Saturday, August 25, 2007
Islamic Writers Alliance Releases 1st Catalog
The Islamic Writers Alliance, of which I'm the director, released it's first catalog of member works.
You can download the catalog at: http://www.islamicwritersalliance.net/Projects/IWAcatalogfinalprint.pdf
There are children's books, novels for adults, non-fiction, poetry, magazines. A smattering of everything. It' s really cool to see the diversity of work being done by this amazingly supportive group of writers.
Writing and publishing for a niche market as many of the IWA writers, editors and publishers do presents it's own marketing challenges. Even those of us who write for the mainstream, but hope to tap into the Muslim market have to deal with the same challenges in our marketing. Connecting to the market. Describing your work in a way that will be appealing to your audience. Convincing them that a book is worth the cover cost.
As an author, the idea of marketing your work seems odd. As though it taints the creative process. The mere fact that you want people to buy your work, not just read it, that you want to reach a particular audience seems somehow to sully the purity of the act of creation.
But the fact is that writers have to eat too. :)
Hopefully the IWA catalog will become an annual event, and will become a recognized resource in the Muslim community. Hopefully people will start looking for them in their masjids or local Islamic stores. That will probably take several years to accomplish, perhaps longer. That IWA has gotten this first catalog off the ground is proof that we are committed to being a real assistance to Muslim writers, not just an online support group, or a group that promotes awareness of Islamic writing to the world. I hope more Muslim writers will join us... the more the merrier is true, but even more so, the more authors who take advantage of this catalog service, the greater it's reputation will be. ¶ 6:19 PM
You can download the catalog at: http://www.islamicwritersalliance.net/Projects/IWAcatalogfinalprint.pdf
There are children's books, novels for adults, non-fiction, poetry, magazines. A smattering of everything. It' s really cool to see the diversity of work being done by this amazingly supportive group of writers.
Writing and publishing for a niche market as many of the IWA writers, editors and publishers do presents it's own marketing challenges. Even those of us who write for the mainstream, but hope to tap into the Muslim market have to deal with the same challenges in our marketing. Connecting to the market. Describing your work in a way that will be appealing to your audience. Convincing them that a book is worth the cover cost.
As an author, the idea of marketing your work seems odd. As though it taints the creative process. The mere fact that you want people to buy your work, not just read it, that you want to reach a particular audience seems somehow to sully the purity of the act of creation.
But the fact is that writers have to eat too. :)
Hopefully the IWA catalog will become an annual event, and will become a recognized resource in the Muslim community. Hopefully people will start looking for them in their masjids or local Islamic stores. That will probably take several years to accomplish, perhaps longer. That IWA has gotten this first catalog off the ground is proof that we are committed to being a real assistance to Muslim writers, not just an online support group, or a group that promotes awareness of Islamic writing to the world. I hope more Muslim writers will join us... the more the merrier is true, but even more so, the more authors who take advantage of this catalog service, the greater it's reputation will be. ¶ 6:19 PM
