The coronavirus pandemic caused many people to be stuck in their homes and pick up new hobbies.
And for some, this meant finishing a novel.
Narielle Living, owner of local publishing company Blue Fortune Enterprises, said she’s seen a 20 percent increase in the amount of submissions the past few months. The company has published 20 books since it started in 2018.
It plans to publish eight more this fall because of the increased submissions.
“There has definitely been a spike,” Living said. “I know some of my authors who have already been published told me that the things they were working on had their timeline moved up because there was so much extra time.”
For some, the pressure to create can be overwhelming. even with the extra time.
Dawn Brotherton, owner of Blue Dragon Publishing and member of Chesapeake Bay Writers, said some writers have struggled during the pandemic to find a healthy balance between work, creative time and their normal lives.
Working from home can be difficult for many writers because there isn’t a clear line of when to step away from the computer — and their regular writing space has turned into their office space.
“I think younger writers have struggled more in adjusting to stay at home and work at home,” Brotherton said. “Learning that balance is difficult because younger people tend to work all the time. Because you’re at home, you feel like you’re still at work now.”
She said the transition was easier for older writers because many were either already working from home or retired.
A pandemic for many large publishers can cause people to submit stories inspired by their surroundings. For example, Living said when vampire books became really popular there was a huge surge in submissions in that genre because authors were trying to fill that need.
But for smaller publishers, many submissions are coming from authors who had already started working and just simply found more time to write.
“I’ve had a lot of submissions, but I’ve also sent out a lot of rejections,” Living said. “Typically the ones I’ve accepted are those that took this time to finish a work.”
Brotherton added that many people who had recently completed a novel and are planning to send it off soon might have to go back and rewrite the entire work depending on when the story was set. If it was set in the modern time, she said, it would be impossible not to have the pandemic play a role.
Brotherton said Blue Dragon had to shift its services to helping authors prepare their books for publication or hone in on their ideas and writing.
With the increase in submissions at Blue Fortune, Living said she expects the company to continue to grow.
There is an important difference between these two companies.
While Blue Dragon is a hybrid publishing company, Blue Fortune is considered traditional.
A hybrid publisher, Brotherton said, means the author makes an investment in the publication and the company helps an author with printing and marketing. At a traditional publisher, authors typically go through an agent that does the publication work for them.
But Living said the publishing world overall has changed drastically. As a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association, peers in the industry have had to rethink their publishing timelines and practices because bookstores have been closed and distribution was disrupted.
Living said consumers as a result can expect to see a significant increase in book releases in the fall and winter. In the meantime, there has been a surge in electronic book sales thanks to libraries and other resources increasing their selection.
Living and Brotherton said they hope people will take this time to work on their craft and use writing to process the stress and emotions of the pandemic.
“I think [creative expression] is a very individual choice,” Living said. “You have to do what’s right for you and sometimes the only way to find any peace in a situation is to follow your heart and write.”
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