The Storyteller's Paradox: Why Ancient Bards Never Had to Query Agents
Part 2 of the From Stone Circles to Success series
The Storyteller’s Paradox
Imagine, for a moment, that you're a Celtic bard in ancient Scotland.
You've spent years perfecting your craft, memorizing epic tales, and developing your unique storytelling voice. Now you're ready to share your stories with the world.
Here's what you DON'T have to do:
Write a query letter to the clan chief's assistant.
Wait six months for a response.
Get rejected because your story "doesn't fit current market trends."
Revise your epic poem to make it "more commercial."
Submit to fifty different clan chiefs hoping one will represent you to the tribal councils.
Here's what you DO:
Walk to the stone circle (or medieval market square, depending on which period of history).
Start telling your story.
If people stay and listen, you're a success.
If they walk away, you know immediately that something needs to change.
This is the storyteller's paradox: we live in an age with more tools than ever to connect directly with readers, yet most authors spend years trying to navigate gatekeepers who stand between them and their audience.
If you missed last week's post about how author platforms evolved from ancient stone circles to modern websites, read it here - it sets the foundation for today's discussion.
The Ancient System: Direct Connection, Immediate Feedback
Let's dive deeper into how the original publishing industry actually worked, because there are lessons here that could revolutionize how you think about your author career.
The Bard's Business Model
Ancient Scottish storytellers operated on a beautifully simple model:
Reputation = Revenue.
The better your stories, the more people sought you out. Word-of-mouth was literally everything. There were no marketing budgets, no social media algorithms, no book marketing websites to worry about. Just storyteller, story, and audience.
Immediate Market Research.
When a bard told a story, they got instant feedback. Engaged faces, rapt attention, and requests for more meant success. Fidgeting, wandering off, or outright heckling meant the story wasn't working. No waiting months for reviews or sales figures.
Direct Monetization.
Successful storytellers were compensated directly by their audience—food, shelter, coins, or prestigious positions in noble households. No middlemen taking percentages or deciding what stories were "commercially viable."
Creative Freedom.
Bards could experiment with new stories, adapt existing ones, or completely change direction based on audience response. No one told them their romantic epic had to become a thriller because "that's what's selling this season."
The Performance Platform
Most importantly, ancient storytellers understood that their platform was inseparable from their performance. They couldn't hide behind beautiful cover art or clever marketing copy.
Their success depended entirely on their ability to engage an audience in real-time.
This created a natural selection process where the most compelling storytellers rose to prominence, while those who couldn't hold an audience found other professions.
The system was harsh but honest.
The Modern Maze: How We Complicated Everything
Fast-forward to today's publishing landscape, and we've created something that would baffle those ancient bards: a system where the most important relationship—between storyteller and audience—is often the most distant one.
The Gatekeeper Gauntlet
Here's the journey most authors believe they must take:
Write the book (but make sure it fits current market trends)
Write a query letter that perfectly captures your 80,000-word novel in 250 words
Research agents who represent your genre and follow their specific submission guidelines
Wait (and wait, and wait) for responses
Get rejected by dozens of agents who may or may not explain why
If you're lucky enough to get an agent, wait for them to submit to publishers
Get rejected by dozens of publishers for reasons that often have nothing to do with story quality
If you're lucky enough to get published, wait for your publisher to market your book
Finally, maybe, hopefully, connect with actual readers
Each step in this process adds months or years between you and your audience. Each gatekeeper has different priorities, different tastes, and different ideas about what readers want.
The Priorities Problem
Here's where the paradox gets really interesting. The priorities at each level often conflict:
Agents need to sell to publishers, so they're looking for books that fit what publishers bought last year.
Publishers need to sell to bookstores and distributors, so they're looking for books that fit established market categories.
Bookstores need to sell to readers, so they're looking for books that match proven formulas.
Readers want great stories that move them, surprise them, and give them experiences they can't get anywhere else.
Notice something?
The further you get from readers, the more conservative and formula-driven the decisions become.
By the time a book reaches readers, it's been filtered through multiple layers of people who aren't actually your audience.
The Paradox Deepens: We Have the Tools, But Ignore Them
Here's what makes this truly paradoxical: we have more tools available today to connect directly with readers than any generation of storytellers in human history.
The Digital Stone Circle
Your author website is your personal stone circle—a space where readers can find you, discover your work, and connect with your storytelling voice.
Unlike ancient bards, you can reach people around the world, 24/7, without leaving your home.
Social media platforms let you engage directly with readers, share your writing process, and build anticipation for new work.
Email newsletters create an intimate connection with your most dedicated fans.
Online publishing platforms let you share your work instantly and get immediate feedback.
You can test ideas, experiment with different styles, and build an audience while you're still developing your craft.
The Analytics Advantage
Modern technology gives you something ancient bards could only dream of: detailed data about your audience.
You can see which blog posts resonate most, which social media content generates engagement, and which emails get opened and shared.
This is like having a crystal ball that shows you exactly what your audience wants more of.
Ancient storytellers had to read facial expressions and body language; you have analytics dashboards.
The Global Reach
Perhaps most remarkably, you can build an international audience for work that might never have found a traditional publisher. Niche genres, unique voices, and experimental storytelling can all find their tribes online.
Why Authors Still Choose the Maze
Given all these advantages, why do so many authors still focus exclusively on the traditional gatekeeping system? Several reasons:
Prestige and Validation
Traditional publishing still carries significant prestige. There's something deeply validating about having industry professionals choose your work. It feels like official recognition of your talent.
The Marketing Myth
Many authors believe that traditional publishers will handle all the marketing, leaving them free to write. This is increasingly untrue—most traditionally published authors are expected to do significant marketing themselves.
The Fear Factor
Building your own platform feels scary and uncertain. Following the traditional submission process feels like a clear path, even if it's a difficult one.
The Time Investment
Building an author platform takes time and consistency. Submitting to agents feels more like "real work" toward getting published.
The Hybrid Approach: Best of Both Worlds
Here's what successful modern authors understand: you don't have to choose between traditional publishing and direct reader connection. The smartest strategy combines both approaches.
Platform First, Queries Second
Instead of waiting until after you're published to build your platform, start building it while you're writing and querying. This gives you several advantages:
Agent Appeal:
Agents love authors who already have engaged audiences. It makes their job easier when pitching to publishers.
Backup Plan:
If traditional publishing doesn't work out, you already have a direct path to readers.
Market Research:
Your platform gives you real data about what resonates with readers, making your future work stronger.
Creative Control:
You can share work that might never fit traditional publishing categories, keeping your creative muscles active.
Direct Feedback, Professional Polish
Use your platform to get the immediate feedback that ancient bards enjoyed, but combine it with the professional editing and production values that traditional publishing provides.
Share excerpts, character sketches, and behind-the-scenes content to gauge audience interest. Use their responses to inform your revisions and pitch strategy.
Reclaiming Your Inner Bard
The most successful authors I work with understand something crucial: they are first and foremost storytellers, not just people trying to get published.
They build author websites that feel like welcoming gathering spaces.
They share their writing process openly.
They engage authentically with readers who discover their work.
They understand that their author branding strategy should reflect their authentic voice, not what they think agents or publishers want to see.
Most importantly, they remember that readers—not gatekeepers—are their ultimate audience.
The Platform as Practice Ground
Think of your author platform as your personal stone circle, where you can practice the art of connecting with an audience.
Every blog post, social media update, and newsletter teaches you something about what resonates with readers.
By the time you publish your first book (whether traditionally or independently), you'll already understand your audience in a way that most debut authors never achieve.
The Real Publishing Secret
Here's what no one tells you about the publishing industry: the most successful authors at every level are the ones who understand their readers deeply and communicate with them authentically.
Whether you're traditionally published, independently published, or somewhere in between, your success ultimately depends on your ability to find and connect with people who love your particular brand of storytelling.
Ancient bards knew this instinctively. They succeeded by understanding their audience and serving them consistently.
The tools have changed, but the fundamental truth remains the same.
Your platform isn't just a marketing strategy—it's a return to the authentic relationship between storyteller and audience that made those ancient stone circles so powerful.
The paradox isn't that we have obstacles ancient storytellers didn't face.
The paradox is that we have opportunities ancient storytellers could never have imagined, yet many of us ignore them in favor of systems that keep us distant from our true audience.
In our final post of this series, I'll reveal the biggest branding mistake I see authors make that actually sabotages the direct reader connection we just discussed in “The Palimpsest Problem: When Authors Keep Overwriting Their Brand.” (Coming Soon!)
