Seek Out Unknown Authors (Like Me)
Discoverability is an enormous factor in one hopes of even modest success as a writer, especially, (but not exclusively) for the indie writer such as myself. We hear it all the time:
Your stuff must stand out among literally millions of other options out there.
Well, yes and no.
If the reader (or consumer) is entirely unwilling or able to explore, or deep dive into the creative oceans that surround us today, you might need to be a unicorn just to be considered as a creator. More power so such one-horned legends.
But if we as a creative collective encourage consumers on the whole to investigate their options, to really delve into the weeds to find hidden gems, we increase the likelihood of grand discoveries. This is true not only for writers who very much long to be discovered, but for readers who want more options than merely the most easily detected possibilities at the front of the line.
To put it another way, I’d like to see consumers of all the arts, but readers in particular in this case, put in actual labor more often to finding new voices, ideas, settings, characters for their fiction-reading endeavors.
Now I want it to be a labor of love, naturally. Such an attitude may help me and other indie authors of limited means, true. This is not a mere selfish appeal however.
You see, just as we writers with smaller audiences are encouraged to “embrace the process” of creating even if it is never seen, (easier said than done) I encourage readers to embrace a new process of deeper introspection followed by more intense work at discovering the “less discoverable.” Delve into the process of not only discovering a new book by a new (to you) author, but one of grander consideration of your own tastes–a wading out into the marker but richer waters of the (near) anonymous content creators and authors out there.
Your chart toppers and Booker Prize winners are not going anywhere, so consider enriching your relationship with story, poetry, prose by leaning heavily, if only for your next few reads, into obscurities that match your preferences, where most of us authors reside.
You may find you want to stay, and I assure you there will be plenty of those of us unknowns that will welcome you.
Ty Unglebower 