Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
Not all authors want to promote themselves. Some of them just want to write books. Some of them who are very, very good at writing books, are lousy at PR.
When Baen promotes a new author, I pay attention. I don't love everything Baen publishes, but I know it'll be in a quality range I can enjoy, even if the book itself isn't to my taste. I don't want to scour a hundred potential author websites looking for new sci-fi talent.
I read some romances... and again, I certainly don't want to search for those on my own. Harlequin rarely publishes anything I consider great, or even memorable--but almost all of their works fit in my "light entertainment for an afternoon" zone. Knowing they consistently provide content in that niche, saves me a lot of hunting time.
I read Pagan religious books. I dislike much of what Llewellyn publishes; I don't touch their books unless a friend I trust recommends one in particular. OTOH, a lot of people do like their books. And I am willing to try Weiser or New Falcon from an interesting title--I know that their choices fit what I like to read.
The problem's going to be the non-niche publishers, who'll need to figure out how to cater to *all* their types of readers. Right now, they're working more as distributors. While they do spend time (and money) finding new authors and guiding them through the process, the public doesn't see it, doesn't know how their selection process works... doesn't know how to recognize books by publisher, rather than by genre or keyword.
A person might know she likes "murder mysteries in rural settings," but not realize that one publisher has an entire line of those.
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The problem is *all* new authors have to promote themselves, it's just part of the business. Doesn't matter how good they are, or what kind of agent they have, they're going to end up on the treadmill of trying to get their work noticed. The companies now (unless you're tied in because of celebrity) will do very little to market you, that's now down to you as a writer and probably has been for a long time. As you said, Baen has a captive audience, it's a niche, they really don't have to market much because the audience seeks them out. There's already a trust relationship going on before you purchase from Baen; for me they're a club of like-minded readers who just happen to publish sci-fi. The same could be said of Angry Robot (who have a similar Baen like approach and respect for readers).
Oh. I'd love to live in a world where the writer can just write and that would be the end of it. Cloistered away from the reading public with several layers of agents, publicists and marketing droids between me and the reader -- but that's just not how it is any longer (if it ever was).