A recent commercial for a big name (and expensive) CRM says “your data is not our product”. And I’m not sure I believe them. Sure, this particular software charges expensive (compared to competitors) fees, and maybe the benefits they’re selling make the cost worthwhile. So while the data itself isn’t a product, surely how the organization uses the software and the features they use are the product, because otherwise how would the company know how to develop their product?
In author entrepreneur circles there is a lot of talk about how books are products and authors are entrepreneurs. And while I agree with this to some extent, the fact is when the focus is on the author “brand” it’s not the books that are the product as much as it is the author. When the author becomes the product, then mental wellness suffers.
People aren’t products
The paradigm that supposes people are brands or products isn’t healthy for either the author being exploited in this way or the system as a whole. People aren’t products anymore than people aren’t brands. We are unique individuals with our own need to be seen as humans with a basic humanity. Making an author a “brand” denies this humanity because the author needs to be “on message” at all times.
When authors are products to be branded and sold like widgets, it denies the author the ability to be authentic. If we’re having a bad day and need support, there are those in the writing community who would say we can’t reach out because that would “harm our brand”. If we have a message to share, then if that is deemed controversial, “the experts” say not to speak out, even if it’s about something important like human rights.
The need to push back
I think it’s important that we push back against the idea that authors are brands or products. Yes, there’s some real marketing data behind this, and it’s something we need to keep in mind. But also, the more we treat authors like brands or products, the more we’re going to think of books as interchangeable widgets. They’re not. Even within genres with specific tropes or story lines, each author has a unique voice, a unique story to tell.
Instead, we must commit the revolutionary and radical act of celebrating the storyteller within us. We must celebrate the unique nature of the work we do, and encourage others to do the same. That doesn’t mean you can’t market your books or share your work with the world. Far from it, we must continue to do so in a way that celebrates our unique voices and stories, and helps to create the narrative that we’re not brands or products anymore than books are widgets.
