We were lucky to catch up with Corey Croft recently and have shared our conversation below.

Corey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

There are industry trends which set the tone for what traditional or mainstream publishers are looking for. And then there are trends that independent authors utilize try and distance themselves from the pack. Interestingly, the latter goes a long way towards introducing themselves to the former.

As far as industry trends, it functions the same as with any art. Take music for example. Once a song becomes a hit or an altogether different sound has gained traction and found itself in the category of ‘pop,’ the big companies begin searching quick and hard to ‘discover’ other, similar talents. The want to strike while the iron is hot and land the next, big thing, or at least capitalize on what’s hot. Look at vampires, teenage wizards, or BDSM for recent examples in the literary world. This extends to the aesthetic of the book, not only the subject matter. Additionally, there are myriad artists, authors definitely included, who try to emulate whatever is popping off and tailor their approach to get a piece of the bag.

The book world is also oftentimes is measured by the ability to mobilize a piece of writing into something beyond being words on a page. Cinema is a quicker, more visible, and more easily digestible medium. If a book is (successfully) adapted to film, then you also see publishers scrambling to find another sacrifice to offer to the deep pocketed gods of the movie industry. An oldie-but-goodie has always been something autobiographical or based a true story, or true events. If there is a focus on a particular brand of crisis or psycho-cultural phenomenon, then you will see a barrage of quasi non-fictional stories trailing in swift succession.

For independent, and even signed authors, branding has become crucial. More than the quality of the work itself, becoming recognizable and marketable through social media platforms has ascended to being the number one priority. Since the chances to have one’s book published traditionally are well-gatekept and highly difficult, it is paramount to separate oneself from the pack and prove why people should care about you. If author-A has found success through a online strategy, be it storytelling, dancing, impressive editing, blogging, streaming or whatever, then author-B, and a host of others like them, will see this success and use it as a blueprint to promote their own work.

Discovering a trend and using it advantageously is the name of the game on social media. Hell, the branding of one’s self is a practice that many cats without a product to offer the world engage in. The idea of this bandwagon trend-hopping for an artist is a sort of Trojan horse. There are books (or poetry, or music, or paintings, etc…) under the covering of the wagon. When it rolls into town. the idea is that if you can make the public aware of your appearance, it may be possible to forge a following that develops an interest or a bond with you, the person. Then maybe, with luck, they will be swooned to peruse the wears you wish to hock and tell their friends.

I believe many cats would prefer their talent spoke for them. Writing a book, even a bad one, takes time and dedication. Every artist would love to drop a new project and have its success judged based on skill and the power of their art. However, that’s not how it works. The trend, especially as an independent creator, remains in the artist’s ability to attract and engage with an audience of strangers, using popular methods to strengthen their personal brand, while finding ways to slip-in their art and develop a dedicated fanbase.

The irony is that if someone is able to grow a large enough following on social media, then the publishers tend to take notice and take them more seriously. This is regardless of skill, passion, or any of those qualities that go into creating a compelling piece of art. Influencers, celebrities and cats in the public eye are often offered book deals, sight unseen, because they know it will sell. Whether or not the main focus of an artist is to generate sales, it is the sole driver of a business.

Corey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an author. I write books and publish them through my company called Fly Pelican Press.

I began writing because I was too cheap for therapy and far too paranoid to discuss the things going on inside of me with some stranger. Even to myself. But ends of ropes and such, and such.

I’d always wanted to write, for a long time. I thought I’d be good at it, because my ego said ‘why not?’ I’d always put it off, and told myself that I would ‘when I have time,’ believing that there would be a period when I’d have said time in spades. Magically, I discovered that there was time. Not so magically, I’d also discovered that I wasn’t only anxious, unhappy, unfulfilled, succumbing to a crippling dread while watching my life slip away without feeling as though there was anything that I could do about it, but I was also lazy.

I saw a faded poster that said it was ‘International Writing Month.’ A call to arms for cats to write 1,000 words for 30 days. It was an old poster. I’d missed it. But, it still sounded like a good idea.

I found that writing was the horse’s ear on the lonesome journey to the desperado I’d become. It immediately felt like a very serious and sincere endeavour. I took it as such. The process forced me travel into myself, my memory, my emotions, my creativity. Places I’d never been, hadn’t seen for ages, or never thought I’d visit. Some of them were warm. Most were cold and filthy and ugly. But I now know that I need to travel to those places. Those are the areas where all the avalanches and juntas come from.

It was hard to start. I was an avid reader but I never went to school for it. And I didn’t know what to write about. All the ideas that I’d had previously, those gems that I’d pluck when I ‘had time’ seemed to have found a dark corner to hide from me. I’m stubborn. It felt like a mission I had to complete. So, I went for it. In some of those early days, staring down the barrel of 1,000 words was steep and dark. But, it got easier. It flowed, slicker and more naturally. Until I had to limit myself to have at least half a brain to use at work.

It felt good. Like unbending your knee after a long bus ride. I hadn’t hadn’t a creative outlet for a long time. It felt like healing. I realized then that I was a tad unwell. The subconscious, the soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it, needs a flashlight and a flame-thrower. It can be like a slow-leaking nuclear reactor. Or a dirty bomb with clustered wires of the same colour that can detonate at any time. I was, with each pen stroke, untangling the chaos. Making visible my strengths and near-infinite faults and weaknesses. A bit of clarity. A bit of humanizing the beast. I learn something every time. I need it more now. I ache if I don’t. I feel sick when I can’t. The adage ‘the more you know, the less you know’ is so true. About the world. About yourself. And for all I’ve learnt, I know nothing.

As a side note, I don’t advocate not seeking external help. Being too tough or embarrassed to ask for it. I didn’t even know about mental health and how important it is. Art helped me understand that I wasn’t wrapped as tight as I thought it was. Art allowed me to see that some of the things that’ve happened had a far greater impact than a few shovelfuls of dirt could cover. It also allowed me to engage with others to find out that almost none of us are, and that some of the things that happen to us in the course of our life are common and aren’t awesome.

What makes me and what I do special or unique is that I’m me. I’m not special or any more significant than the next guy. There’s something relatable in that. I take the time to write it down. I do so with the passion of someone who is near death screaming in a desolate canyon in the hopes his echo will carry after he dies and someone will hear it and feel like it’s their own voice. My thoughts, the human experience, what spills from purging my heart, becoming vulnerable and intimate for the years that I couldn’t or wasn’t. I’m honest, brutally, even when it hurts to look at yourself or your actions, it’s the only way foster change and truly connect with others. I can be blunt and poetic, depending on the mood and never at a sacrifice of the characters or the narrative. There is always a horse in the race. Something that fuses my soul to the story and puts blood in the veins to animate the corpse. I write for the others who are willing to wake up one morning and not recognize their reflection or the pictures of themselves, over and over again.

Art, to me, is like a key that has been cut by a locksmith based on how they see the world. It may not fit into every heart. It may fit into only few locks. But when it does, and unlatches the pure, raw emotion and passion which only feeling the pulse of another can do… you know, you feel it in your bones.

My greatest accomplishment is that I’m still alive. I’ve changed and become more open, for better or worse. At the core, I believe that I’ve grown, many times, sometimes sideways. Professionally, releasing a book requires a great investment of time and finances. It’s draining. The process, even with help, is lonely and can feel underwhelming when it’s all said and done. The feat that I look at, and makes me smile, is that I demand improvement. From the calibre of the work all the way to how it’s released. I’ve worked with some great people, and some flunkies. I’ve worked with family and friends, fortifying our bonds in a way that meshes professional and personal relationships. My upcoming book is called Scumbag Rehab and I’m terrified. It’s the most honest and challenging book I’ve written, which says a lot. It may not be a universally accepted book due to how nakedly it tackles mental health, especially men’s mental health. I anticipate many different reads, and it’s subject matter may push people away. But, it’s how it needs to be told. There is a no punches pulled and no snakes alive motivation behind it’s style and verbiage. It’s chaotic and violent and sexual and me as nothing else has been. And, yeah, I’m damn proud of it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal for me is manifold.

I’ve spoken on the personal side of needing to write and create as an outlet for letting off the pressure of the thoughts and emotions that build up inside of me. Those tensions we all feel, and those which are impossible to verily measure against those of another. It is a very personal and very intimate way of communicating with myself and others. The engagement, the comments and critiques, the conversations that I’ve been able to create with and among my audience, is something that I didn’t fully anticipate. The impact or the sense of community that it has brought and allowed me to experience.

I also believe that everyone’s goal is to strive for constant progress, consistent improvement, and mastery of one’s craft. There is the writing side of this, which is both extrinsic and intrinsic. And there is the business side, visible through growth and sales. To put it simply, I want to get better every time. I wish for the orbit of my outreach to get bigger, just as I wish for the material to show more maturity and individuality.

I’d always told myself that sales weren’t the end-all be-all. I believe that telling myself such a thing put the art first, and would keep my work authentic. While I still use this as a humbling refrain, at this stage, with three books published and a fourth soon coming, moving units is a priority. My words and voice haven’t changed, I’m just trying to raise the volume. My goal may not sound overly lofty to people who do not submit themselves to an artform, but the objective of having art sustain and perpetuate itself financially, is ambitious. I think of it as freedom. To have unlimited time to create without needing to work another job. To pursue the craft and the business side without the stress and interruptions that come from needing to support them. To engage with a larger and more diverse audience and develop the brand to where casual onlookers are exposed to the products with greater efficacy.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish that I’d been less timid about using my physical being as the guiding thread for my publicity and outreach. Social media had already flourished when I began marketing, however, it had not become as oversaturated with creators and influencers as it is now. Though followers don’t necessarily translate to success in sales, they can help to legitimize a business or product in the eyes of potential consumers and tastemakers.

I hid behind text-based posts and other tepid offerings instead of being the literal face of the company. I wish that I’d been aware of how important being visible and approachable is. Though there were already methods for growing an audience, I was very reticent to expose myself to the masses. I mean, I’m an author. I chose writing so I wouldn’t have to be out in the open and be able to hide behind words. I was scared, to be honest. I’d hoped the work would do the talking instead of me.

What I’d learned, which is now common sense, was that there were already thousands of people like me, doing the same thing. From a distance, we all look the same. You have to shine a light on your distinguishing features and accentuate what sets you apart or makes you worth the public’s time. Whether the obstacle is fear, reluctance or lack of knowledge, it has to be overcome. My confidence and comfort level grew the more that I shared.

In the creative sphere, especially in the beginning, you are the product. This is more emphatic with writing or anything that isn’t digestible in seconds. It doesn’t matter if the work is groundbreaking or has the chance to change cats’ lives. If you don’t show the audience why they should be interested in your work, they won’t be. If there is no reason to care, why would they? There’s too much out there and much of it requires a very short attention span.

That’s something that I’d wish I’d seen coming as well. That attention spans would be trained to become shorter as social media evolved. You can say what you will about that phenomenon, but at the end of the day, it’s not only low hanging fruit for criticism, it’s the reality. There’s a place for longer form content, but it’s oftentimes ignored or requires an introduction. The hook must be succinct and compelling. A reason to have them search you out and stick around. Again, you’re selling yourself with any style of content. The notion of being interesting in a short amount of time is daunting, and more so while trying to stick to a program which centers around a product or an art. It’s a big juggling act. With a lot of competition. Some of whom are masters of editing, ingeniously clever, or dedicate their lives to surfing trends, researching SEO and understanding algorithms.

I wish, and I still wish, that I was more comfortable with certain things that are proven to get attention. There are trends and ways of marketing that just don’t feel genuine in regards to who I am.

In a year or two, I may be saying that I wished that I knew what the next big app or trend would be. I may be saying that I wish I’d spent more time online instead of writing or working, and how that investment was worth the sacrifice. I hope that I don’t wish that I’d wasted time and hadn’t diversified a strategy that had me paddling with one oar and turning in circle after frustrating circle, only saying that I wished I’d thought of, or tried that, that earlier.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://flypelicanpress.com
• Instagram: ccroft23
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/corey.croft1
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-croft
• Twitter: ccroft_23
• Other: Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/stores/Corey-Croft/author/B07RBYN4KP?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19117020.Corey_Croft

Image Credits
Teagan Vinzce Alex Parmer Josh Neufeld