Don't Ask

 

Terry here with our question of the week: Share a "hot take" about the book world?

My “hot take” in a few words: Publishers are only in it for the money. So what’s new? Everybody knows that. It’s been a long time since publishers were in the business of books because they love books. Writers look back with yearning to the days when publishers held the hands of their beloved writers, giving them advice, editorial assistance, and then free rein to write what they chose. They loved books. 

 If publishers are in the business to make money, how do they do it? It’s a crap shoot. They usually have no idea what is going to sell. By putting a lot of money into promotion, they can be sure they ones they’ve chosen get a leg up, but it’s never guaranteed. 

 I recently read this from Elle Griffen: “The Big Five publishing houses spend most of their money on book advances for big celebrities like Britney Spears and franchise authors like James Patterson and this is the bulk of their business. They also sell a lot of Bibles, repeat best sellers like Lord of the Rings, and children’s books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These two market categories (celebrity books and repeat bestsellers from the backlist) make up the entirety of the publishing industry and even fund their vanity project: publishing all the rest of the books we think about when we think about book publishing (which make no money at all and typically sell less than 1,000 copies.” 

 That’s a bleak assessment—and also true. There are some writers who make a living getting their books published. And there are writers who publish their own books and make a good living at it. But for every one of these there are hundreds of mid-list authors who barely make a few thousand dollars a year, after spending countless hours slaving over a manuscript. And then there’s a small percentage in that rarified atmosphere of “best sellers.” Usually they write damn good books. But I’ve also read a lot of mid-list work by writers whom I know cannot even approach making a living at it, and whose books are every bit as good. 

That’s the big frustration of the publishing world. The writer’s world is full of stories of those books that were passed up by one publisher after another until it was “spotted” by an astute editor, given the go-ahead by the reluctant publisher…and went on to sell zillions of copies. But how often does this really happen? So rarely, that for most of us, it isn’t even a pipe dream. It’s in the same category as finding out you’ve won the lottery. 

 If publishers are in it for the money, who loves books? Editors. Editors are the backbone of the publishing world, but they are still reliant on those who own the publishing house. They have to go armed with their best sales pitch to an editorial board to try to get the books they love accepted for publication. The editorial board answers to the publisher. 

 In the case of smaller publishing houses, often the “editorial board” is the publisher. No matter how much an editor loves a book, they had to get over that final hurdle. And the final hurdle is the question: will it make money? You are only as salable as your last books sales. When the sales “slip,” you are “slipped” off the books. It’s all about the bottom line. 

 If this sounds bitter, I don’t mean to be. I have been extremely fortunate. My first book was a resounding success and I have a solid following of those who come back for more—despite the number of really good books competing for their reading time. I was also lucky that when my publishing house got sold, I my series was picked up by another, larger publisher who has been a good partner. They even let me start a new series. So since 2013 I’ve had fourteen books published. And I’m proud of them. 

 The one place I haven’t been fortunate is in making the mistake of signing away my audio rights. There’s a reason my books aren’t on audio, despite the many readers who ask for them. The publishers own the audio rights and they aren’t giving them up “in case” an audio publisher purchases them. Not fair? Yep. But that’s the state of the publishing world these days. It’s all about the bottom line. 

 PS. I feel uneasy with the general state of publishing these days, hearing the dark rumblings that publishers may decide it’s cheaper to publish AI-written books than to keep doling out money to authors who sell fewer than 1,000 books. But writers gotta write. That’s our bottom line.

Countdown time: it's only 21 days until my next Samuel Craddock book comes out. The Curious Poisoning of Jewel Barnes makes it an even dozen. It's available for pre-order.