Jane Friedman on The Business of Writing

I first met Jane Friedman on Twitter — in the old days, when X was still called Twitter and represented by a chirping blue bird. When one of my blog readers or a client has a publishing question that requires a long written answer, and it’s something I haven’t written about on my own blog, I often turn to Jane’s blog to find the relevant article and send my client the link! Not only is Jane one of the most knowledgeable experts in publishing, but she’s also thorough and thoughtful in sharing her hard-earned wisdom, knowledge and experience.

You may have seen me advertise Jane’s course offerings, because I’ve attended several myself and I know those who register will learn a great deal on whatever subject she’s covering — from writing a query letter to how to counter deep fakes that claim to be written by you on Amazon, to ways to reach readers with your books — and so much more.

So, when I saw the second edition of Jane’s excellent book, The Business of Being a Writer, I immediately ordered my own copy and reached out to share this excellent resource with my readers.

Inspiration for The Business of Being a Writer

Lisa:  Can you share the initial inspiration for writing and publishing The Business of Being a Writer?

Jane: The very boring answer is that an editor at The University of Chicago Press approached me about writing a book. She saw a need for a guide to help writers, as well as the broad AWP audience (professors, editors, literary journals, small presses), understand the business side of publishing. 

By that point in my career, I had enough experience to understand why she wanted this. You couldn’t attend an AWP panel that involved careers, money, or sustainability without someone saying, “I wish I knew this life wouldn’t pay off my school loans.” Well, writing can pay, but you have to go into it with your business model and how you’ll make it pay in mind… unless you rely on dumb luck, which does happen, but I don’t recommend it as a business plan.

I was already well-known at that point as someone who liked to push back against a kind of literary preciousness that basically says you can’t mix art and business without selling out or betraying yourself. I see the tension between art and business as productive and something you can address with creativity and imagination.

Reader Feedback

Lisa: You published the first edition of The Business of Being a Writer in 2018. Many writers and aspiring writers often find the business aspects challenging. When your book first came out, what did you hear from readers? How did it empower them?

Jane: They’re grateful for the transparency and the practical perspective I offer—and that I cut to the chase. Some people put a lot of personal spin on these topics, or the tough issues get handled with kid gloves or a lot of inspiring talk. I don’t do that. I lay out the realities, focus on what the writer needs to hear up front (often: reduce your expectations), and assume they are adult enough to handle it. That’s generally why people keep coming back to me.

What’s New?

Lisa: Please share with our readers what’s new in this second edition. What’s changed about the landscape?

Jane: It offers refreshed examples and changes that reflect how my thinking about the business has evolved. Nearly all sections, and even most paragraphs, have been updated in some way. 

Platform building now constitutes a section of its own, because while I don’t believe platform building comes before the work of writing, it has become a first-order publishing concern dominated by confusion and bad advice. Agents and publishers talk about platform so much, but in conflicting ways, so I felt compelled to have my own discussion of this challenge early in the book.

There’s much more guidance on book marketing and promotion, as well as self-publishing and hybrid publishing, which are increasingly popular paths for writers. The guidance on digital media and social media in the first edition was written in 2016 and is sorely out of date, plus the creator economy has matured. Writers now have direct monetization tools—newsletters, subscriptions, patronage—that barely existed as viable options when the first edition was written.

I greatly reduced my attention to magazine writing and the entire industry because it is fast disappearing.

Aspects of the Business of Writing that are Constant

Lisa:  What are some of the aspects of the business of writing that have remained constant and why?

Jane: There are fundamental business principles that have always underlied success in any creative industry—those principles are the book’s primary focus. Or, the challenge of earning a living from writing hasn’t changed. A writer’s income is almost always cobbled together from a variety of sources. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote for magazines, William Faulkner wrote scripts, and Chekhov wrote newspaper articles. Rejection, relationship-building, and the need to treat your writing like a business while protecting the creative impulse all remain constant.

The Changing Value of a Traditional Publisher

Lisa: You mention in the second edition that when you first started in publishing, “no one questioned the value of a traditional publisher.” How and why has that changed? 

Jane: When I tell nonfiction writers they’ll need to demonstrate to an agent or editor that they have a big enough platform—enough visibility—to sell books without the help of a publisher, they ask, ‘What’s the publisher for, then?’ When I tell fiction writers that their work needs to be compelling, polished, and ready for publication before they query, they too ask, ‘What’s the publisher for, then?'”

What’s Changed

What’s changed is that the digital era gave authors direct access to readers through social media, email newsletters and self-publishing platforms. Authors, in fact, have more power to move the reader than the average corporate publisher. I don’t think many writers truly appreciate how much the power has shifted toward them and toward readers. Some of the most successful authors today, such as Brandon Sanderson, Colleen Hoover, and Freida McFadden, all started by self-publishing and still self-publish. They cultivate that reader relationship and don’t depend solely on a publisher to make their business work. Often, they understand the reader better than the publisher.

For first-time authors who have no readership, a publisher still serves the same role: they raise your profile and make you look bigger than you’ve ever looked before. Someone is taking a financial risk to launch your work into the world, and the risk can be taken only for a finite number of authors, so readers make logical assumptions about quality that are in your favor.

But the bar has been raised. Publishers now ask nonfiction authors to prove a market already exists for their book before they’re willing to take that risk. And some of the biggest fiction authors today are coming from fan fiction realms (where demand for certain stories has already been proven) or from successful self-publishing backgrounds.

Publishing Decision

Lisa: Did you consider other publishing paths? What made you decide on a traditional publishing house–and an academic one?

Jane: The book before this one, Publishing 101, was self-published and meant to serve the people who already knew me. This book, as I mentioned, was solicited, and the timing was perfect. I wanted to better reach creative writing students with my message and to get creative writing professors to talk about business in the classroom. A university press with an established series on writing and publishing was the perfect partner for me.

Lisa: You host one of the most popular blogs on writing and publishing online. What’s your advice for blogging?

Jane: Consistency and discipline in your focus. Most people are writing about whatever pops into their heads, just general musings or whatever strikes their fancy from the headlines. They’re not interested in service, but satisfying their own creative urges. You have to find the intersection between what you’ll never get tired of analyzing, researching, and commenting on and what people are interested in reading and discovering.

Marketing Your Book (and Business)

Lisa: What are your favorite ways to market your books and what have you found to be most effective this time around with the second edition?

Jane: I heavily rely on my own newsletters, and there are several. My free newsletter, Electric Speed, has been published since 2009 and reaches more than 30,000 subscribers. My blog goes out via email to almost 10,000 people in some form. I also launched a limited-series newsletter on how to earn a living as a writer in the lead-up to the book’s release, and it worked fabulously well to drive pre-orders and attendance at events tied to my book. So newsletters are my primary and most direct marketing.

I also pitched a couple of podcasts that I’d long wanted to be a guest on that hadn’t invited me yet, and succeeded—the BookRiot podcast and Brad Listi’s OtherPpl podcast.

The Query Letter

Lisa: When a client wants to write a query letter, I usually send them to your blog post on how to write a query letter. What are some of the biggest mistakes writers make with their queries? 

Jane: The query letter has one purpose: to seduce the agent or editor into reading or requesting more of your work. Writers too often treat it as a summary document rather than a sales tool.

For novels and memoirs: All you need is the story premise. The premise consists of the protagonist(s) and the challenge they face. That’s it.

For nonfiction that’s not memoir, the focus should be on why this book now, and why from you? It has to tie into the moment and your authority in this moment. Don’t explain the content. Explain why the book is transformative and for whom it’s transformative.

Focusing on Service/Business vs. Book Sales

Lisa: University of Chicago is a great fit — yet the book is also valuable beyond the academic market. How have you marketed to those different markets?

Jane: The truth is that keeping my website, newsletter and online education business running at full speed really inhibits my ability to market and promote the book specifically, at least beyond what I’ve already described. The way I make up for it is to be generous with my time by accepting invitations to speak and teach, doing interviews like this one, appearing on podcasts, and so on, even if they’re unpaid or pay very little. These activities serve to market and promote not only the book but also all the other things I offer. So ultimately, I focus on the service I provide in a lot of different forms, not just the book. People will find the book if they find me.

Lisa:  When it comes to the business of writing, not just the writing itself, whose work do you admire, particularly when it comes to marketing their books? What are they doing that’s admirable and inspiring to you?

Work to Admire

Jane: I particularly follow Leigh Stein (see her Substack, Attention Economy) for marketing and promotion of fiction via social media (something I don’t do myself) and Cassie Mannes Murray (see her Substack, Pine State Publicity) for small press and literary book publicity that recognizes that traditional book reviews and traditional book coverage is not the best way to market and promote a book these days. The author’s story has become rather central, and typically, you have to think in terms of small affinity groups, not big/mainstream media, if you want to make an impact that lasts. 

Jane Friedman has spent her entire career in the book publishing industry, focusing on author education and trend reporting. Established in 2015, her newsletter, The Bottom Line, provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and the industry. You can find her active on YouTube and LinkedIn, among other places.