Knowledge Is Only Powerful When We Share It
I’ve been working on a new series of articles that will be appearing on Writing.ie, and the idea behind them is actually very simple.
I don’t believe in holding on to knowledge.
We hear the phrase knowledge is power all the time, but I’m not sure I completely agree with it. Knowledge sitting in someone’s head, or hidden behind a locked door, isn’t particularly powerful.
The power is in sharing it.
One of the things I have noticed since becoming more involved in writing and publishing is just how much information is out there, but also how difficult some of it can be to access.
There are courses.
Webinars.
- Masterclasses.
- Consultations.
- Marketing programmes.
- Publishing programmes.
And, of course, plenty of people promising to tell you the secret of selling books if you hand over €99, €199 or €499 first.
Some of those services are excellent. People deserve to be paid for their expertise and their time, and I certainly don’t have an issue with that.
The problem comes when basic knowledge becomes a commodity.
Because once knowledge has a price tag attached to it, somebody is automatically standing outside the door.
For an independent writer, particularly someone publishing their first book, there may simply not be hundreds of euro available for courses, consultants and advertising programmes.
That shouldn’t mean they have to learn everything the hard way. And God knows there is enough to learn. Writing the book is only the beginning.
Suddenly you are trying to understand publishing platforms, covers, blurbs, keywords, social media, websites, mailing lists, reviews, advertising, bookshops, festivals and a dozen other things nobody mentioned when you sat down and typed Chapter One.
There is an entire industry built around writers wanting to know what to do next.
I have learned a lot by getting things wrong.
Probably more than I have learned by getting things right.
So with this series for Writing.ie, I want to share as much of that as I can.
Not theory for the sake of theory.
Not marketing language designed to make something simple sound complicated.
And definitely no suggestion that there is some secret formula I possess that will suddenly turn everybody into a bestselling author.
There isn’t.
What there are, however, are practical things writers can do.
Ways of helping people discover that your book actually exists.
Ways of using social media without spending your entire life shouting BUY MY BOOK into the internet.
Ways of thinking about marketing when your budget is small.
Things worth spending money on.
Things that probably aren’t.
Mistakes I’ve made.
Things that worked better than I expected.
And things I wish somebody had explained to me at the beginning.
That, for me, is what sharing knowledge should look like.
Someone learns something, turns around, and holds the door open for the person coming behind them.
Because gatekeeping knowledge doesn’t make an industry stronger.
It makes the gatekeepers stronger.
There is a difference.
Writing is difficult enough already. Publishing can be confusing, marketing can feel completely alien, and independent writers are often expected to somehow become writers, editors, designers, advertisers, publicists and social-media managers overnight.
If I know something that might make that road even slightly easier for somebody else, I would rather tell them.
So that is what this series is going to be about.
- Practical information.
- Accessible information.
- Things you can actually try.
Some of it will work for you. Some of it won’t. There is no single route through publishing, and anyone telling you otherwise is probably trying to sell you the map.
But at least we can share what we have learned along the way. Knowledge is power.
But only when we pass it on.