Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
And so how successful are these books? How many tens of thousands have been sold? How many have been reviewed other than in the local weekly newspaper? How many are stocked on the shelves at B&N? How many national awards have these books won or even nominated for? How many classrooms make them recommended reading?
My point is that yes, you can do things very cheaply. Heck, I know editors who will edit a book for less than 50 cents a page. But it's the difference between a Yugo and a Toyota. It's the difference between an editor who knows that shear and sheer are not the same thing, that affect and effect, their and there, and roll and role give different meaning to a sentence. Highly skilled editors cost more but bring more to the table than just running spellcheck.
The same is true of cover designers and book designers, as well as book marketers (is the same marketer who can sell local oil changes very well equally capable of getting your book on regional TV and for the same price?). There is a reason why these professions are pyramidal and there is truth to these statements: you get what you pay for and you reap what you sow (or should that be sew or so? a good editor knows  ).
The issue isn't can it get done less expensively; the issue is what level of quality is "good enough". As you wrote:
Ultimately, the questions are How good is pretty good? and Is pretty good good enough? (Of course, it isn't clear what pretty good means.) As you note, traditional publishers are successful because they do spend the money. |
Tens of thousands have not been sold...of my book or of MANY, MANY books published by trad publishers!
I've been very fortunate and had a couple of reviews done by blogs--but I am ebook only. I am not sending ARCs to newspapers because that is not my market. I don't have a print book for a lot of reasons.
It really depends on the goals for each individual book. There are many traditionally published books that are lucky to get a review or two. I know--I used to be a reviewer for a large review site. (Not newspaper). I'm not claiming it is the same thing, but what I do know from the experience was that I talked to editors--that were trying to get books reviewed. Coverage of any kind is very important and it was very difficult for them to get print coverage (locus, mystery magazines, newspapers and/or blogs.) It's difficult for EVERYONE. This was true whether they were small or medium--and we also had many a large publisher asking us to do reviews. They could easily pay for an ad in the New York times, but books need multiple reviews and continued coverage, whether traditional or not.
I do not in any way claim to be competing with the big houses. My point is that not only do I not compete, I don't have to pay their prices for services--nor do I charge 25 dollars for a book. Like any market, it's a supply/demand and finding customers that want what I have and are willing to pay a given price. Yes, I'm after some of those same customers that could buy only from a traditional publisher--but my costs are less so if my sales are less, I could actually make the same amount of money.
Good enough is in the eye of the reader. Sadly, my book will fail for some readers I am sure. It might be plot. It might be characterization. But that is true of any book--they aren't all sure things or traditional publishers wouldn't have failures either.
as for your phrase:
Highly skilled editors cost more but bring more to the table than just running spellcheck.
Thankfully, so do some inexpensive editors.
I am not disparaging big houses or editors of any kind either. I love many a book from them.
Maria