Book Trends

Articles about trends in bookselling and the publishing industry.

Publishing Choices

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There are three general choices for getting your book published:

  • Traditional Publishing
  • Vanity Publishing
  • Self-Publishing

Due to space restrictions, the following barely scratches the surface of this subject (after all, there are whole books on the subject, such as Dan Poynter’s excellent self-publishing manual which goes into much greater detail).

Traditional Publishing

This means finding a publisher willing to gamble that your book has enough commercial or literary value to justify their investment of good money in your creation. The publisher usually takes over control of all rights to the work. The process is usually slow (unless you are a celeb currently in the news). There may or may not be an advance on royalties (depending on the resources of the publisher). When royalties are paid (usually twice a year), generally half the royalties are withheld in case some books are returned by the booksellers. It often requires being accepted by an agent, who will want between 10 and 20% of the paid out royalties as a commission to place your book and to meter out any and all monies to you after they have extracted their commission.

Vanity Publishing

Usually provided by printing companies who represent themselves as publishers. The author pays all the costs, which are generally exorbitant. This a good approach for folks who want to leave a legacy for their family and friends. It will not produce best sellers and bookstores will normally not care to sell their products. The author generally keeps rights, although I’m aware of one company that ties the rights up for seven years.

Self-Publishing

This approach is not necessarily vanity publishing. The author has total control and all rights. It covers a wide variety of possibilities. They range from creating your own publishing company to handle your works to using established publishers who provide any and all publishing/marketing services, which the author pays for, and their distributing connections. One thing to be careful is their establishing very high retail prices, which will guarantee the booksellers won’t touch it.

With all these approaches, the author must get involved in the marketing effort. All approaches can include both books on paper and digitized versions (another subject in itself). Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. There are many sharks out there, so one has to be careful. In addition, all approaches requires the author to insure the manuscript is as well-prepared as possible. I highly encourage hiring professionals to help with this. Although I am a professional editor, many people get involved in my process. I use at least one and sometimes more than one editor who does that for at least part of their living. Another blog thread will cover the types and levels of editing and the people who provide them.

This is a cross-posting from the Book Trends Blog.

Book Trends

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Bob Spear’s Book Trends blog, in which he explores the past, present and future of publishing, bookselling and authorship.

Book Trends: Hello, World!

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Today, Publetariat introduces a new, recurring feature: Bob Spear’s Book Trends, which originated on his Book Trends blog.

Why a blog on book industry trends? Who cares? If you are a writer, a reader, a publisher, or a book seller, you better care.

The technology, marketing, and public taste changes are having an enormous impact on what we read and publish, and how we do so. I have been a part of this industry as a bookseller (1979), writer (1974), self publisher (1989), reviewer (2002), and book packager (2002). Along the way I have watched the changes and considered their impact. As a retired professional military intelligence analyst (25 years) and futurist, I have decided to apply the analytical experiences to what I know and how I know it.

I am very open to questions and comments. It is my hope this blog can serve as a forum for book industry discussions. I receive a number of daily email newsletters from the industry. We are seeing customer activities and tastes change in the Book Barn, an independent bookstore [I run] where we sell both new and used books. I will pull all these trend sources together as a basis for not only what is happening but what it means for the future. You readers will certainly have your own observations to contribute and the nature of your questions will also provide meaningful data from which we all can benefit. I look forward to your participation.

In the near future, I intend to address and explain a number of topical themes. Some of them are topics du jour and some are important in the scheme of things but hover below the horizon. My purpose in addressing these is to benefit readers, writers, indie booksellers (non-chain stores instead of Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Amazon), and indie publishers (small to medium presses which are not owned and operated by huge conglomerates) to include self-publishers. The book playing field is certainly not level, but it helps to know where the pot holes are and what they mean. Some of my blogs will delve into history because mankind tends to repeat mistakes without learning what has gone on before. Here is a partial list of proposed themes. I welcome others of interest to you:

  • Death of the mid list and what resulted, good and bad
     
  • How agents came to be an overarching force
     
  • Self-publishing vs. vanity publishing vs. traditional publishing
     
  • Readership trends (this actually encompasses many sub topics)
     
  • The ever expanding technology
     
  • 275,000+ books published last year. How do you get noticed among all those?
     
  • Using the web
     
  • Author PR and marketing
     
  • Why booksellers must become destination marketing oriented
     
  • The dumbing down of America (and maybe the rest of the world?)
     
  • The censorship argument (grist for Scopes Trials?)
     
  • And whatever else you suggest
     

I look forward to lively discussions and learning experiences for all of us.

 

Rising Above The Grass

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This post, from Bob Spear, originally appeared on his Book Trends Blog on 10/6/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Last year over 275,000 new books were published. Actually, there were more than that because not all were reported to Bowker, the keepers of the assignment and registration of ISBNs and publisher of Books In Print. Then add to that very large number the books written and proffered to publishers which didn’t make it. Now, look at the various Best Seller lists and count the number of books listed (a few hundred at best). Now you have an idea of the odds involved in marketing books, especially your own. How can you rise above the crowd or grass level so that you’re seen?

There are many genres and sub-genres; however, for our purposes, let’s address nonfiction, fiction, and leave children’s books for another blog.

Nonfiction: This is the easiest genre to market. There are major distributors who refuse to carry anything but nonfiction because of this. It’s easier to: write well, define, identify market segments, and has multiple delivery channels. In addition to traditional bookstore channels, other channels can include: selling off the back table at a speech or training, partnering with a corporate entity to publish their own edition, selling direct by snail mail or by internet. Nonfiction lends itself very well to “Long Tail” marketing, which is identifying small but myriad niches that are outside the radar of the major publishers but can be lucrative to small, specialized presses. Working the media is far easier because specific topics and themes break out nicely for talk show themes.

To be seen above the grass in the nonfiction pasture, one needs to understand all these market channels and more. Use any and all the channels in conjunction with publicity, article marketing, blogging, social networking and general word of mouth. Obviously, any one of these areas is deserving of a separate blog.

Fiction: This is much more difficult to write well and to market. Although fan groupings can be broken out and defined, it’s not so easy to do so as it is in nonfiction. Fiction can be far more emotional (except for certain nonfiction “causes”). Reader tastes vary widely and reader needs are more difficult to nail down than they are in nonfiction.
It’s more difficult to align a book’s story with a talk show theme, for instance, yet that is what an author or publicist must do to fit into a media format. Some fiction genres, such as Sci Fi or fantasy are especially difficult to shape into an interview environment.

For fiction to be seen above the grass, social networking and word of mouth are king. Another avenue is getting your book turned into a movie, which usually won’t happen in nonfiction how-to books. The marketer’s focus is at the mercy of people who are opinion drivers. That’s where their focus should go: toward opinion makers such as Oprah and the like.

Endurance: Nonfiction tends to stick around longer due to its education potential. It lends itself to updating and new edition publishing. It can be milked for a long time. Fiction, unless it becomes a classic, is here today and gone tomorrow. Even really popular fiction authors are only as popular as their latest book (how have you entertained me lately?). These are considerations when deciding what to write. Some of my nonfiction has been around since the late 1980’s and still sells steadily. I expect my fiction, which will be coming out this winter, will have its day in the sun, and then I’ll have to write more, if I want to stay above the grass. As an author, you need to consider all these aspects and elect how you want to spend your writing minutes.

Creating Agents

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This post, from Bob Spear, originally appeared on his Book Trends Blog on 9/25/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Once upon a time, there were many highly experienced, very capable editors working for the big publishers. It was possible to send queries and manuscripts directly to the publishing houses for consideration, thereby creating the infamous slush pile and the phrase, “Over the transom,” referring to a small window that opened out into the hallway and was located above the office door. Ah, but the bean counters came into power, and they were very smart at saving money for the bottom line.

The older, experienced, very expensive editors were let go with a pat on the back and a thank you. Young, intelligent, much cheaper editors were hired to fill some of the slots that had been vacated; however, they would do little actual editing. Rather, they were essentially book project managers. The preponderance of real editing would henceforth be done by freelance editors (many who had just lost their jobs) paid for by the authors smart enough to do so.

In addition, the publishers said, they no longer would accept contact from unrepresented authors. Suddenly, there was a need for knowledgeable agents to represent authors. Eureka, the recently laid off editors decided to become agents. They would receive the queries and manuscripts. They would decide who they were willing to represent. They would maintain contacts with their old publishing houses and determine what hot new directions they were wanting to go.

Those bean counters were so bright. Their laying off the editors saved money initially and also created a filtering system (the agents) who gave good service for free, as far as the publishers were concerned. The authors paid for that service out of their commissions on their royalties. And so, that is where we are today, and now you understand the system and how it came to be.