Inside Publishing: MJ Moores Shares All on the Publishing Industry

Article Views: 208

What really happens behind the scenes of publishing? In our latest Inside Publishing interview, author MJ Moores shares all! We dive into a candid conversation about the business, the myths, and the truths every writer should hear, guided by Moores’s extensive experience navigating the publishing world from the inside. From shifting industry standards to the realities writers face at every stage of their careers, Moore offers thoughtful insight rooted in firsthand knowledge.

This interview sheds light on the evolving publishing landscape, demystifying the process while offering clarity, perspective, and hard-earned wisdom for writers seeking to understand where the industry stands and where it may be headed next. Through candid reflection and practical insight, Moore provides a roadmap for writers navigating today’s publishing world, making this conversation an indispensable guide for anyone serious about their craft. Be sure to check out Moores online!

Do you think traditional author development is fading, with publishers more focused on instant sales than nurturing long-term careers?

MJ Moore: “I don’t necessarily believe it’s fading. More… changing. These days, it tends to go one of two ways (or a combo). A new author will take their development into their own hands by expanding on their knowledge/use of writer’s craft and marketing by buying books, attending conferences and workshops, and getting involved with a peer group. Alternatively, we are seeing a lot more agents and agencies including this kind of development as part of their representation. They either are editing-agents or offer editing services via an agency representative, and even coach authors on marketing their work and themselves.

“So, it’s still happening, just not necessarily by the publisher. A fair number of smaller publishers still follow the traditional model and coach their authors along, but at the same point, many of them are looking for near-publishable material to begin with in order to keep costs down and revenue up.”

Is it still possible for an author to develop naturally in today’s climate, or do social media trends and data-driven decisions force them into a specific mould too soon?

“To be honest, while I agree this does happen, I don’t believe it’s as prevalent as you might think. In so many of the writing groups I’ve belonged to over the years, more than half – more than two-thirds – of the writers are only interested in telling their story. Now, they are generally well-read, so they are inspired by certain tropes, characters, and lasting genre trends, which will automatically inform their writing and creative choices.

“However, it’s usually someone who is not only captivated by the need to tell stories, but the desire to make money doing so, which will inevitably steer them toward data-driven decisions (the use of K-Lytics, bestseller lists, viral booktok reviews, etc.) so that they can see what the market is voracious for. These tend to be authors who are able to write and publish multiple books a year, so they can capitalize on these trends. The traditional market is always better served with the longevity of tropes and particular character arcs.

“I think social media just makes it easier for those who would like to reach a particular market to do so. Many authors, several of whom are indie, can capitalize on the use of social media platforms as a bonus interaction point for finding their ideal reader. It’s not selling out to write what people want to read, as long as you’re enjoying what you create.”

What advice would you give to new authors deciding whether to sign with a major publisher or remain independent?

“This is a very personal question for every author to consider and be honest with themselves about. If you’re someone who’s always wanted a book deal and to work with a publisher, I would never steer you away from that. I will advise you about debut author contracts, how little wiggle room there is, how it’s nearly impossible to get ‘the best deal possible’ without an agent going to bat for you, as well as how vital an agent is when it comes to acting on your behalf when someone has to play hard-ball (wow, you’d think I was a major baseball fan with all these analogies).

“It’s important to understand how royalties and advances work, and who retains what rights, etc. Just because the publisher and agency are there to help make the process smoother doesn’t mean you let someone else think for you. Understanding how these processes work is vital to ensure that no one will ever take you for granted. That being said, once you have representation you’re excited to be part of, there are a lot of things publishers and agents do on your behalf, like editing, cover design, interior design, book launch itineraries, a basic marketing push, finances for your sales, and so much more.

“On the flip side, anyone who enjoys being independent and having a say (or THE say) regarding the direction their career or work is going is looking at being an entrepreneur, a business person, in addition to being an author. The traditional publishing route gets out one book per represented author every six to 18 months, depending on the size of the publisher and their mandate. Some mid-sized publishers offer ebook sales first, and then, when a certain number of copies of the book are sold (within a certain amount of time), they will also look at producing print copies. Other publishers do both right away.

“If you are someone with very clear personal expectations, are well-organized (or can hire someone to be organized on your behalf), and willing to do ALL the work (from ideation, to writing, to publishing, to marketing, to finance…), then the indie author route might help you ‘hit one out of the park.’ You set your own publishing schedule, you have the final say on everything, but you also have to foot the bill to pay for everything up front. There are ways of doing this so that you can still make your book shine, but there’s a lot of competition. So, being able to write and produce books faster than traditional publishers is often what will give indies their edge.”

What’s one hard truth about the publishing industry that newcomers often aren’t prepared for?

“Around four million books are published each year (2.2 million by Trad Publishers alone). Just because you get an agent (which is a challenge in and of itself), and just because your book is edited and published, doesn’t mean it’ll sell. The average author makes less than minimum wage. Not everyone can be a Stephen King, or Nora Roberts, or Brandon Sanderson, or Kelley Armstrong. What sells your last book is your current book, and what sells your current book is the next one you’re writing. Rare is it that you’ll find literary acclaim, the likes of Harper Lee with To Kill a Mockingbird. If you want guaranteed fame and fortune, this is not the career to get you there. For most of us, it’s a labour of love… a need to create and have our stories told.”

How do you balance the commercial side of publishing with your passion for writing?

“I don’t (laughs)? I’d like to think that if I were writing ‘full time,’ that my ideal schedule would include a couple of afternoons where I plan a week’s worth of social media posts, some blog/vlog/booktok/youtube posts and appearances, while I spend my mornings writing and my afternoon’s editing or working on client work for other indie authors. As it is, because I fall into that bracket of making less than minimum wage from my writing, I need a part-time job to help pay the bills. That leaves little time for that ideal balance.

“Instead, I find myself writing the mornings I’m not being a librarian, and the afternoons when I’m home, I do a marginal amount of personal editing and a fair bit of client work. The library ‘gig’ helps my family, and my indie author clients help me pay my editor. The money I make from my books goes into marketing and in-person events. I’m always striving to find a better balance, but like life, the scales tip and tilt – sometimes more dramatically than others.”

Do you think there’s too much pressure on authors to be ‘content creators’ in addition to writing?

“Yes and no. On the one hand, if you’re lucky enough to be able to write for a living, creating content is merely an extension of that creativity. You’re showcasing your stories and yourself (branding) so that your work can more easily be found by your target readers. I think it’s easy to assume that you have to ‘do all the things’ – Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X/Bluesky/etc, Substack, newsletter, blog, YouTube, and on and on and on.

“Any workshop for writers given by a social media expert will highlight four things: own your virtual real estate whether you use it or not (web domain and social media handles); have a place of your own as a landing page or website where readers can discover you and your books; choose at least one social media to be active on (ideally the one that targets the majority of your readers); and run a newsletter for direct access to your followers. If you are able to and comfortable with doing/having more, and not compromising your sanity or writing time, consider it a bonus.

“The perceived pressure usually comes from the uninitiated or unaware. By investing in yourself and your understanding of how to market yourself and your books, the amount of pressure lessens. It never completely goes away, though, since most authors would rather be writing than posting.”

How do you maintain your artistic identity while keeping up with industry trends?

“It’s actually not that hard. I mean, people talk about how writing has gone downhill in recent decades (even centuries!) because it’s become formulaic and predictable – at least, genre or mass-market books. Literary publications don’t make money (I’m being facetious here, but not really).

“Consider this, I’ve heard best-selling, award-winning humour author Terry Fallis speak at least half a dozen times – probably more. And for all of his awards, notoriety, and number of books published, he’s only recently been able to retire from his day job as an engineer and focus solely on writing. And, it is his IP (intellectual property and extended story rights) that is doing most of the legwork for him. It’s the mini-series, the movies, and the TV shows, as well as audiobooks and foreign rights, that have finally brought him the financial security he needed to rely on doing this writing thing full-time.

“Genre writers have a better chance of supporting themselves with their writing because of the number of readers out there who demand more and more of the kind of books they love: cozy mystery, hard-nose detective novels, urban fantasy, romance! What readers can’t get enough of are the common tropes and characters that woo their subconscious mind. Read ten or more books of any genre, from any decade, and you’ll start to notice similarities. Industry experts say, give them 90 percent of what they’re expecting with a 10 percent twist or dash or something new. Why? Because there’s a reason they ‘like’ reading that kind of book. So, does that mean you ‘have’ to follow a formula? That all genre books are cookie-cutter, the same, and there’s no originality? Heck no! Those of us who choose genre writing love it for the same reason our readers do. And, if you believe the writing experts, there are only between one and seven stories in the world.

“What makes them different is the writers’ lived experiences, imagination, and craft choices. I write the book I want to write; I always have. I have also read a lot and researched my favourite genres to help me write even better, so that both my reader and I am happy with the stories I’m telling.”

How has your definition of success changed over the years? Is it still about sales and recognition, or have other factors become more important?

“Ahh… success. That’s a tough one. Every writer’s definition of success will be different. At first, it was simply to be traditionally published. Then, it was to have a complete series published. From there, it was to make a profit from the books I wrote. And now, now I can lump myself in with all those writers who’d like to be able to quit their day job and have their writing support them. No matter how many books, anthologies, or series I write or am a part of, if it doesn’t pay for itself and put food on the table, then I haven’t ‘made it’ yet. I never yearned for recognition – awards or notoriety. I’ve always just wanted to tell a really engaging story and have people love it. A lot of people love it (laughs)!

“The point is, you don’t need to be a bestselling author to make a living writing. You don’t have to be a household name, even. You just need to find enough readers who are willing to take a chance on you, to fall in love with your characters and your stories to keep wanting to read more. That’s my current definition of success.”

The publishing industry is known for its fast pace. How do you deal with burnout, and what advice would you give to newer authors struggling with it?

“For me, the most difficult thing in the world is to write to a deadline. I mean, when I was a broadcasting journalism student, or when I wrote non-fiction articles for industry magazines and blogs, deadlines didn’t bother me. I wasn’t being ‘creative.’ The moment I’m forced to see my creative writing as a ‘thing I have to do’ instead of a ‘wonder I want to do,’ then I get anxious, start overthinking, procrastinating, adding more and more pressure on myself…

“I learned about an indie author technique called rapid-release, and how you not only create reader expectation for how fast you can put out a new novel, but the algorithms that are part of the online distribution sites will ‘honour’ you more and ‘like’ you better if you can publish new material within 30 to 90 days. So, I tried it. And I killed myself, mentally, emotionally, and even physically (since I was making myself ill by pushing too hard and expecting more of myself than I could handle). That’s when I hit one of my burnouts.

“Learning this about myself, I went in search of knowledge. Ok, ‘many’ indies do use that technique, but many others don’t. Some indies only release one book a year, and they’re still able to support themselves and their family (usually it’s via their back list and affiliate links). So, I started studying those authors instead and researched and learned, and am still learning. Knowledge is power.

“The other kind of burnout I’ve faced, though only once before, was plotting fatigue. I overplotted the final book in my first series, and then I didn’t want to write it. It took months for me to finally find the joy in adventuring with my characters again. I had to forget what I’d plotted, or most of it, so that when I scanned my notes for a given chapter, it felt new and fresh and exciting again. After that, I tried out discovery writing. Unfortunately, I’m too much of a control freak to commit to that for long. However, I did find the perfect balance for myself with a hybrid approach.

“Now, I have a basic plot graph so that I know, generally, where I’m headed (the big moments and the special moments that inspired me to write that story in the first place), and then I write. Sometimes I will write a chapter and then make jot notes about the main thread/scenes/characters I’ve written about. Sometimes, I’ll get inspired with an idea and not be able to write right away, and I’ll jot notes into a loose outline so that I don’t forget. Then, I’ll write the chapter. And this is how I progress, depending on the whim of the story and the characters and what’s happening in my own life that dictates whether I can write that day or not. I use music, shows, and even books (though mainly for inspiration prior to writing) to help spur my creativity.

“One thing I know for certain, I cannot wait for the muse. I must feed my creative soul just as often as I take from it. By doing this, I avoid both burnout and writer’s block.”

What do you think will be the most significant shift in book consumption over the next decade?

“I don’t have a lot to say about this, except that being an author/librarian does give me an interesting perspective on reading trends. What I can say is that audiobooks are rapidly becoming the ‘book’ of choice, just as an escalator is often chosen over the use of a static staircase. The efficiency and ability for readers to hear a story while being mobile/busy (washing dishes, exercising, driving, you name it) allows people to feel as if they are not ‘wasting time’ by ‘stopping life’ to read a book. With the advancement of immersive books and even virtual video game consoles, I do see a trend sweeping toward a similar style of story consumption.

“However, I think it’ll be more like the elevator experience – a cool concept/technology we use on occasion, but will still more readily use the escalator when it comes to day-to-day reliability. That’s an imperfect analogy in that many high-rise buildings only have stairs or elevators, but I’m referring to shopping centres and malls where time is money and walking up an escalator is considered ‘faster’ than standing and waiting for an elevator to arrive, even though they likely take about the same amount of time. It’s all about perception.

“There’s a fair bit of waiting with elevators, both for one and in one. Whereas, with an escalator, you are still mobile and are being propelled to your destination faster. Again, it comes down to the idea that we’re wasting our time if we’re being idle. So, yeah, audiobooks. When they become less time-consuming or expensive to produce and still have excellent quality, readers will gobble them up all the faster, and publishers will make even more titles available than before.”

How do you feel about the emergence of virtual authors or AI-generated content? Could this disrupt the literary industry?

“Now, this is a hotbed of rattlers if ever there was one (laughs)! A very contentious topic. I do have an opinion, though you’ll probably find me a fence-sitter for the most part. Ultimately, I think there’s merit to the concept; it’s just the way the world approaches the morality and best practices regarding it that concerns me most.

“At present, I do not use AI to help me write my stories. This, as I’ve learned, needs to be qualified as AI advocates are not wrong when they point out that many of the tools I use online are AI driven – like the thesaurus or the search engine that helps me remember a word or proper spelling for a term my processing program is having trouble recognizing because I don’t know how to spell it properly. Ok, sure. Yes. I use some AI tools to help me write. However, I do not engage in the use of those particular tools that write things for me. I do not let a computer or algorithm or binary program tell my story for me. I will let it check my grammar. I will even let it tell me if I’m repeating a word too many times or point out a word it thinks I mean instead of the one that ended up on the page. But the phrasing, the sentences, the dialogue, the narrative, the story is all me.

“It’s the same for AI-generated images and covers. Companies are ‘borrowing’ books and images, without asking for permission, and using them to train their AI. If an author feeds samples of their own writing into one of these content machines, as well as an outline, and scene and character ideas, and everything I did for that final book in my first series that I no longer wanted to write the minutia about because I over-plotted… then maybe I would see what kind of first draft it developed, and then revise heavily thereafter. But, until legislation is passed regarding how AIs are trained, what sources they’re allowed to learn from, and what copyrights and permissions can then be given to anyone using their content, I will continue to shy away from any kind of content a program writes that I would claim as my own words… my own story.

“As for whether or not this could disrupt the industry? I think it already has. Artists are well within their rights to demand transparency and compensation if their work is being used without their knowledge. It’s no different than book pirates who copy complete ebooks after downloading them and then reselling or claiming the books as their own on other platforms. Authors have their copyrights to protect them. Artists of all kinds should have the same consideration. If you photocopy a page from a textbook without the author’s or publisher’s permission, or paying for the right to do that, it’s no different. This is why I’m waiting to see where the tide goes and how lawmakers decide to handle the IP rights for the original works being used to train AI.

“Do I think that a flood of AI-written books will hurt my career or personal book sales? Maybe in the short run, until readers realize that the quality of the story they’ve bought is far inferior to the one written by a human being. At present, most AIs are not very good storytellers, just as they have difficulty understanding that a human has four fingers and one thumb per hand, and cats usually have five digits on their paws, too.

“As a prior educator, I can envision (and I’m sure it’s already happening) students asking AI to write their essays and homework for them. But I’m also of the mind that this technology isn’t going away. Once proper legislation is in place, I think learning how to use it to supplement or support different kinds of writing and learning should be explored. I also think that those storytellers who find ideating easier than writing, or fireside tales more manageable than strict grammar and stylistic structures, will suddenly have a tool to help them manifest their goals. Just like some athletes use special prosthetics or tools to help them compete, so too will these storytellers, who previously struggled to find their voice.”