Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby
I wonder how many authors might come to ask themselves, How much of my book's
returns goes to pay for services at the BPH that I don't need or use? How much went
to pay for services to support a more favored author's project?
Luck;
Ken
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Or to pay for glitzy MYC offices, or the security guards or the janitors or the copiers or the lawyers working the mergers or go straight to the Multinational's swiss bank account.
Once upon a time publishing was a "magical" mystery that took place in a black box where manuscripts went in and occasionally books and royalty checks came out. Those in the know weren't talking; they were the "sacred" gatekeepers and happy to keep it that way. But those days are over. These days there are no secrets and those that know are talking.
The pushback against Turow and traditional publishing isn't because people don't know what is involved in getting a book to market but rather because they now know *exactly* what it takes.
Many authors are firing up their spreadsheets and figuring out for themselves what it costs to contract freelancers (laid off from the BPHs) to provide the exact same quality service as the BPH-contracted formatters, cover artists, proofers, editors... And when they tally the value of those services and weigh them against giving up 85% of the book's proceeds for a century and more...well, the numbers don't add up.
There is this perception that indie publishing is the domain of newcomers and wannabes and there are certainly a lot of them. But the real indie publishing revolution and the bulk of the pushback is coming from experienced, previously-published authors who *know* what trad-pub did for them (or *to* them) and are finding the new model more to their liking. The biggest winners are the authors who the old model neglected and marginalized.
Look to the examples in the SALON piece above. Not a one is a wide-eyed, wet behind the ears slush pile reject. Those people *know* the value of traditional publishing contracts and they know the price attached to the BPH services is simply too high to bear for them.
Turow is a different creature, of course; he is nicely covered and if he ends up surrendering 75% of his work's revenue, he is still well rewarded. His books get promoted, for starters. His books don't get buried on a back shelf, spine-out, two-to-a-store for three month before getting returned for credit towards the next celebrity ghost-written "masterpiece". For him, the old system works fine and his biggest concern is that the BPHs are getting squeezed and they might just start treating him like the other 99% of the published authors his guild pretends to represent. And he is right to worry. Any day now, he'll cough up a book that doesn't quite meet quota. And the beancounters will look at the ledgers and stick a little red flag next to his name and the next time his agents sit down to negotiate... Who knows? Maybe that is where his luddite angst comes from; maybe his last advance wasn't quite up to his expectations. Or maybe the last BPH contribution to the AG coffers was a bit light...
The American author isn't dying. He is simply a freelancer who is tired of beging for piecework and scraps and is setting up shop on their own. And discovering that modest success is a heck of a lot better than no success at all. Look around, that story is all around us; in the blogs, in the news, in the ebookstores and their press releases. (B&N, of all outfits, is bragging of their indie sales!) And the story is also in the words and deeds of the BPHs and their execs.
They are nowhere near as clueless as Turow. They all have their exit strategies in place; just ask Pearson...