I started writing my first novel in 2000, and didn't finish it until 2001. Attacking the book market was going to be an exciting fulfillment and I was poised to watch my book climb swiftly up the bestsellers list. I contacted and agent, and even contacted publishers offering what was sure to be a novel that they just couldn't turn down. Then reality stepped up and slapped me in the face. I got a rejection slip from the agent (after about a 2 week wait, which I would later learn was actually a quick reply), and soon to follow were slips from the publishers too. Okay, so maybe they're not looking for another author, so I queried another agent, another publisher, and then another agent. Whichever agent responded first with an offer to represent me would be the one I would sign with. Eventually, those three rejections also made it to my mailbox. This is when I stumbled upon <name removed>. A self publishing company that was an affiliate of Barnes and Noble, so I knew that if I published through them that this would take me to where I wanted to be. Back then, their basic package was like $198. A small amount I thought, to get my work in print. I could afford that, and I could market the book myself. I would be rolling in the cash before I knew it. Wrong again. In the meantime, I'd written a second novel and had it published through <name removed> as well. But this time their basic package rate was $298. Still not a bad price, and I had actually made enough off of the first novel to pay for this one. So, I published it, and started marketing that one. The second book didn't do as well as the first, but I didn't push it as hard as I had the first one either. I didn't get rich from either book, but I did learn a good bit about the business. I also learned that not just anyone could write a book, and acquire representation from an agent, or a publisher, without a lot of luck. I even did book signings in the local Barnes and Noble book stores, and in a handful of independent stores around the region. During this time, I met, and befriended quite a few mid-list writers. Some that helped me, and some that didn't help that much. And these were writers that had book deals through traditional publishers, and were working on their fourth or fifth books with them. After the hoopla, I went a few years without writing anything at all, and lost touch with what the market was doing. Just recently, I resurrected an old novel I had started, and began the process of breathing new life into the book. Currently, I'm going through the first edits, working my way toward another finished novel. I began to wonder what the market was doing, and what would be the best approach for submitting my new novel, when its finished. So I started contacting some of my old writing buddies, the mid-list writers. The ones that had at least eight novels in publication now. What I found was disturbing. A few of the authors aren't even writing anymore. A few of the others are still writing, but have lost their agents, their book deals, and their will to keep fighting the uphill battles. While others have lost their book deals, but have turned to self publishing, and to e-publishing as a way to keep their names in front of their readers. I can remember when saying you were self published was like cursing in church, or like announcing that you had a contagious disease. No one wanted to touch you. I think all of that is changing. More and more authors are self publishing now, and I've even seen mid-list writers that still have agents, and book deals with their publishers, also have titles that are self published. So the SP way, may not be such a bad way to go anymore. I emailed a few of these ML writers and asked what they thought about where the market was headed. I've only heard from one of them so far, and this is a guy that was published through Kensington Books, and had two agents representing him. He said that he still has his agents, but his book deal with the publisher wasn't renewed after the last one. He's not sitting idle and waiting though. He's self publishing. His advice to me was... Get a professional edit, cover, and formatting and then market like hell while you write your next novel. We're all looking for a formula for success of some sort, and at the moment self publishing is the formula, and it's up to us to create the success.
My knowledge of economics is rather spotty, but I think decreased costs for publishing may actually lead to lower margins. It's often easier to take out a high margin from an expensive product, since the price premium will seem small in comparison to the total price. This is the only reason I can see why writers should be worse off with the existence of ebooks. On the other hand, decreased costs for publishing should make it easier to start a small publishing company, which could make it easier for the beginning writer to get published with moderate success. Is there anyone who has some hard facts and figures on how the publishing industry is developing?
The what? Oh...uh...right. Well, his incompleteness theorems are going to have to stand in line. Damn, yeah, I forgot that one. I'm starting to feel like I just gave an after-dinner speech in the cafeteria of...oh never mind.
Great story. I think people should definitely consider what you have just said. But what are your novels? How do you come in like that and drop a wisdom bomb and not even provide a link?
Not to mention if you get traditionally published with a bigger publisher it is much easier to get shafted, and not make any money. I have reasonably well published crime writer who is father of a college friend he makes less than £1,000 a year and has since before the internet. Another friend who had his book withdrawn, it had been doing well but couldn't compete with Twilight for the the ultimate vampire novel lol Kevin what have you done to market and sell yours ? It can depend but if a book costs £3.99 to the reader whatever format. It costs the publisher say £1 to produce a print book and 20p to produce an epub book. There is more left over by way of profit in the epub. I have a lot of friends that work for publishers that only do epub. They get way more in their pocket than my friends that traditionally publish.
The self-published market still carries a 'poor relation' stigma - with good cause. There are too many books out there that have been badly written, badly designed and have had little or no competent editing. The covers are amateurish and they are poorly presented. And, as so often happens,the good stuff has to struggle to raise its head above the mass of rubbish that is out there.
The difference now is we have computers to do the searching and indexing for us, ratings can be collated and averaged, reviews can be found, shills can be rooted out. We have the ability to find out what people that we will never meet think, and not just professional critics. I say, let the Publishing Industry fall, and from its ashes, will rise a phoenix, a new Rennaisance of Electronic Publication, where the good webcomics thrive, the bad writers stay buried, and we, not some fancy pants New York Agent who isn't taking new clients, decide what is worthy of our praise and hard earned money.
So you're saying like a reading market without editors and publishers? just people uploading their works for sale? Interesting. Although I prefer having a book with paper in my hands.
But then most people have printers Maybe what we will see a resurgence in is book binders - people who then print out and bind books for people - the consumer chooses their cover. print books may become the expensive, prized status symbols they used to be. I am seeing a lot of ways this is actually returning writing and publishing to the 1800s.
That's all true and I agree with you about the publishing industry. But it is a fact that self-publishing has not yet achieved a well respected status. Dedicated writers will do whatever they have to do to make their work the best it can be. That has always been the case. But it is also true that many would-be writers who think it's an easy way to fame and fortune, trot out an ill-though out, badly researched novel, short-cut its way to publication by avoiding the cost of professional proofreading and editing and then sit back and hope the world will flock to their door.
There are printers who will print and bind your ms. and also design the cover if that's what you want. You submit the ms. they print it - as is, mistakes an all. Its a cheap way of getting your book into print - and it is a good option.
Yes, that's weird, that they take the same price for the print and digital versions. If the big publishers can keep that up, I don't see what's to worry about. If the small publishers who do only digital books cut into their market shares, I can see why there would be a general drop in book prices.
What I meant though is the traditional leather binding that makes your book a library style keepsake item . It is expensive to buy a book, then have it printed, then bound, it is different if you don't have to buy the book as well
I think some publishers and authors will also start to offer expensive binding as an option to their ebooks. The digital book can as easily be sent to a print shop which does bindings, and then mailed to the buyer.
I've linked to this before, but there's this machine, you give it a PDF, it gives you a bound paperback book. It is only around $10,000 plus the cost of the photocopier to attach to it, and for publishing gear, that's not bad. Price it well enough, and I can take my bought & paid for ebook, and feed it into this machine, then get out a dead tree formatted book. Include the right info, and as a part of my purchase, either of the ebook, or the hard copy, and some of that money goes straight to the author, some goes to material and running costs of the machine, and the rest is profit for the guy who put this thing in his shop. Collate the data from what books are printed on these, and you get top, popular books that are probably worth investigating. It's an elegant solution.
I think there are still bookbinders about that do that. I wanted to have a book leather-bound for a gift and I found someone locally who would do that. It was too expensive but it was available.
There are still some but I wonder if they will actually increase because of this. I notice my local arts place has started doing courses for tradtional book binding in past year.
I don't think being published necessarily means you have "credibility" Take The Da Vinci Code and Twilight for example. I've never read such dire writing - yet they've made millions. Terry Goodkind is another such trashy author who has also made millions. Getting published doesn't mean your writing is good. It just means the models you've used sells to the current market. And let's face it, most people have no idea what good writing really is. And the sadder thing still is that most people don't care. Anyway, question of my own now - so does it mean I don't stand even the slightest chance of getting published if I've never even won a single writing competition? (truth is, I've never entered)
Thank you for the kind words Edward, but your post is just as informative, and right on the money; writers would do thenselves a great service to pay attention to your posts as well. My past novels aren't as important to me now as they were then, unless I decide to republish them for the digital market. Even then, I would rework them and correct some of the wrongs I made then, when I thought they were right. What's important to me now are the ones I'm currently writing. They are the books that will launch whatever writing career I have into the future. For anyone interested however, my first two novels were pulled from iUniverse once the rights reverted back to me, and are now available as reprints through Lulu.com. Terror in the South and A New Breed of Terror are the novels, the other books listed there are short story collections. Elgaisma asked what I did to market my books. Besides book signings at every local brick and mortar bookstore that I could get into, and craft festivals where vendors set up tents and sell their wares on the streets; a lot of my sales came from writers forums just like this one. Most of the forums that I perused back then weren't occupied just by other writers, but by readers as well. So I was able to acquire sales in other countries like Canada and Australia that my books would have never made it to, otherwise. I also had an Authors dedicated website, and an authors forum that I linked to every message board I visited. Word of mouth did more for my sales than did any of the book signings, but the signings were fun to do, and was more personal. It's fun to meet your readers when you have the opportunity. But when you do, you'd better know your book inside and out, because you will answer questions from them about characters, settings, and anything else they can think of to ask you. There are a lot of ways to market your work, and too many to list here. One of the things I found that was successful to me, especially during book signings was to have bookmarks printed with your books title and information on them. Of course, including your contact information, and locations where your books are available is important too. I haven't seen one reader yet, whether they bought your book or not, that would turn down a free bookmark. You're right about that. Being published doesn't necessarily mean you have credibility. That can only be earned through sales, and readership. I don't care how poorly, or even how well a book is written; if you're not gathering readers, and making sales to those readers, then you can forget credibility. Especially if you're looking to publish traditionally. Agents and publishers love to see sales reports for previous works. Even if its just an article that you were paid for in a trade magazine. Right again! It's too easy for anyone to get a book in print these days, especially with all of the vanity publishers that are out there. If you wrote the world's worst novel it doesn't matter. There is someone out there that will print it for you. Nope. The chance to break into traditional publishing is there for anyone that can craft a unique story. I read once that someone said that "all of the best stories have already been written." I don't remember right off who it was that said it, but while that may be true; I don't think that all of the unique angles have been covered. If that were true, there would be no bestsellers list, and no room for even a mid-list writer. Currently there's still both. That may change in the coming years, but for now anyone has a chance. No one should give up on traditional publishing just yet. The next book you write just might be the one to break through and launch you into that celebrity status that we all so desire.
I'd like to think that 'traditional' publishing will survive, but I am sure that its form will change dramatically. As electronic media insinuates itself with readers the market for hardcopy books will decrease forcing publishers to alter their business models, and the publishing business is has long resisted change. POD and vanity publishing will become more of a factor in the future also as Kevin mentioned in his first post. I feel we are heading for a hybrid industry in which, just maybe, authors will have part beyond just providing the raw materials.
I think it was December where ebook sales in the US were greater than print sales but I may have wrong month and location lol
Just got to make a comment on that. We don't all crave celebrity status. I just want to live forever and keep loving what I'm doing. Katy Price can keep her life - I'm pretty happy with mine.
Well, at least you'll get to do half of what you'd like. I'll have to admit, I had to Google Katy Price to see who you were talking about. :redface: I'm happy with my life as well, but that has nothing to do with my accomplishments in writing. I write because I love to, and because I love to reach out to readers that enjoy my work. I have a fan base that's mediocre compared to some writers, but if I never reach one additional person I care about the ones I have reached, and keeping them satisfied is my goal. I get reminded almost everyday when I'm out in public, that I have readers out there waiting for my next book. Whether I'm in the grocery store, the Post Office, or in the waiting room at the Doctor's office; someone will ask me when my next book is coming out. Maybe the use of the word "celebrity" was a bit too broad. But I would rather be read and remembered by some, than to be neither by none.
I agree, it is exactly how I feel about my writing, but I came to it late by accident it hasn't been a burning ambition all my life. I have about 120 people interested in my book and writing enough to email me and ask for pieces. For just under twelve months of writing I think that isn't bad - I am about to launch a website that will serialize my work if that is all the publishing and audience that ever happens that contents me with my writing. The worst that happens with Someone Else's Life is that I publish on my website and charge a nominal fee for the download. My new one I would like to see in print but would be content with self publishing. Right now it has achieved more than I could have ever conceived when I doodled a picture of Angus (well actually he was Prince Jonathan at the time). However because I love it being read - part of me of course would love to have Narnia, Potter type status just because those people are reading my book it isn't the money it is the response I get when people love my characters, are gripped by my stories etc It outweighs the ones that ask me am I native English speaker lol
