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Originally Posted by carld
But how much actual help are traditional publishers in connecting to the market and selling books? If you've got a big name or a hot book, a lot I'm sure. But, I hear and read a lot about how many authors get little or no assistance from publishers, who leave them to make their own connections and do their own promotion. That's a theme I hear over and over again.
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How do you suppose the big name authors got to
be big names in the first place?
Yes, promotion is an issue. Publishers tend to reserve promotional dollars for the Big Names, and most promotion consists of making sure the author's following know there's a new book out they can buy. To a large extent, promotion for a new author is on the author.
But you have to start
somewhere. There's an awful lot of luck involved in the process - for whatever reason, a book gets picked up by the market and becomes popular.
Consider who the
publisher sells to. For the most part, the publisher does not sell to you directly. They sell to retailers and distributors. Their sales force goes out to buyers and presents the house's line, and the buyers decide which titles and how many to order. The prospective reader is unlikely to know your book exists if it never gets put out on a shelf.
(And one of the intangibles is the publisher's annual sales conference, where the editors of various imprints do presentations to tell the sales force what they have in the pipeline, so the sales force can tell the buyers. An editor passionate about your book who pushes it in her presentation can considerably boost the books chances, as the sales force will be motivated to give it extra emphasis when talking to the buyers.)
Another factor is that different publishers do well with different books. An old friend is a former Executive Editor at a publishing house, who described rejecting manuscripts that she personally loved, because she knew from experience her house didn't know how to sell that kind of book.
Ultimately, it's a crap shoot. Publishers buy books they think will sell and publish them and cross their fingers. they're betting that enough books will sell to cover the losses on the ones that don't and make them enough money to stay in business.
And it's a very difficult game for a new author to get a seat at the table. You must expect to write and submit for some time before beginning to sell. But if you want to make any
money at it, you largely have to go the traditional publishing route.
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Ebooks are changing that, not all at once, and it's not going to be all or nothing. Traditional publishing will continue to dominate for probably years, but ebooks and self-publishing will grow out their niche eventually.
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Ebooks will probably grow out of their niche. Self-publishing is another matter. Self-published works tend to occupy one of a few categories:
The authors tried to interest a commercial publisher, got nowhere, and chose to self-publish. There is usually a good
reason why commercial publishers showed no interest.
The authors chose to bypass commercial publishing and do it themselves. The tools are certainly there to make it fairly easy, but quality varies widely, and the authors are faced with the problems of finding their market and letting it know they and their work exists. And I don't know of
any self published writer making a living, or even part of one, from self-publishing. If they're lucky, they cover their costs and make beer money.
The authors are writing for a niche market that is too small for a commercial publisher to profitably address. Depending upon the market, it may be possible to make money, though not a living. This is probably the best real use of self-publishing.
The authors are writing as a hobby because they just like to write, and make the books available for those who might be interest, but aren't overly concerned about sales. This is another valid use of self-publishing.
The first question I'd ask anyone going the self-publishing route is "Are you writing for
money? Do you hope to make part of all of your
living doing it?" If the answer is "yes", I wish them luck and advise them not to quit their day job.
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Dennis