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Technology has
fundamentally changed the publishing industry. Business models
that worked 30 years ago no longer apply, and to a certain degree, the
major publishers have become victims of their own resistance to
adaptation. Why do genre novels so carefully follow established,
predictable paths? The reason is simple. Any story that
deviates too far from what has already been successful won't get
published out of fear that the book will not be marketable.
Publishers operate on very narrow profit margins, so they can't afford
to undertake much risk. This is the reason why celebrities can
get their trashy books published easily, while a skilled writer might
struggle for many years to ever turn a publisher's eye. This is
the reason why well-established authors can write just about anything
they want, and receive million-dollar up-front advances.
A perception
exists among many people that a "standard of worthiness" exists within
the publishing industry, that only novels with some kind of literary
merit are accepted by the major booksellers. While there is some truth to this, in reality, the
industry is driven by profit, and not some altruistic belief in art as
a means of elevating the human experience.
With many
thousands of would-be authors flooding their desks with submissions,
the editoral staffs of publishing houses actively seek manuscripts that
they believe will have market potential. Publishing books is an
expensive proposition. Increasing costs for paper and
distribution create slimmer margins, resulting in pressure to accept
material that is certain to
sell and be profitable. Therefore, celebrities and established
authors get first pick, leaving the rest of us to fight over a smaller
and smaller percentage of the remaining share. With editorial
staffs inundated by submissions, the tendency to reject a manuscript on
the basis of its length, or its divergence from common,
well-established story lines (especially in the fantasy genre, where so
much of what gets published now seems a re-hash of the same storylines
we've been reading for fifty years or more) has more to do with
quality writing never seeing the bookstore shelves than the actual
talent of the author.
If you think
I'm overstating this, please explore the following link:
Atlanta Nights
Competition is fierce.
The number
of titles that are now available far outstrips historical
precedent.
Any author who wants to be successful has to understand marketing and
approach her / his craft with creativity and persistence. A
casual
stroll through the average book seller underscores the truth of what
I've written. What do you, as a reader, look for when you're
going through the brick and mortar book store? How many new
authors do you
stop to read? Do you glance through the top shelves? Do you
read
every title and description? What motivates you to pick up a book
and
buy it?
Think about that!
This is one
reason why self-publishing has exploded into a large and profitable
industry. On the surface, self-publishing looks like an effective
means of getting around the artificial barrier created by editorial
staffs seeking "sure winners" amid a sea of submissions. While
many self-published books certainly lack professional polish, are often
riddled with grammatical, syntactic and spelling errors, the same
criticism can be leveled at many books put out by traditional
publishing houses in recent years. My books contain mistakes,
despite the fact that I've had as many as four college-educated,
native-English speaking previewers editing on my behalf. Simply
stated, it's very difficult to create a "flawless" document.
In my
experience, the promise of Print On Demand is difficult to
translate into reality. Most self-published authors succeed in
selling fewer than 150 copies of their work, unless the author is
extraordinarily devoted to promotion. So even a self-published
book faces the same difficulty as one submitted to a traditional
publisher; marketing stories to a public whose literacy and interest in
novels is declining becomes a vexing problem. Many
print-on-demand companies offer promotional services, but these are
better suited to
non-fiction titles, or fiction stories that fall within the realm of
mainstream novels, rather than specialized, genre-specific science
fiction or fantasy. Some of the promotions are simply a waste of
time and money, no matter what the genre . . .
I have had bad experiences with
POD royalties. Readers have contacted me about books they've
purchased, for which I've received no royalites. Because self-published
authors tend to sell a only a handful of books, contracts with POD
publishers will likely only be honored as long as it suits the
publisher's
purposes. Taking them to court over such a minor amount of money
simply doesn't make sense, and they know it.
For a more
detailed critique of POD companies, please visit the following link:
Science Fiction
Writer's Association -- Beware
My experience
with the publishing industry illustrates the depth of its
disease. Talent and persistence are sometimes not enough to turn
an editor's eye, yet going a non-traditional route with a POD book
creates different problems
that are no less vexing. POD publishers may seem like an ideal
solution for writers who have had a tough time getting their work into
print, but in my experience, the promise and the reality remain
separated by a substantial gap. Marketing is now the biggest
impediment to making money as a writer, and the industry is changing
from one that used to support writers with book sales, to one that
supports itself with fees from writers.
This is why some writers, including me, give away
electronic copies of their work. We're not trying to undercut
sales by doing so. We're trying to create a groundswell of
interest by letting readers preview our material so that they're less
reluctant to take a chance on an unknown author.
I don't make very much money on anything I sell from
this web site, and while the pricing of my books from this site is
substantially lower than the list price on Amazon, it costs almost as
much money to ship a book as it does to buy one outright. That
makes novels like mine expensive. Are my books worthwhile?
You'd have to read one to find out. Hence, I've included lengthy
previews on this site, and currently, I'm working on developing
alternative--and less expensive--means to get my work into the hands of
interested readers.
Because my fans enjoy what I create, I'm content to
remain obscure and simply write novels for the love of writing.
This is not a solution for everyone, but it works for me!
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