It had been a longtime dream; I had thought about it and wanted it since childhood. But then, with my dream in hand, my only response was a small nod and a sotto, "oh, alright." Akin to a tepid "how nice." My book was to be published by a well-regarded NY publishing house, and I couldn't even muster a facade of enthusiasm. I assumed I was numb; that it hadn't sunk in yet. So I went about my business and I waited for the thrill to fill me up.
It never did. The process had been long -- a cryptic agent who condescended to take my once-a-month call, a fake chuckle to hide her irritation as she complained about having to hold clients' hands. It was on one of my monthly calls that she told me that I had sold a book. I wonder if she would have bothered to mention it if I hadn't phoned. I guess I'll never know.
The production process was -- subliminal. I spoke with the book's ostensible editor for a grand total of about 5 minutes -- in my entire life. A proof showed up with a picture of a flirty, naked black woman on the cover -- when the only black female character died before the beginning of the book and she wasn't the flirty type. It was a nice cover, but it had little to do with the book beneath it.
The publicist sent the requisite press release to the usual suspects, who probably gave it the attention it deserved (they ignored it). Gamely, I stepped into the breach, purchasing some cheap online ads, hawking the book to reviewers, etc., all to middling success, but infinitely greater satisfaction than I got from any other stage of the process save the writing. Finally, I had some control, and I began to suspect that I was a sophomoric cliché of the passive writer-victim -- passively awaiting my agent's actions; passively awaiting publisher response; passively awaiting for someone to design my book, passively awaiting critical and commercial reaction. Yes, I began to suspect... but I was still to programmed and scared to do anything about it.
As the next novel hit editors' desks (from a new, and altogether more suitable agent) and I passively awaited reaction, my agent received notes like these:
"It's an impressively gripping story, and a fascinating story about a time and topic I knew little about."
"I can see what you mean about the strong pacing of Gaiter's narrative, and the novel's strong sense of place, which seems to stem from deep research into and thorough knowledge..."
"I thought this was a really well-written and fascinating story. I loved the historical details and enjoyed the book on a personal level."
Each of these statements preceded a "pass." One editor told my agent that "the market" was telling her that only frothy, "feel good" books have a chance at sales success today. This was an odd statement, considering that it presupposes that the publishing industry has a good idea of what "the market" wants. I quote author and business writer Michael Levin from Forbes Magazine:
...the books that publishers choose are almost entirely of zero interest to actual book-buyers. After 9/11, there were a ton of books about 9/11, which nobody bought. Same thing with the Iraq War, the rise of Obama, the economic meltdown... Or the books are rehashed business lessons, religious truths, sports clichés, motivational babble, exercise fads, weight loss techniques, or pandering to the political left or the right. Who wants these books? Almost no one.Most of the major publishers today are owned by international conglomerates who, at some point, will awaken to the realization that English majors in their employ are spending millions of dollars on books that no one wants to read.
Levin further points out the antediluvian hilarity of the publishing "business model," in which "the publisher bears the entire risk of buying, editing, printing, and shipping copies of the book to bookstores all over the country on a 100% returnable basis. If your local Barnes & Noble doesn't sell a particular book, it goes right back to the publisher, at the publisher's shipping cost, for a full refund. Especially in the Internet era, you can't make money putting books on trucks and hoping someone buys them."
After my first book was released, I was scheduled for a radio appearance. The day prior, I was informed that Amazon was out of my book. Publicity can generate sales. It's bad form to generate publicity for a product, and then inform prospective buyers at a primary outlet that the product is unavailable. When I screamed loudly about this to my agent and editor, the editor said, and I quote, "If they want the book badly enough, they'll wait for it or find it." My jaw dropped. Apple Computer can afford to be that lazy and arrogant. James Patterson can. Leonce Gaiter and Carroll & Graf Publishers could not. This man was so clueless to business realities, he expected people to seek out or wait for a product about which they knew little or nothing from someone they had never heard of. To him, the reader had to do all the work. Our job was to look pretty while we sat back and waited for them to do it.
I read reports from one of the large book conferences in which a major editor insisted that the "intrinsic value" of a book justified their exorbitant price tags. ($12.99 for an ebook? Fuck you! Even Amazon wanted to sell them for $9.99.) Again, the ignorance is blinding. In a market economy, no product qua product has "intrinsic value." Suggesting that it does stinks of the arrogance of decay drenched in decadence. See also this shamefully smug op-ed.
With respect to my own work, I had to realize that some NY Editors are sufficiently egotistical to believe that they are so advanced in their educations and outlook that a book they find "fascinating" could not possibly engage a more general audience (unless it includes vampires or comes with pictures, of course). That, and the fact that their marketing sense and infrastructures are as outmoded and inefficient as the rest of their business, so they only have the ability to sell books that run the gamut from A to C to audiences that are equally diverse.
Finally, I had to accept both the death of my romantic vision of publishing and the gross facts of the corporate publishing reality. With my agent's help and blessing, I found the tools and mustered the will to do things differently.
Ingram, the major book distributor, owns Lightning Source, which gives authors access to distribution channels similar to those the publishing houses get, and at reasonable prices; your book can be available for print-on-demand from any bookstore, online or off. That takes care of the physical books. Ebooks, of course, are also within any author's grasp; between Smashwords and Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, you can pretty much cover the territory. This time, I chose my own physical book's format, dimensions, and I laid out the text within the appropriate template myself. A wonderful designer I know provided the marvelous cover art. The novel is mine, soup to nuts. I feel an ownership and pride that never even teased me with my traditionally published book. From an economic standpoint, if the book sells as well as my largely-ignored traditionally published novel, I will make three times the money from it. Carroll & Graf put a $24 price tag on my first book. Consumers will be able to buy this one for less than $10.
How can you not recommend this option to authors? With today's tools, the idea of waiting for approval from the minions of a multinational sounds as lazy and self-defeating as a band that won't burn CDs until they get a major label record deal. Just as musicians have to know their way around a sound board, writers need facility with the layout and design software used to create books, the ins and outs of formatting for ebooks; they need design sense enough to guarantee that their book looks good inside and out.
We used to wait passively for the pearly gates to open and then gratefully pass our manuscripts through to hallowed ground. In music and in books, those days are gone forever. And good riddance.
Writers need editors but good editors are involved and engaged. Editing is a collaborative process, not one forced on the work as a prep-for-market process.
Book covers should be designed by people who have read the book, or at least discussed it with the author.
My nonfiction book was written for a target market, but I don't need a New York publisher to find and hit that target. Writers often have deeper insights into how to access their readers than publishers ever will.
Bestseller lists are hype - many authors buy their way onto the lists. Allowing big publishers and the quasi-journalists who pander to them to define and manipulate the gold standard is a travesty.
Big publishers print in large quantities. Small type and thin margins cut costs but result in books that are less comfortable to read. Using print-on-demand (POD), I produce clothbound, foil-stamped, gorgeously-typeset hardcover books with a dust jacket for $20.
Bookstores are dying. Borders is gone. People will shop at B&N until they receive an eReader for Christmas, at which point they have no cause to enter the store again. Cheap and available used books hold more allure than the prospect of buying them new and converting them to used books myself.
Dave Bricker, author
The One-Hour Guide to Self-Publishing
http://www.oneHourSelfPub.com
Having a major publisher backing a book isn't a terrible deal. It's not so much about validation, sure this is part of it, but more about representation and the professional support of editors and publishers rather than some faceless internet identity on a website, as well as in-house legal representation.
Self publishing is not always cheap. To really be successful, a writer needs to have had that manuscript edited professionally. Then if they choose to print and distribute, there are printing costs. Even if you decide on e-book format only, you still need to purchase an ISBN and it goes on.
If something does go wrong, take plagiarism, a publishing company can address that through their legal team. What do you do if you self publish and cannot afford an attorney?
Now I have to get off my butt and get my book of short stories out there.
11 weeks ago, I self-published my "sweet" historical Western Romances. Since then, I've sold over 7500 books, without much marketing. Neither of my first two agents could sell these books, even though the first one was a Romance of America Golden Heart winner, because they were sweet, not sexy. The experience has been wonderful. I have a renewed sense of excitement about writing. I just published a blog detailing my sales and the money I've made. http://drdebraholland.blogspot.com
Yes, write a good book. Yes, have a good cover. And yes, have it professionally edited!
You have certainly made the case that conventionÂal publishing is not working out for you, but it remains to be seen whether the self-publiÂshing streets will be paved with gold. Oddly enough, I am looking at the New York Times bestseller list for 7/3/11, and I don't believe that a single self-publiÂshed title--in any format or at any price--madÂe the cut. So it may be a tiny bit premature to proclaim the triumph of the wise author/entÂrepreneur over the antediluviÂan idiocy of the traditionaÂl houses. And it may be slightly trickier to get rich and famous than you imagine.
But time will tell, and you clearly have nothing to lose. I hope things work out as you envision.
Thus there will always be a place for traditional publishers. Some may gravitate toward providing ebook services the same way they traditionally provided services regarding getting books into print as hard copies.
What we have going now is perhaps a little like the record industry's problems, which they also handled poorly, for a long time insisting on putting out only albums charging their main customers, who were largely people who had options to get those albums in illegitimate ways for free, premium prices. Despite the insistence of so many customers that most albums were simply not worth that much money nor delivered more than one or two or three good songs worth buying, the record companies stuck to their guns. Today record stores are all but gone.
Publishers, too, can insist on all they like. The market, in the meantime, whether they like it or not, will decide for them. They might as well fully incorporate ebook publishing at reasonable prices, and become one-stop shops for ebook authors. If not, they will face competition from authors making more from selling ebooks by themselves, and face a horde of customers so used to great prices on books that the idea of selling books for high prices will finally come to be seen as absurd.