So, your agent has managed to sell your book to a publisher! You have managed to beat some amazing odds stacked against you. New and untried authors that get published are as rare as the Abominable Snowman on a surfboard! Well, almost.
Now, in a flurry of contracts and production schedules, you are on the road to being a published author. There are, however, a few minor details that may have escaped the conversation.
1. There’s no money to promote a new author.
Traditional publishing is in a bad way. The talent is demanding more money. Margins are being squeezed out of the supply chain from author to bricks and mortar retail stores. Pesky companies like Apple and Amazon are offering 70% of purchase price as a royalty to the author. This is a business model in transition and those who used to be in control don’t like it one bit!! The major publishing houses are in a financial squeeze like never before.
Is there promotion money for a newly released book? Yes. But every penny is going to be used on proven authors, not on someone new. Promotion is still an absolute requirement. Promotion is fully the responsibility of the author. Just as if you were self published.
2. There’s no business like a consignment business.
When retail stores order books they are ordered under a consignment arrangement. When books from new authors arrive and then sit on the shelf for six weeks, the party’s over. They will get boxed up and returned to the publisher. Publishers don’t like this at all.
I often wonder what is the difference between a new author’s books, delivered four to six at a time and placed spine out in the middle of a shelf in a super store where nobody will see them and a new author without a publisher? The difference is promotion. People need to come into the store specifically to purchase your book just as they could have done if you self published and made your book available for purchase from Amazon or in the retail store by way of special order at the help desk. In either case, getting someone to ask for your book is your responsibility. Don’t plan on getting any help from your new publisher. Why give up royalties when you are doing all the promotional work and when you can get your book in the channel without a traditional publisher?
3. There’s not much that they know about eBooks.
Traditional marketplaces move at half the speed of smell. They develop an arrogance based on a position in some supply chain where they feel untouchable. The sad part is that when the fundamentals of their market change, they are the last to realize the impact on their staid, secure little world.
The traditional publishing world struggles with new media, new formats and new markets. Take a look at many of the eBooks delivered by the traditional print press. The file formatted for paper books is often just shoved into the eBook stream without reformatting for eBook readers. You see this in eBooks where sentences strangely end in the middle of the page, page numbers still appear and the format still shows some left and right page representation. Couple this with the contract addendums that we see coming to established authors where royalties, presented as generous by the publisher, are 25% on average. You’ve got to be kidding?
4. There’s not a lot you get to control – you’re just the author.
Remember, you are in the hands of professionals. They don’t need your help packaging your book, designing your cover, selecting a font or setting a price. And, as a new author, the resources that they will bring to bear on your work won’t match what they will do for a proven author. We speak with many authors who wish that they could have participated in the final stages of their creation. As a new author, don’t plan on being invited to the party.
The world of self-publishing holds more for the new author than just a way to circumvent the query letter shuffle. A self-published author who either works with the right author services company, or does the work themselves, can control every aspect of the finished product. Remember there are three parts to being successfully published: Write a great book, take promotion on as a personal responsibility, and finally, deliver a professional product. Check out www.novelhelp.com, do it yourself and do it right.
5. There’s something even worse than being an unpublished author.
It’s hard to believe. After all the effort that you went through to get the attention of a literary agent and then wait for them to sell your work to a publisher, that you could in some perverse way actually end up worse off than you were before your started the traditionally published journey. Yep, it’s true. There is a rung on the ladder one step below not-yet-published author. It’s that publisher-imposed gulag called, “Failed First Time Author.” The newbie’s publisher will keep you on a short leash. Limited production runs and no promotion support. Some miracle must be in store to move this book! And, if your work should fail to sell in number, there will be no second chance. You may eventually consider a pen name and starting over.
The other road is more logical. If you self-publish, you can make your book available in all of the traditional channels, implement a promotional campaign carefully and methodically grow your sales numbers. Should it take a couple of months longer than you planned, no one will paint a scarlet letter on your chest.
There are no guarantees in the publishing world, traditional or self. A bad book won’t sell no matter how much it is promoted. A bad looking product that is not present in all of the sales channels won’t sell either. The message in this article is simple. You, the author, are responsible for your success and as a new author, your traditional publisher will leave it to you. Hmm? Maybe it’s time to compare your returns if you self-published?
