DEBUT AUTHOR JOURNAL: Does a book contract change how you write?

In 2020, Poppy Nwosu is the published author of two young adult contemporary novels, Making Friends with Alice Dyson and Taking Down Evelyn Tait. Yet back in 2018, she had just signed her first publication contract for her debut book, and she really had no idea what the future might bring.
This collection of blog posts (originally written by Poppy between March 2018 and March 2019) chronicles her experience during that strange year of limbo between signing a contract and seeing her first book released into the world by Wakefield Press.
In today's post, Poppy speaks about how receiving a book contract can change the way you write new manuscripts.

Post written by Poppy Nwosu

May 2018: Does receiving a book contract change how you write new manuscripts?

Yes.
The short answer I have discovered is definitely yes.
Of course, everyone writes differently. Some authors take years to write a new first draft and others take a few weeks. To be honest I write fairly fast, and definitely have manuscripts piling up around me a lot quicker than they could ever be published (because the truth is that the publishing process is sloooooowwww).
Over the years my writing process has changed as I learn new skills and better ways to do what I want to do. However, the biggest disruption I have so far experienced has definitely come in the wake of the (fantastic) news that one of my novels was going to be published. Like for real. By a publisher, soon to be out in the world.
Suddenly, after writing a million manuscripts I’m very proud of (and 2 very early manuscripts I am somewhat less proud of), I was no longer writing only for myself.
Suddenly I felt like I had an audience (even though technically I don’t have an audience yet as my publishing date hasn’t arrived yet). I felt like it mattered what I was writing because I was going to be judged.
I kept writing and writing, and pushing myself and wondering why on earth stuff wasn’t working like it normally does.

My realisation now is that it wasn’t working because I was writing with an entirely different mindset than ever before.

I was writing while thinking, 'Would this be a good follow up to my soon to be published novel? If people like that book, would they like this one? Is it close enough in style? Is it good enough?' Or, 'What if they hate my debut? Is this better than my first published novel?'

It has to be better. (Is it better?)
So for the first time in my life, I wasn’t writing for myself. I was writing self-consciously. For other people who don’t even exist yet.
So that is fairly silly.
I’ve often thought about the utter pressure that second-time authors must feel when they have runaway successful books (like Hannah Kent – I've listened to her thoughtful interview on the pressures of following up a super successful book on the So You Want to be a Writer Podcast). The thing I never expected was that I could ever feel a semblance of that pressure too.
But I did.
I do.
And it changed the kind of story I was writing, shaped it and squeezed it and made the entire process that I normally adore, suddenly feel awful.
Suddenly every hour I spent writing felt like complete and utter work.
And yeah, obviously writing can be very hard work, but if every single second you write is just awful and none of it is fun at all, and you end up with a book that wasn’t written exactly how you wanted it to be written, then I just can’t imagine what any of it is for.

So the biggest shift for someone who is a debut author or soon to be published author, is that writing changes from a hobby into a business.

This is not a bad thing. I’m serious about my work. Serious about my novels. Serious about my career as an author.
I want to do well. I want the opportunity to write more books and publish more books.
I’m no longer sitting alone at home writing only for myself with no intention of ever getting an audience.
So of course things have to change.
Writing as a Business and Viewing Novels as Products
Yuck! Is what I say to that.
I guess that has always been my initial reaction to a statement like the above. Just yuck.
And yet ... if you seriously want to be an author with multiple books published, it is true that as soon as your book is accepted by a publisher it becomes more of a product than an art form. And this is fine. Publishing houses are businesses, too. The people who work there obviously love books and publishers exist to bring good books into the world, but they do need to make money.
To ignore that fact is only silly.
So yes, books are a product.
So do you want to have a pool of products that have similar vibes and genres and stories so as to appeal to the same audience?
Or do you want to shoot off into the dark each time you get published and hope you’ll find an audience every time?
These are the things that were running through my mind and making it difficult for me to write.

I think I managed to sort out how to get past this dilemma, and find the joy in writing the story I want again. I think there are two parts to that solution:

• One: Yes, books are a product. Think strategically, think of an audience and the kind of author you want to be, think of the kinds of stories you can bring into the world that will work for you and the brand you are attempting to create. Be smart.
• Two: Shrug off audience expectation, reviews, twitter stuff and trends, and write what you want to write. It is important, I think. Really important. Don’t be afraid to write for yourself. Write the kind of book you truly want to read. Otherwise it’ll probably be sort of awful.

So I guess newbie authors need to find some sort of balance between these two.
A bit of both.
And I guess I’ll let you know how that works out in the future, if I manage to get this other novel off the ground. [Editor's note – that second novel did get off the ground! Find Taking Down Evelyn Tait here.]
🙂
And that is it from me today. Thanks so much for reading!
Poppy Nwosu is an Australian YA author. Her debut novel, Making Friends with Alice Dyson, was shortlisted for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award, and for the 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize. It will be published by Walker US in 2020. Her second novel Taking Down Evelyn Tait was published in April 2020.
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