There’s been a bit of an uproar on X over last week – Two things that tie together. First, some arbitrary celeb trotted onto I think it was Tik-tok (repent Harlequin) garnered a substantial following very quickly – and got offered a book deal by one of the trad houses, despite not having written anything, and no obvious writing skills being apparent. Many would-be authors on X gave voice to great outrage at the unfairness of it all. Quality of writing was not an issue, and it was sooo unfair that the celeb were getting a fat advance, because there would be no money for Jill-talented-but-no-one-ever-heard-of-her.
The second was an adaptation of meme I’d seen before – A kid howling his eyes out and a big adult saying ‘If you want to cry, I’ll give you something to cry about’ — and handing him, as I remember it, a book called ‘ORGANIC CHEMISTRY’. Raconteur Press had adapted the title to ‘BEING AN AUTHOR IS MOSTLY MARKETING.’ Sadly, this is also true. And, frankly, bad.
Both of these tie together, because the celeb CAN (and will) market his book. His publisher can bet on that. The costs of editing, or even getting a ghost-writer, proofing, putting a cover together, paying a cover artist etc. – all the other jobs that a Trad Publisher does, are fixed costs – no matter if a book sells 500 copies, or 500 000. Yes, they may spend a little more on an artist, but there’s not much in it. The same holds true for the Indy who gets his own cover, etc. The cost of these things is not vastly different if you sell 5 or 500 000. So: yes, if you are a celebrity, or have social media following of vast size… your book, at least the first one, will be a success. The Trad publisher will probably invest something in marketing and promotion too. Relatively speaking, for them that’s money for old rope. Not a gamble.
Now the key words above are ‘first book’ — because if it is a real stinker, even the celeb following probably won’t enable a second one. If, of course, the ok or good, well, the author is going to get a bigger, better offer for number 2. My own belief is that you might be able to sell a million copies of the literary equivalent three-days-in-a-plastic-bag-in-the-sun-prawns… once. After that is when being an author actually starts to be about writing skill, being able to tell a great story, starts to matter as much, if not more, than your marketing.
In days yore (and even days yaw, your, and you’re) when spelling was an optional extra (as the barred… er, Bard demonstrated) the publisher (and their reputation for quality both of story and product) meant that any book they invested in was a story they thought people would enjoy and buy, and distributors tailored their offering to local tastes, and bookstores knew what their customers would like and buy — publishers were offering something of great value. If you were going to sell 100 000 copies with them and not sell a single book without, then the range of 6% (new author paperbacks) -12% (hardcover) royalties on cover starts to sound attractive. After all, not only did you have a fat zero without them, but, fair enough, that’s a livable return, and there are costs to them (editors, cover art etc) and overheads (premises, warehouses, book-store rents) on top. The author could write. That was the only skill they needed, the publisher provided or arranged the rest – including the marketing.
That WAS the bargain. The compact. The publishers were the gatekeeper, but in theory if you got through the gate, the book would be popular, and all that you, as an author, had to do, was to write another as good or better.
For a lot of us – me included, that was an acceptable deal. A lot of us – me included, suck at marketing, and while we might be prepared to put a lot into editing, proofs, covers, blurbs, etc. – more than the overworked intern you might get, it’s not our métier. What we wanted to do was write.
Except… the deal frayed away. The reputation that publishers had for books that readers would love gradually slipped away, when they realized they didn’t have to do that, the public (for a while anyway) would believe they had done a good job. The marketing slipped away to being ‘get copies into bookstores’. Distribution became centralized and had no clue what locals would pay to read. Bookstores share of sales slipped away online, and being in the bookstore was no guarantee of sales. And over time, sales numbers dropped. So, your author’s 6% of cover for 50 K books became 6% of cover for… 5K. (That was when I got in. I believe 2K is now a new writer’s typical).
Do the math. That is 6% of very little IF YOU DON’T MARKET IT YOURSELF. The e-book rates might be trifle more generous, but I’m still saying you’re going starve, unless you have a day job to subsidize your publisher. If you do write the be-all and end-all book that just happens to be adored by every reader, but the bookstores don’t have it auto-reorder, but that readers have to ask for (yes, this is real. Books have tiers of re-order.) it is possible you will gain traction, but then it is possible you will win the Lottery.
Honestly, trad publishing, distro, and bookstores, unless you already have a huge marketing leverage, are not providing much for 90% + of a book’s (especially an e-book) cover price. It may be worth it to get some small amount of recognition as a stepping-stone, if you have none. If you have that leverage, well, you’re fool if you accept that. You can keep much more of it without them. Negotiate hard.
I think in the next while we’re going to see a slow return to the historical compact: Publishers are going to have to return to doing more than just edit, proofread, covers and entry to booksellers. They will have to gatekeep and develop a relationship of trust for their brand to readers – and to writers. They’re going to HAVE to pick up more of the publicity burden, if they do not want to decline into selling off the family silver. There are new publishers trying to eat their lunch, working on marketing and promotion, and there are indies doing the same. They may not be very effective, yet, but compared to the effort that Trad is now able and willing to exert, perhaps it doesn’t take much. Also, they tend to treat authors as of value, not interchangeable widgets.
Interesting times. But without marketing (be it by word of mouth or some form of promotion), you are doomed to fail, unread, no matter how good you are. I am sorry to make you cry. Believe me, it makes me cry too. All I want to do is write and let my work succeed – or fail, on merit, but unless seen and read, it can’t.
Mad Genius Club 
12 responses to “Doomed to fail”
First, “I get that reference!” In fact I saw the opening page of the story in my mind’s eye.
Marketing … Word of mouth, social media (not as much as it once was, perhaps), hand selling your books in new places (works for some, not for others), blogs to build interest in your work in general, all those seem to work, and require time and skills. Knowing how to use keywords and to work the search system of on-line distributers is another skill. One wonders just how many Big 5 houses have someone who actually does that, and how many rely on the authors to do the work, with a few ads here and there in “appropriate media”?
For a while, Book-Toks seemed to work, but I’d be very curious how many of the people who like or copy a Book-Tok actually buy and read the books? And which genres do best. I have some guesses on the last, based on watching teens tote around Sarah J. Maas tomes and fantasy romances like hers, but which other writers have done well in that medium?
The problem with Book-Tok is that, by using it, you’re supporting the Chinese Communist Party. You’re downloading their spyware onto your phone or computer, and you’re providing them with content that gives other people a reason to use the Chinese spyware as well.
Book-Tok seems to work better than just about any other social media, as far as I can tell, but there is a cost that’s charged to your soul.
Oh, yes. Which is why although I mentioned it, I would never, ever use it. Someone urged Larry Correia to try doing Book-Toks, and a LOT of other people yelled “Don’t do it!!!!!”
I’ve often wondered just what it is that publishers think they’re contributing to the making of a book that justifies taking 90% of the profits. We know it’s not marketing; authors are expected to do that themselves, and indeed at this point most publishing houses don’t want to see anything from authors who don’t already have many thousands of social media followers. Editing? There again, I’ve heard that most houses expect authors to get their own editors, especially once they get past the first couple of books. As far as I know, the publishers will still provide the cover art (though quality varies), but that seems to be about it.
The second was an adaptation of meme I’d seen before – A kid howling his eyes out and a big adult saying ‘If you want to cry, I’ll give you something to cry about’ — and handing him…a book called…‘BEING AN AUTHOR IS MOSTLY MARKETING.’
It’s true, to the point where I’ve wondered if being an introverted author is even possible in this day and age—or an introverted anything in my more cynical moments. If you can’t get anywhere without pushing yourself, and you’re the sort of person who would rather slit your own throat than go out and talk to strangers about anything, much less yourself, do you have any place in the modern world?
“I’ve often wondered just what it is that publishers think they’re contributing to the making of a book that justifies taking 90% of the profits.”
Access to hardcopy booksellers and libraries, mostly.
Trad publishing has mutated into a money laundering racket for corrupt politicians. A conduit for multi-million dollar advances on books nobody will ever want to read. Ghostwritten ‘autobiographies’ and ‘memoirs’ for the likes of Dumbass 0bama and Crooked Queen Hillary.
That and a couple of dozen legacy big-names.
The trouble for the big-name Literary-Industrial Complex is that they were so focused on the big-names and the money-laundering aspect, and books by flash-in-the pan celebs … that they got away from cultivating their bench. Their new generation … and the authors who might have been — with a bit of considerate handling and a bit of a push (and contracts that weren’t downright abusive) are going indy, and figuring it out for themselves, for better or worse.
I would argue what publishers should be doing is curating, not gatekeeping.
Their job is to curate good books that their core audience will buy and enjoy reading. That is the value a publisher offers over just dipping your own hand into the slush pile.
Baen has been pretty much the only big label that has done so, and because of that, I can usually just pick up a random Baen book I haven’t read, and get a solid space yarn. I’ve discovered a number of authors like that.
But they’re about it. What does Tor produce, or Random House Penguin? Any other house, I’m going to be looking at the author and the book first.
Thanks for the great quote for my IG account! I know you’re not on Instagram but I’ll name you so maybe, someone will spot you, read your words of wisdom and look for you.
It could happen.
🙂 Just one more social media thing I just have never had extra energy for.
I do Instagram for our business, Peschel Press. Bill set up the account some years back and I took it over in 2021 to see if I could get us some traction and grow from 25 followers.
To my shock, I discovered I like Instagram. I slowly grew the account — we’re just under 1,000 followers now — and maybe we’ve got people who buy our books in that group.
What Instagram really does is give people another way to find us AND to find our events schedule.
I’ve learned that you shouldn’t do ANY social media you don’t want to do already and have the time for. I don’t do any of the others. No time or interest!
Trad publishers are dead men walking. Their only idea is, “Let’s merge our two failing business, we’ll reap economies of scale.” Of course as the famous Trader Jones said, “Twice nothing is still nothing.”
I’ll see if my (non) marketing plan works, but then I can afford to since I’m retired and my days of desperately trying to make a living as a writer are long gone.
Maybe you can invent an alternate, marketing persona for yourself as Joe did in creating J. Michael Straczynski, but I wouldn’t wish his biography on my worst enemy.