Chicken Scratchings

Posts Tagged ‘The Little Red Hen’

I’m not just talking through my hat here. Yesterday I was asked by a librarian to tell her about book publishing in today’s world. I am not a publisher, but she thought my print production experience would give me an understanding.  One thing is very evident, everything that was once true before, is not true now.

The traditional book publishing business has changed dramatically. In the past a publisher bought the rights to an author’s book, they edited the book, typeset the book, promoted the book, they printed the book, and they distributed the book. In return the author received a royalty. Today publishers demand that the author do most of the promotion. The author has to set up their own book signings and public relations tours. And the biggest surprise of all is that if an author is over fifty or deceased you can forget about it. In the past the quality of the literature reigned supreme. Not anymore. By today’s publishing standards Emily Dickinson’s poems would have never seen the light of day.

What’s going on with publishing? In my opinion it is too focused on the almighty dollar and is losing its soul. Can you say profit motive?

Mountains of Books

It could be because the shear magnitude of manuscripts circulating is overwhelming. In fact, most traditional publishers will not accept a manuscript unless it comes to them first through a trusted literary agent. They’ve barricaded themselves in their towers and I believe, cutting off their noses to spite their faces. I know, I know, those are cliches and not a particularly good ones, but it makes my point. Traditional publishing has become a closed loop. If you are in the loop, you’ll get published, if not, good damn luck.

The tragedy is that the pressure is on the popular authors to keep knockin’ ‘em out at a speed that keeps the cash registers ringing, but floods the public with marginal work. It has the feel of an egg farm. Just keep the authors on the roost pushing out eggs as fast as they can.

No wonder everyone thinks they can be a writer, when the bar is set so low. Much of the material that gets through to the bookshelves is not worth reading. I can’t believe that those authors are proud of their work. How could they be? Today’s system turns potentially good authors into hacks. Is that too strong? I’m sorry, but if anyone has laid down good money to buy a book, knowing it is light beach reading, and found it falling short of that expectation, then there is something really wrong with the system. Publishers, especially well-known publishing houses should guard their honor with their lives. Maybe is is just me, but if their stamp is on a book, the public should be able to trust that it has real intrinsic value.

What about authors who haven’t found a place in the closed loop? Self-publishing is their only hope. What do I mean by that? If you have a manuscript that in your opinion, must be published you can do it yourself. The traditionalists haven’t thought very highly of what they call vanity publishing. Vanity publishers have been mocked and derided. If you had to resort to self-publishing you were considered to be a second rate author. That belief is disappearing. Some excellent writers are self-publishing now to earn more profit on the book sales, or are using the book sales as a bargaining point to secure a better publishing contract. Numbers talk.

Today, since the publishers have pulled back into their shells, authors have no choice but to do all the work themselves. It’s like the old Golden Books story of The Little Red Hen.  After all of the work is done and the book is selling well, then, and only then will the publishers get interested.  I tell you it is the profit motive.

Richard Paul Evans wrote and promoted his little book called the Christmas Box Story. He was so successful in selling it that the publisher paid over $4 million dollars for the rights. He proved that his book was a viable piece of property and the publisher who now wanted in, paid dearly for it.  That’s where publishing is going. You self-publish, you self-promote, you keep a bigger slice of the pie, and if you get a good enough offer, you sell it, if you want to. Some publisher-authors may never want to get in that game at all.

Most of us would-be-published-authors are best expressing ourselves through the written word. That’s why we write. Unfortunately in today’s publishing environment whether you self or traditionally publish you will be required to market/sell your book. What do you do? Where do you start? You can follow the steps outlined in the author platform. I can personally vouch for it because I’ve done it and still refer to it even now. Follow this link to learn how you can participate for a nominal cost.

This article Reprinted with permission from Talking Through My Hat, originally posted Jan 27, 2009