Managed Expectations in Publishing

Hi Pulpynoir and Steerpike
Well said. I totally agree with the both of you.

 

Now that's a quotable quote!

 

Agreed, agreed, agreed.

I wish people would do less moaning about how hard and cruel the publishing industry is, and actually start writing and submitting.

 

The funny thing about the music industry, is that the artists' revenues have steadily increased during the last ten years, both per artist and as a group, but most people in the music industry believe its gotten worse. The record sales and the record companies have plummeted, but this has been more than made up for by legal sales of MP3s, increased concert revenues, merchandise, fees from collection agencies, and so on. And yes, I've seen papers which prove this point.

This makes me wonder if something similar could be going on in the publishing industry. Maybe the collapse of traditional publishing merely creates the illusion that times are getting worse, while more revenue is coming in from alternative sources?

 

What will not improve a writers situation is something like the iTunes store, where Apple scoops up 99% of the income. You'll have to make a landslide sale on there in order to make a living above the poverty limit. I think the only realistic path for those who seek to make a decent profit from writing is to become ruthless businessmen, and that goes for all art business, and, well, all business in general. It's not what you sell, it's how you sell it.

 

I hate that phrase because it implies that just because you're published you should become rich overnight. I think I can show my point with the Orbit publishing scheduale. As you can see from this some authours put out three to four novels per year and they do this because thier not super rich, they've got the ideas and they have to work hard to achieve a good standard of living. It's similar to an actor, just because you've had one acting job it doesn't make you rich, you need to work hard and continually show that you are good at what you do to achieve a high standard of living.

I hate the whole idea of doing a James Paterson novel writing format. It's a similar style that's used in movies and TV productions and over the past ten years we've seen a huge drop in creativity. Yes expenses have gone up, but so have profits and merchandising. Today Hollywood barely does a movie that isn't a remake, or a sequeal of a popular 80's movie or an adaption of a successful novel or comic book or a foreign langauge film. TV rarely does anything that isn't centre'd around some wannabe celebrity.