We caught up with the brilliant and insightful B Alan Bourgeois a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi B Alan, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Creating and managing the Texas Authors Institute of History, a museum exclusively for Texas authors; past, present, and future. This means is something I can leave the world that I hope, in time, will change the perspective of who Texans are.
Texas is a big ass state, we all know that. What that means is that with every aspect of its uniqueness, are authors from that region that have a different perspective on living in Texas. Yes, Texas is getting smaller, as we continue to grow in population, but that only adds to the beauty of who we are.
Texas Authors can present all of these perspectives, good or bad, to print. This is exciting as it shows the world our diversity, our strength, and our determination. No other state has a museum-like TAIH. That’s because no other state is Texas, plain and simple.
I continue to expand the programs and events that we do to not only celebrate Texas authors but to develop the future writers of Texas and to better understand our past authors
B Alan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Like many kids of the ’70s, I found my calling at a young age. Sadly, for my mother, she felt it would not bring in the income I would need to make a living. Thus, being a caring mother, encourage me to put writing away and study so I could get a good job, and earn a good salary. That lasted until I reached 29.
At 29, I was challenged to write a short story about an event that happened to me. I did and it got published. That re-ignited my desire to write and I have been writing ever since then. I now have 10 books published in a variety of genres, one of which won a Texas Authors Best Book award. I have been a book publisher helping authors around the world to get their books published. All of that brought me to create the Authors Marketing International, LLC., (http://AuthorsMarketing.org) a membership-based organization that helps authors to learn how to better market and sell themselves and their books. Since 2011, I have helped over 1,500 authors grow stronger in their careers as published authors. During those 10 years, I also created Drop Everything And Read Texas/Indie (http://DEARIndie.org) and the Texas Authors Institute of History (http://TexasAuthors.Institute), a museum for Texas Authors.
All of these groups, along with our Indie Beacon Show (http://IndieBeacon.com), the Lone Star Festival (http://LoneStarFestival.Fun) event, the Authors Marketing Event/School (http://Authors.Marketing), plus much more, give authors opportunities to succeed in ways they may not have thought possible. We have created many firsts in the publishing world, and we look forward to creating many more.
Even with all of this, there is still more to do. This is where I shine best as an Author Advocate, fighting for all authors around the world to protect themselves against greedy publishers, and marketing firms just wanting to make a buck from what they see as desperate authors.
Authors deserve their fair share of the hard work they created. From this belief, I created the B4R bookstore, where authors can earn up to 80 percent of their book sales. No other bookstore offers this and helps them to market their books at the same time.
When an author comes to me asking for guidance and support, I am more than happy to assist them to succeed. I only assist the author, it is up to them to continue working on marketing their books. Marketing, as many authors have learned the hard way, is 90% of the work to succeed in today’s publishing world. They have support from the various programs and organizations I have created, it’s up to them to use what is available.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
In 2020, we had finally reached a point where all the hard work was paying off. Our authors were succeed at various levels. Our organization had grown to become an International organization helping authors around the world. We were finally reaching for success in new ways. Then COVID19 hit.
The publishing world as a whole did great during the COVID19 lockdown. But the authors, especially indie authors, which is a majority of people we work with, didn’t do as well. With over 1 million books published each year, there is a lot of competition for book sales. Indie authors and a lot of traditional authors depend on in-person events to help with book sales and to spread the word about their books. These in-person events evaporated overnight. Their incomes dropped, and so did ours.
We lost over 80% of our income in the first year and nearly as much in the second year. Now, in 2022, we are beginning to climb back out of the negative cash flow, slower than we had hoped thanks to inflation, but we are climbing back.
The pandemic made us adjust our way of thinking and doing many of our programs. We scaled back some events to focus more on one big event that helps many more people than the smaller events did. It gave us a chance to re-think our business plan and look for new ways to be creative. As always, we began to lead the way to think outside the box and help our authors to succeed.
We still have much more work ahead of us. The pandemic is easing up and inflation is getting back under control. Those two key factors continue to play against what we do, but we keep thinking positively and moving forward as best we can. As creatives, that is one of our superpowers, we get to think outside the box and new programs, and opportunities to grow and to succeed.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
This answer will cause many to respond negatively, and that’s ok. For creatives to flourish many things has to happen. First, it needs to be taught in school that being creative is good. Funding the arts at higher levels will allow kids to grow smarter and think outside the box more. Their social skills will increase. Their self-value will find ways to be expressed that are helpful and not harmful. But, that is just a small part of it.
The biggest issue these days is Amazon. Creatives are dying under the heavy pressure of Amazon’s greed. When a book is sold on Amazon, authors barely make any money from that sale. Publishers, even are losing small amounts due to the heavy pressure to meet Amazon’s demands. This loss of income forces creatives to have to find new ways to replenish the money they are losing. This then creates pressure on them financially that they should not have to go through.
The reality of today is that sports stars can make more money than they will ever need to live a good life. Yes, it is entertaining for that brief hour or so. But what is it that they give to the richness of life? The average artist, author, musician, and even a filmmaker earns far less than what is considered a fair living. Yet, their works last generations. The value of what they do inspires future generations to grow, to think to become a valuable asset to the world in which they live. These are the ones that should be earning their fair share, not be forced to work two jobs just to get by.
What I have said, is not new. It has been this way for too many years. Amazon is only one of many companies that takes advantage of the situation and forces creatives to give into their overpriced programs and demands that are based on greed, not good business. People should be supporting the local bookstore, art shop, theater, and music hall. Help the creatives to become the ones that continue to shape the world we live in, by helping them to earn their fair share.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://AuthorsMarketing.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorsmarketing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indie.lector/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/b-alan-bourgeois-35425a18/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorsMarketin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS17w1rVL_1kB6dVMq-AE8A
- Other: http://BourgeoisMedia.com http://DEARIndie.org http://TexasAuthors.Institute http://TxShorts http://IndieBeacon.com http://LoneStarFestival.Fun
Image Credits
(c) B Alan Bourgeois