A letter from the novelist Richard Russo has been making rounds through the internet in the last week. In it, Russo is decrying the phenomenon of self-published authors, and he defends the current paradigm of published authors who have gone through the rounds, gotten an agent, worked with a publishing company, and has accepted a small cut for every sale of their book.
I can see the benefits of having a publisher. They may find a cover artist for you. They will edit your book and help you to polish it to marketable perfection. They will even market your book for you--to some degree. But often you are only taking home 25-30% of the profit. Yet...a publishing house can market better than an author can, in most cases.
A lot of authors don't like this route, and they would rather put their work directly into the field for readers to enjoy. Frequently, these authors are keeping 70% of what they sell. Many of them make their own book covers, and most have friends or colleagues edit their work for them.
I've heard some writers argue that things are changing. In the past, we lived in a world where you had to submit to publishers who seemed to behave as gatekeepers. Only the most politically correct work would pass their test, and a lot of publishing houses seemed to have agendas. If you were too original, these publishing houses would cast you out, and you would have to start from scratch and find some other publisher for your work. It can be a demoralizing process to go through the painful rounds to find a publisher.
But now--contemporary writers argue--things are changing, and the gatekeepers are being overthrown thanks to the internet.
If this is the case, then what will happen with those publishing houses?
My guess is that the strongest publishing houses will remain, and more than ever, they will become like clubs that seem to grant a writer's work "legitimacy." And being published by a publishing house will seem like a reward unto itself in the writer's world.
I could be wrong, but I just don't see the publishing industry collapsing altogether.
Interesting post. Well, I was a trad published author who went Indie a few years ago and I'm not alone. Yes. I've been through the rounds, submitted to agents, worked with publishers, sweated and toiled while getting very little for my efforts. In 2010, when the publishing industry started to decline, I broke away from both publisher and agent and e-published my backlist, along with two novels that were with my agent for submission. Since then I have written and e-published six further novels and, as a result, now have twelve books out there in the e-book market worldwide.
ReplyDeleteI think authors with publishers and agents are getting nervous and jealous of self-published authors, our creative freedom and potential to earn royalties we don't have to share with anyone. Self published books are also getting better and better as authors gain experience in writing, formatting and cover art.
How can authors be like this? Can they not remember the time when they were a struggling writer as well? Surely they have not forgotten?
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