But I'm a writer, not a marketer!

I think anyone who writes has, at one time or another, imagined themselves sitting in a quiet cabin in the middle of the woods with nothing but copious amounts of coffee (or tea if that's your thing) and their words. We pictured the amazing prose we could produce in our perfect solitude and the large bank roll that would magically flow into our savings account when the world caught its first glimpse of our brilliance.

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Bang! That was the sound of that bubble popping.

The truth is, most of us live in the real world where other things demand our time and attention. Things like jobs, family, sleeping and in today's world, marketing. That's right, unless you're a huge name (like King or Rowling) today's writer has to do more than just write printed gold. 

Authors Donna Grant and Virginia DeBerry announced on their blog a few months ago that they have decided to stop writing. In their post, they stated that they are no longer willing to do the non-writing things that are required of authors today.

While this is absolutely their own choice, I find it a bit head in the sand. The world of publishing is changing. This isn't anything new and it isn't limited to publishing. When I first got started in marketing, I spent much of my time working on various publicity campaigns and analyzing  results. It was lovely. By the time I left my desk job a year ago, I found myself spending a large portion of my day working with IT staff to fine tune our internal structure and creating budgets and cash flow sheets. I still enjoyed my work, but it wasn't the same as it was years before. And there were certainly days I wished I could push aside all my other tasks and spend hours crafting the perfect message for a new campaign.

But I couldn't. The world I operated in changed, and it wasn't going back. My only option was to adapt.

As writers, it doesn't matter if we like the idea of creating a platform and marketing our work. This is the new reality. We can either adapt or quit.

Publishers aren't evil because they expect authors to take a heavier role in marketing. They themselves are only adapting to a changing world. Rather than complain and resist this change, I suggest we embrace it.

Consider this an opportunity to learn more about the business side of publishing. Does it mean you won't have as many hours in the day to dedicate to writing your next masterpiece? Yep, sure does. But unless you're content to write books no one reads, you don't have a choice.