’.
Writer, this book is here to help us.
How to be an Author is a powerful collaboration between two Western Australians. At the time of publication (2021), Dr Deborah Hunn, a prize-winning essayist and fiction writer, was teaching creative writing at Curtin University. Georgia Richter, also a writing teacher, is a freelance editor who became publisher of fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry at Fremantle Press in 2008. Between them, they have decades of professional experience.
In this book, Deborah Hunn ‘concentrates on the business of being a writer prepublication’. Georgia Richter ‘looks at the things you need to know after a manuscript has been submitted and accepted for publication’. It’s a lot of territory to cover, and Hunn and Richter traverse it with confidence and dexterity. Over its eleven chapters and ninety-three subsections (yes, I counted!), How to be an Author progresses from creative writing subjects such as, ‘Inspiration and ideas’, ‘Establishing a routine’ and ‘How to choose a genre’ to perennial ‘business’ topics like, ‘Submitting to a publisher’, ‘Branding and self-promotion’ and ‘The publication process’.
Rather than simply present a list of quotidian dos and don’ts to the aspiring author — ‘Do follow publisher guidelines’ and ‘Don’t disobey competition rules’, for example — Hunn and Richter offer savvy suggestions. Take this advice on using social media effectively: ‘Soft-sell — talk about topics that are in tune with your book and your audience, or tell a story about your experience of being a writer’.
Other subjects you’d expect to see covered in a book about the business of writing — ‘Tips for establishing an author brand’, ‘Tips for preparing pitches’, ‘The art of self-promotion’ and ‘Working with a publicist’, to name a few — are all there. But, look harder, and within each chapter you’ll find rich seams of wise counsel on a range of potentially fraught subjects. ‘Self-care’, ‘Coping with rejection’, ‘Cleaning the mud off a digital footprint’ and ‘Navigating social media aversion’ are among those the authors explore.
How to be an Author includes advice from Claire Miller, who became marketing and communications manager for Fremantle Press in 2008, and contributions from twenty-two published Western Australian authors. None are names I recognised, but a quick scan of the contributor biographies told me they represent a significant body of knowledge and expertise. In most chapters, the contributing authors use their experience to answer questions collated at writers’ festivals, workshops and seminars in fresh, insightful ways. If you’ve ever asked: How do I gain experience? How do I find a voice? or How do I find an audience? you’ll find useful answers in this book.
On the thorny social media subject, novelist Deb Fitzpatrick gives sage advice: ‘Don’t make it all about you. Be tangential. Post links to articles about writing and publishing. Be excited for other people’s successes — share these!’ Anne-Louise Willoughby, a journalist, biographer and creative writing teacher says, ‘Managing a social media profile takes effort, and consistency is the key’. She goes on to say, ‘Posting for the sake of maintaining a presence rings hollow for me and is exhausting. Set out a clear approach to what you want your social media to communicate and stick to what you know you can sustain’.
I liked novelist and academic Brendan Ritchie’s observations on how ideas are generated. He says, ‘A complicated narrative issue can seem impossible to solve while sitting at the computer, but somehow the answer manifests while walking the dog or cooking dinner’.
On the tricky territory of branding, children’s author James Foley says, ‘Whether you try to have an author brand or not, you are going to have one anyway so you have to control it’. Hunn and Richter go on to say, ‘In choosing how to depict yourself, it makes sense to be authentic. [¼] Your author brand is the story of who you are’.
Academic and novelist Sasha Wasley says she ended up with two separate author identities: one for her paranormal and YA writing, and one for her contemporary women’s fiction. This separation proved problematic because, when she switched publishers, Penguin wanted to use her full name rather than her initials, as she’d done previously. At first, Wasley says, this seemed like a good way to keep her brands distinct. However, with hindsight, she came to a different view: ‘I sometimes wish I had chosen another name altogether for my romantic and women’s fiction. Some readers are happy to cross genres; others are adamant they “hate” romance or paranormal’. She goes on to say, ‘I have had to settle on a distinctive brand, name and voice for myself. [¼] Having two social media profiles would diffuse my following’.
There’s more to this book’s success than the good advice it offers wannabe authors. How to be an Author’s authoritative tone and down-to-earth style draw the reader in, and make the information it shares easy to absorb.
Take this passage from Chapter One, under the heading ‘Inspiration and ideas’: ‘Some individuals appear to hop into writing with ease, knocking out a novel in no time. Is it really that easy? Some of them might be bluffing. Others may just be freakishly fortunate. For the rest of us, writing requires hard work’. By using alliteration and colloquialisms, Hunn and Richter give the prose a relaxed Australian feel. By varying sentence length, including a question, and demonstrating empathy with their readers — writers who are likely introverted and inexperienced in publishing — the authors give us confidence they understand the challenges we face (and those we weren’t aware of), and know the best ways to approach them.
Hunn and Richter tell us How to be an Author is ‘designed to be dipped into’, and Chapter Eight — ‘Branding and self-promotion’ — is the chapter I visited most often. In the section titled, ‘Tips for how to talk about your book’, Claire Miller gives a list of practical suggestions. ‘Be positive,’ she says. ‘Which part of the writing brought you joy?’ She goes on: ‘If you wish to share a negative experience or anecdote, then tell it in a way people can relate to — and have a reason for telling that story. Don’t complain for the sake of it’. Miller is good on effective social media engagement too. She counsels, ‘Use one or two social media channels well rather than many badly’.
While I found How to be an Author comprehensive on the business of writing, the same can’t be said for its exploration of creative writing. Yes, it looks at important subjects such as research, genre, inspiration and planning, but what about tone, pace and point of view? Why ignore grammar, punctuation, syntax and style? What about story structure and strategies for building suspense? Fair enough, including every facet of creative writing would’ve required a much larger book, but perhaps the authors could’ve explained their decision not to cover these important elements up front.
On the subject of the author’s voice — ‘a crucial and identifiable component of your brand’ — How to be an Author offers excellent tips. Take this gem from poet and YA writer Brigid Lowry: ‘Say what you want to say. You are you, and will write as you once you stop trying to be anyone else. This is the miracle’. However, neither the authors nor the writers they interview make a distinction between authorial voice — the voice Lowry addresses — and narratorial voice, or the voices of characters within a novel’s pages.
This omission is surprising given the thoroughness with which Hunn and Richter treat most of their subject matter. It’s even more curious in light of this advice they offer authors who are considering approaching publishers: ‘When it comes down to it, the publisher is looking for a manuscript that is well conceived and well delivered, and that has a distinctive voice. You know the feeling of confidence you get when you start to read a book, and you immediately feel that you are in good hands?’ I do. For me, like many readers, an engaging narrative voice is the most crucial element of a novel’s success, so why not include an exploration of voice in its various forms?
On a pedantic note, I’m disappointed the authors and editors of this book repeatedly use unnecessary words. The word ‘that’ is one they could have cut in dozens of instances: ‘you immediately feel that you are in good hands’ works perfectly well without including ‘that’.
Towards the end of its 278 pages, How to be an Author presents useful resources for writers. You’ll find information on writing organisations, awards and competitions, plus a terrific section in which the contributing authors recommend books on writing — many of which I can vouch for.
Despite notable gaps in its analysis of effective creative writing, How to be an Author, the Business of Writing in Australia is an indispensable book for writers wanting to make a career from their work. Deborah Hunn, Georgia Richter and their collaborators are experienced professionals who offer sound, practical, easily digestible advice on many aspects of the publishing industry. It’s a book fledgling writers will return to repeatedly as they pursue their authorial dreams.
Written by A J Wright
2023