Caught in the Middle. Publishing's other customers

[EC2]

An interesting and thought provoking piece here, noticed on Twitter

http://digitalbookworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/caught-in-the-middle-publishings-other-customers/

[Margaret]

Thanks for sharing this, EC. It's a concern of mine. This line gets to the main point:

It’s not enough to say glibly that ‘writers have to write so they will’ or that self-publishing will be their salvation.

There's a particle of truth in the "writers have to write so they will" bit, but only a particle. If there were no hope whatsoever of making even a substandard living from writing, many writers would probably keep writing but not bother to polish their work to a standard that is exciting for readers and probably not bother to publish. Writing well is extremely time-consuming, and the many writers who accept low or no pay from journals and magazines (I've published two short stories - made $25 for one, $5 for the other) do so with the idea of developing credentials that will eventually lead to either a book deal or a better paid career writing for larger magazines, or both.

If the real publishers all disappeared tomorrow and only self-publishing remained, it would be a nightmare for both readers and authors. The vast majority (not all) of self-published novels are almost unreadable, and there are floods of them on the market. How is a reader supposed to sort through the mountains of chaff to find the books that are worth reading? How is an author supposed to draw the attention of readers amid all the noise? If this happened, I daresay a publishing business would quickly redevelop as somebody somewhere figured out the value to readers in offering a selection of books that are exciting to read.

[juleswatson]

Thanks EC, this is very interesting, if more and more depressing.

If this happened, I daresay a publishing business would quickly redevelop as somebody somewhere figured out the value to readers in offering a selection of books that are exciting to read.

Margaret, you are spot on. And if that happened and companies set up to sort the wheat from the chaff then yet again you would have something like...publishers and agents!

[MLE]

Interesting article, EC. But I've already lived it with one industry, watched it with another, and can't see any way to stop it. I hear all these industry people wring their hands and moan "There has to be a way for producers to get paid enough, or they won't produce, and THEN they will be sorry!"

But whoever 'they' are, they don't get it until it is too late, and even then, there isn't any hint of sorry, only a few complaints about the way things currently are. Most like it better, which is how the whole thing happened.

I heard this when the bottom fell out of the llama market. The hard truth is, nobody but the people involved cared. And nobody else misses the days when the critters cost an arm and a leg.

I think the flood of self-publishing will sort itself out soon. At first, the one could be confused with the commercial model because it was rarer to come across a self-pubbed book than a professionally published one. And people who self-pubbed thought you could make money at this.

Now it is becoming more generally understood that there isn't any money in the art of writing (like singing, acting, painting, or sculpting) people will still self-pub, but only for friends and family. That will become very common indeed, so common that it will actually chew a wider hole in the readership, when a large volume of potential readers spends their time/money reading about things like their Great-Great Uncle Harold's Whaling Diaries, which would be very dull to the public but of interest to his descendants.

But why would it take a publishing business to sort the wheat from the chaff? Isn't that part of what we do here?

What I like about all the reader-based critique out there is that it is so varied that everybody can find a group of critics whose tastes match their own -- kind of like hearing movies recommended by friends, because the professional critics always seem to like what you loathe, and pan what gives you enjoyment. So you turn to Rotten Tomatoes.

I've always thought the publishers have turned out some amazingly horrid books, at least for my taste. I continually turn the pages of books and wonder: "What cretin was willing to risk their company's cash on THIS?"

As to the vast quantity of dreck out there from self-pubbing, the incompetents can usually be spotted in the first page. And you don't have to buy it to figure that out.

[michellemoran]

I've always thought the publishers have turned out some amazingly horrid books, at least for my taste. I continually turn the pages of books and wonder: "What cretin was willing to risk their company's cash on THIS?"

Actually - and this is just something I recently learned - publishers have quotas they have to fill, and sometimes they choose books they aren't passionate about to fit into a particular tier. Like Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3. If you're a Tier 4, it means they bought the book simply to use up the money the parent company gave them so that they'll get the same amount next time, and if the Tier 4 book fails - eh. I don't know how often this happens, or for how many books, but it definitely happens. Tier 4 books aren't necessarily expected to succeed. They just need them to act as filler for the catalog. Of course, everyone goes around pretending this isn't so, and no one would admit to this (I'm guessing) unless they've left the industry. But perhaps that accounts for some books that aren't as polished as they could be.

[Margaret]

people will still self-pub, but only for friends and family. That will become very common indeed, so common that it will actually chew a wider hole in the readership, when a large volume of potential readers spends their time/money reading about things like their Great-Great Uncle Harold's Whaling Diaries, which would be very dull to the public but of interest to his descendants.

I agree that people will still self-publish, but I'm not sure the outcome will necessarily be so gloomy. I forget what the statistics are, but only a portion of the general public are enthusiastic readers. A lot of people never crack a book after they graduate from college. So the folks who read Great-Great Uncle Harold's Whaling Diaries may not actually be part of the gang that reads books on a regular basis - maybe the Whaling Diaries will spark an interest that will get them reading something else (that's more consistently entertaining). The outcome could be to build a larger audience for books in general.

[MLE]

I should have said self-pubbers will write 'mostly' for friends and family. That's really the case now, but many just don't understand that going into it. They think their book is going to be the next 'Shack' or 'Eragon'. And there will be the 1% outstanding success, of course.

In the future, I predict that most books picked up by the commercial companies will be self--pubbed first. Why not? Let the writer bear the cost of failure. It's a cheaper and surer system than the current agent-to-editor pipeline, and they never have to worry that they picked up a book without a readership. New writers will pay to play, but really, that's what they do now, if you consider the expense of going to all these writing conventions and shopping for an agent. The difference is, in the meantime, they'll get feedback from actual readers. And if they can stand to hear 'dull' 'could not finish' 'dragged' and the like, they'll get better. Which beats getting a pile of rejections and getting mad because 'nobody will give me a chance'.

I don't think that writers will not bother to improve their craft if there is no financial reward. I have artist friends, and they work at improving all the time, just for the satisfaction of it. I improve, not for the money, but for the spark in my listener's eyes, and the occasional email saying 'I felt like I was hearing from a friend.'

Which brings me to the point that the social networks will replace the publishers in determining what is really readable for a given audience. And that's a good thing for all of us. The really gifted writer can rise to the top on word-of-mouth (or twitter, or facebook, or forum, or email, whatever) and those of us who want commercially non-viable reads like an in-depth biography of Jaques Coer will be able to find it, even when no publisher would bother.

And small publishers will proliferate (but not to much $$, alas) because they can sort and select for their audience far better than the huge, multi-genre publishers ever did.