Artisan Author - Ebook

There’s a great bit in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (starring Ricardo Montalban, after whom my dog is named) called “The Kobayashi Maru.” 

In the Star Trek world, as part of their training, Starfleet cadets go through a tactical simulation in which they play the role of a captain. A call comes to save a civilian ship named the Kobayashi Maru, stranded in the neutral zone between Starfleet territory and territory controlled by their arch enemies, the Klingons. 

In the simulation, these cadets-as-captains have two options: They can enter the neutral zone and fight the Klingons attacking the ship, totally outnumbered and outgunned, and try to save it … or they can abandon the ship and allow it to be destroyed. 

The game is rigged, though. If they try to save the Kobayashi Maru, both ships are destroyed. If they don’t intervene, the Maru is destroyed while the cadet’s ship watches. There’s no way to win. It’s meant to be a test of a cadet’s mettle, to see how they handle a no-win scenario. 

But the famous James T. Kirk — a rulebreaker if ever there was one — cheats. He hacks in and reprograms the simulation so it’s possible to save the ship. His justification? “I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.” 

I’ve invoked the Kobayashi Maru many times throughout my professional life — not because I’m trying to save spaceships, but because I want to keep in mind what the story represents. As my good friend and fellow rulebreaker Jon Morrow says, If you can’t win the game, change the rules. 

After reading what I’ve presented so far in this book, you might be full of objections. You might like the idea of being an Artisan Author (defying KU’s rules, pricing what you’re worth, and more) but can’t see how it’s possible. 

If I price too high, people won’t buy, you might think.

I don’t want to pander to Amazon’s algorithms … but without them, how will I find readers?

I love the idea of writing more slowly, but how can I keep readers interested between releases? They’ll forget me, won’t they? 

I get why you’re asking. I understand why you have doubts — why as compelling as the Artisan Author Way might look, it just doesn’t seem to jibe with reality. But if that’s how you feel, let me ask you a question right back: Which reality are we talking about?

Are you still playing the original Kobayashi Maru, trying in vain to save a doomed ship? Or are you instead considering a different game with different rules — a game where maybe you can save the ship like Kirk did … or maybe it’s a game where the ship doesn’t exist in the first place? In the game we’re about to start playing, what if none of the “truths” upon which you’ve been basing your author career apply at all?

Seen through the “usual” lens, you’re right; the Artisan approach doesn’t make sense. If you see Amazon as your best or only option, believe that all readers buy based on price, and only look to what others say about acquiring readers, then you’re right: The Artisan Way won’t work. It flies in the face of the typical indie author’s common sense. 

But you shouldn’t be looking through that old lens anymore. You should be looking through the lens of our changed game instead: a Kobayashi Maru where the rules are different, and in which different things are possible. 

In this chapter, I’ll show you the rules of the new world of publishing — although to be clear, there’s nothing “new” about it. The way Artisan Authors sell books today is the same way artisans of all stripes have been selling since artisandom began. We’re not forging new ground here. We’re simply pulling our heads out of unreasonable gold-rush clouds and walking the sensible path that’s been down here on Planet Earth all along.

You are no longer in the old, no-win scenario. Out here with rulebreakers like James Tiberius Kirk, we’re artists. We’re renegades. We’ve completely changed venues. We’ve altered our programming, the way Kirk altered his.