On Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 6 p.m., The Rogue Bookshop, Beloit’s own independent bookstore, held its first-ever Beloit Writers Panel. The event gathered four local writers — Greg Stolze, Cat Stark, Matt Forbeck, and Chris Fink — to discuss their experiences writing and publishing, and to answer any questions.
The four authors covered a wide spread of the writing and publishing world, with Stark being completely self-published, Fink having experience writing literary fiction and personal essays as well as being a professor at Beloit College, Forbeck writing not only his own original fiction and mysteries, but also licensed IP, including work for Minecraft and the Marvel Universe. Stolze’s resume was also mixed.
The authors’ diverse career paths demonstrate that the path to being a “successful writer” is neither well-defined nor linear.
Fink started in journalism before transitioning into literary fiction and personal essays. Stark tried for years to get an agent, and eventually decided she could do it herself. Success could mean writing as a full-time job, as proved by Forebeck. It could also be measured in terms of the creative freedom that Stark has, or even something as basic as the fact that a book exists in the world because they wrote it.
“Writers being how we are, there’s always going to be that Eeyore voice, the ‘I could be doing more or doing better,’ but a large part of persisting at it is knowing what success is to you,” said Stolze.
The underlying message was that an author must find some form of enjoyment or fulfillment in writing, as it can be a difficult industry in which to make a living. As Forebeck said, if there is no enjoyment, “there are easier ways to hurt yourself.”
The positives and negatives of traditional versus indie publishing were also touched on. “The thing I love and hate about Amazon, and I’m absolutely saying this when I have all of my books almost published on Amazon, is that anyone can use Amazon to publish,” said Stark.
Stolze added, “It’s just a numbers game because it is so much easier to write a terrible book than it is to write a superb book.”
Another challenge with indie publishing is marketing. All four authors admitted that they don’t consider themselves good marketers, and with indie publishing, a lot of the marketing and networking falls on the author.
On the other hand, traditional marketing can limit your options. The authors discussed how becoming successful in one genre, such as mystery, can brand a writer as a mystery writer, and it is tough to break out of that shell.
Publishers also decide the budget. Fink discussed how literary fiction is “sort of like the kiss of death for fiction,” and how publishers don’t necessarily put a lot of money into it as a genre.
Forebeck, on the other hand, hasn’t had to go searching for work in years; instead, he’s been approached. “Building that reputation and ability to hit deadlines and to produce for other people’s intellectual properties or IPs is the kind of thing that will get you work.”
Community was another point on which they all agreed. “Find other writers, or if you’re a creative of any kind, find creatives in your life in your area,” said Stark, who is part of the Rockford Area Writers, a group of local authors in the Rockford, Illinois area who are passionate about writing. “You don’t write in a vacuum.”
Forebeck seconded this, discussing how he and his 26-year-old son, Marty, have been working on projects together and how he likes passing on words of wisdom. Stolze summarized it as “Maybe I can help you not make every single mistake I made when falling down the stairs.”
The Rogue Bookshop is located at 321 State St. in downtown Beloit. Information regarding business hours and upcoming events can be found on their website, theroguebookshop.com.
Featured image: Vanessa Skildum’27
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