In which navigating career shifts in publishing is like playing Uno with people you love
The last time I went to visit my niece and nephew, they had a new version of Uno. If, like me, you are a traditionalist who doesn’t interact with little kids outside your own family, you’re like new uno???, so let me tell you: there are a lot of variations. Some of them are official, like the one we were playing. It’s called Uno Flip, and it’s actually pretty fun. But the fact remains that when you sit down to play Uno, there are a few things you need to talk about before anyone deals.
When the AHSOKA book came out almost exactly six years ago, I made changes to how I navigated online. I had already massively scaled back when the book was announced, because I went from having a thousand followers to having eight thousand followers in about half an hour, and that was intimidating. I stopped talking about the kids except by nickname, and stopped posting pictures of their faces (you are missing out, btw: they are SO CUTE). I was less specific about my house, and started saying “we” even when I was traveling alone. I turned off notification sounds, because they became a constant chime. I remember coming off the 2016 NYCC panel to 99+ notifications (it just stopped counting), and being all “…that’s a lot.” Six years later, I have decided it’s time to change again.
When you start a hand of Uno, there are some things you need to decide. Can you stack the same cards if you have multiple colours? Are we playing with cumulative pick ups? Does the person picking up 4 get to pick the colour? Do you say Uno at last card or when you go out. The game is loosely modeled on Crazy Eights, which also requires a discussion beforehand. Uno is probably the most popular game in the world that people pick and choose from the rule book for. And every time the Uno twitter account says something, there are HUNDREDS of replies being all “That’s cool, but in MY family…” It’s modern art. And you’re definitely going to fight about it if you don’t talk it out first.
A thing about publishing is that it careens from one social platform to the next like a drunken sailor, desperately trying to figure out methods and trends before everything changes again. This is no one’s fault: social media is so fast-changing that people who had actual budgets struggle to keep up, and publishing budgets are notoriously poor. My first book came out in 2014, and we’ve gone from Blog Tours to TikTok, and since no one goes viral on purpose, it’s still a game of chance. A lot of the burden falls on the author themselves, simply because the people who actually work for the publishing company don’t have enough money or time to take care of everyone.
In my family, we play by the actual deck rules, which is very unusual. I once got into a fight with my five-year-old nephew over how the reverses worked (this was further complicated in that there were only two of us playing at the time, which makes it mostly philosophical), and he bit me. If my mother’s not around and we’re playing with my cousins, we absolutely play with cumulative pick ups, and then gang up on poor Nicholas. If I’m playing with the kids now, I let them decide.
When AHSOKA came out, I was immediately swept into the Star Wars fandom, and it was incredible. I met the most amazing and brilliantly talented people. And you were so kind. I have physical limitations at conventions and on tour, and from Day 1, you have taken care of me, and made it possible for me to not only go to events, but feel comfortable at them. We have laughed together and we have cried together. It has been wonderful.
The rules for Uno flip and pretty straightforward. The major change is that when a flip is played, you turn the whole deck over, and play the other sides of the cards. This creates two big changes in the game’s strategy. The first is that good cards on one side (colour changes, etc) are usually normal cards on the other side (just numbers). When the flip is played, all your strategy goes out the window. The second thing is that, if you’re paying attention, you can remember what everyone’s cards are, because you can see them. It’s still a lot of chance, but your decisions are important too.
I’ve learned quite a few things from TikTok since I joined it earlier this year, but the most important thing is probably that I am not a content creator. I deeply admire people who are. I know how much effort that sort of thing takes. The other thing it takes is time, and time is what I don’t have. As I watched my fellow writers be “encouraged” to be active on TikTok with the hope of going viral, I became more and more certain it wasn’t the place for me. The more I thought about it, the more I considered my relationship with social media in general, compared to how overwhelmed I felt as an author. It was time to sit down and discuss the rules again.
When we played Uno Flip, the Angry Bird lost six times in a row, and she never wanted to stop playing. I don’t even think she wanted to play until she won once and then quit. She was genuinely having fun, even though my friend Amy beat her four times, and her brother and I won one apiece. The only reason we stopped was dinner, and since I don’t like a lot of other games, I’m actually thrilled we found one we all like. I don’t think there are many nine-year-olds who would play like that, and I was really proud of her. She knew exactly what she wanted to do.
I have more than seventeen thousand followers on Twitter now, and I have decided it’s time to pull back. I held on because I loved talking with fans and I wanted to be available to help debut and/or Canadian authors, but this summer it finally became too much. I have so much work to do (and so much work I *want* to do), and I have to prioritize my books. I’m sad about it, but I know it’s the right call. I experimented with a few different methods over the summer, and now I have finally decided what I’m going to do:
Twitter changes to updates only, run by my assistant.
Tumblr asks are closed (this one hurts, because I love tumblr, but it’s also where all of my death threats were coming from, so)
TikTok is just for viewing and commenting when I think you’ve been particularly clever or funny. My videos are mostly gone.
Instagram security has changed a bit, but is still under my control because I like taking pictures.
The contact form on my website is still active, but depending on how people use it, I might shut it down as well.
You will notice that this leaves my newsletter as our primary method of communication. I am going to attempt to make it monthly. Hopefully with all of my focus on my writing, this will be an easier thing to do. There’s a reply function, which is nice, if you want to communicate with me. I plan to split the letters between writing stuff, me talking about Dragon Age, and the general ephemera that you all seem to like about my previous social media.
In Uno, you can talk about the rules as a group. In publishing it’s a lot harder, because you have to make the call on your own, and your only input comes from other writers who are trying to find their way through as well. After weeks of mulling it over, this is what I’ve come up with.
I would like to close by reminding you that I am not entirely unreachable, but I do have to be invited. If you would like me to be at your local con, you can request it from them. You can check with your local libraries or even you school libraries to see if they have an author visit budget. You can check my website Events page to see if I am going to be in your area.
I miss you all already. I wish you the best. It has been my honour to watch you grow up or grow into yourselves, and I know that none of you are done yet. It won’t be quite as often, but I’ll see you around, pocket friends.