Barry Eisler doesn't just write about spies, assassins and tough guys. He used to be an actual spy for the CIA, and he earned his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center in Japan.
His thrillers have been translated into twenty languages and have won the Barry Award and Gumshoe Award.
Eisler is expert at how authors today can't just write sit at a desk and write their books. They have to get out there -- in person, on the web and in the mass media.
He was kind enough to take time during BoucherCon in San Francisco to talk about the changing nature of publishing and what authors should, and should not, be doing.
In the old days, authors could get away with focusing on writing. They could let publishers handle publicity.
In fact, some authors -- including Harper Lee (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD) and J.D. Salinger (THE CATCHER IN THE RYE) -- managed to be incredibly successful and famous authors despite an intentional strategy of hiding from the press and public.
They refused to do interviews and book tours. Lee and Salinger hid were more than reclusive; they were almost invisible.
You can't do that today.
Eisler said that with cutbacks in publishing, authors are handling more and more of the publicity burden.
Many authors aren't simply getting out there and following the plan laid out by their publicist. They're taking a much more hands-on approach.
"The growth of the Internet has changed everything," Eisler said. "Not so long ago, authors couldn't do much to promote themselves outside of the book tour and perhaps a few conferences or speaking engagements. The Internet, though, enables an author to promote continuously, and for obsessives like me, it's a pretty short jump from 'you can' to 'you must.' When I started, in 2002, an author wasn't expected to have much more than a webpage, and even that was probably a fairly new expectation. Now, I don't know anyone without a blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed -- and probably a presence on specialty networking sites like Goodreads, too."
Eisler said more authors are taking the reins of their publicity and marketing, especially with the rise of e-books and readers like the Kindle.
"Publishers still have the marketing and distribution muscle to move a book if they're motivated, but they definitely expect writers to share an increasing amount of the promotion burden," Eisler said. "Which, I have to say, I don't really mind; I suppose in some ideal world, I could spend all my time writing and someone else would handle everything else. But that's a world I have difficulty imagining. I don't think of myself as just a writer, but also as an entrepreneur and as the CEO of my own company, and I run my business accordingly. I'd have a hard time just turning over critical packaging and marketing decisions to someone else."
If his latest novel does poorly, Eisler said, it'll hurt his publisher, but the wound won't be fatal. They handle so many other authors that one slow-selling book is a blip.
But to him, the failure of his latest novel could be fatal.
He writes about one novel a year. It's how he makes his living. He needs to pay the mortgage and put food on the table.
So it's not a surprise, he said, that more and more authors are having to get out from behind the keyboard and take an active role in doing publicity.