Nobody said starting out as a debut author was going to be easy. Especially with a small, dynamic, but still relatively new press. I was prepared to put in a hell of a lot of work, between the launch of my debut SF Humor novel, ALWAYS GREENER (also here on audiobook), back in February 2020 (that was at least three or four years ago, right?) and the sequel, THE RUDE EYE OF REBELLION, launching in eBook and special edition hardcover on September 22nd, with the paperback and audiobook coming in early 2021.

But that all changed when 2020 attacked. 

Since then, it’s been a bit of a scramble to make the best out of the situation and limit the damage. Here are some of the tidbits I’ve learned so far. 

Patience Isn’t a Virtue, It’s a Survival Skill

Publishing has always been, and will always be, all about patience. Even self-publishing doesn’t seem to entirely escape from this rule, and it has certainly been my own experience through agent querying, publisher submissions, the editorial process, the publication process, and the fall-out, both in terms of marketing, reviews (which I never realized are so damn difficult to get!) and distribution issues in the age of COVID.

And even the long-awaited successes, like the fantastic paperback order for ALWAYS GREENER my publisher secured from Barnes and Noble, are never set in stone, as the hundreds of copies still stuck in limbo in an Ingram warehouse somewhere in Tennessee go to show. COVID has set everything upside-down, and more than ever, surviving and succeeding as a writer can only be done patiently, step by step, writing the current thing, finishing the thing, and then moving on to the next thing. Even when running against galeforce winds, publishing is still a marathon.

Your People Are Out There

With so much going on, so many demands on our mental and emotional bandwidth, and so much strain on our basic hope for the future, it is little wonder that so many authors are struggling to remain creative and productive—which immediately just makes things worse, since keen-fanged impostor syndrome is always lurking in the margins of the page immediately to make us feel guilty about not living up to our normal expectations, and give us that much more to worry about and clog up the creative outlets. 

The only word of advice that carries any weight in my experience is that, when it comes to writing as much as in any other area in a time of crisis and strain like the present, we cannot and should not keep any sort of normal expectations. These are not normal times. Anything we manage to do in the present environment is a win.

Beyond that, I have found some ways that work for me to help maintain creative flow, which has been one of the best responses I’ve found, on the personal level, to the general despair of 2020. Obviously, everyone’s situation is different, and what works for me may not work at all for everyone else, but one unexpected part of 2020 that has been a major help for me has been the online support community of writers. For me in particular, the weekly SFWA co-writing sessions organized as part of the on-going Nebula Conference content has been a godsend, adding that extra dose of group structure and accountability to keep me creative and consistent over the past months. If you’re interested, I highly recommend you consider signing up here!

Virtual Conventions Are Your New Best Friend 

2020 hasn’t just made traditional book launches, signings, and convention appearances impossible. They’ve also opened up a whole slew of new opportunities in the thriving virtual convention scene.

Having been on programming for quite a few of these events now, from virtual-specific events like WriteHive, SaSCon, and Flights of Foundry, up to the virtual 2020 edition of major annual conventions like the Nebula Conference, the Aurora Awards held at Calgary-based When Words Collide this year, and the ConZealand WorldCon, I can bear witness to how positive the experience has been and how important these virtual events are—and, in my mind, will continue to be in upcoming years—for authors. 

Obviously, these virtual conventions are always going to compared to their traditional, on-site counterparts, especially for big events like the Nebulas or WorldCon. And while I naturally understand that the physical on-site experience is an important and deep-rooted part of many people’s lives, the virtual conventions have many advantages that should not be overlooked in the spirit of “getting everything back to normal after 2020”—if that even makes any sense, and is possible.

Beyond the obvious pandemic-related benefits of the virtual conventions (convention flu has always been a thing, and convention COVID will be even more so, even in the best of cases for 2021 and onwards), there are other, very real benefits:

• Accessibility, in particular for people facing reduced mobility challenges or medical and restrictions on travel;

• Inclusion of authors, readers, and industry professionals from all over the world, without restrictions linked to geographical isolation or financial challenges;

• Personal safety and at least some level of protection against the sexual harassment which has been an endemic part of the convention scene and culture for decades, particularly during barcons;

• Virtual convention events are usually all replayable and more easily accessible over a longer time to a wider variety of folks, even those who could not attend live.

Plus, you get to goof around with Zoom virtual backgrounds and green-screening objects into space! I’m particularly fond of my swirly book launch birthday space-top hat.

My stance in the discussions around maintaining the virtual side of things moving into 2021 and onward has been that thinking of on-site events and virtual events as rivals are probably the wrong way to go about it. They are two very different beasts, with their own strengths and flaws, and we should probably think of virtual writing conventions as their own growing, specific type of event that needs to keep growing to its full potential regardless of what happens with COVID and on-site conventions in the years to come. 

In any case, as authors, we have never had such a wide variety of opportunities available to us to get us and our work in front of readers. Not every appearance will lead to new sales, and not every event will fill up like you’d hoped it would, but it would be a mistake not to take part in the good things that have come out of 2020 in the writing community. After all, we don’t get to choose whether or not to take part in the bad side of things.

And last but not least, don’t forget self-care and laughter! Remember, we’re writers. We get to binge-watch whatever we want and write it down as narrative research! So keep calm, and write on.

If you enjoyed this piece, please follow J.R.H. Lawless on Twitter @SpaceLawyerSF.