The Publisher Has No Clothes

Bottom Line It For Me, Baby Version (200 Words Or Less)

Selling a book used to mean four things: a respectable advance, a respectable promotion budget and effort, your book would appear on store shelves, and your publisher would gladly publish anything new you had to offer. Thanks to industry consolidations, just 6 media megaconglomerates now dominate American publishing, and they are bottom-line focused with a vengeance. In an industry that has historically, consistently seen profit margins ranging from 4-8%, media megas are determined to squeeze out 15% or more. They don't want books they predict will bring in typical 'midlist' sales (5-40,000 copies), so they don't buy so-called 'small' books from new authors, nor from authors who've been raking in steady, reliable sales for years. Now, for all but celebrity, bestselling and prestige clients, advances are paltry, promotional budgets and efforts are nonexistent, there's no guarantee your book will appear in brick-and-mortar stores, and your publisher won't want your next manuscript unless the one they just bought sells more than 40K copies. This deal could only be more unattractive if authors also had to deliver coffee to the publisher each morning, yet aspiring authors everywhere continue to grovel at the feet of the media megas. WHY?!


Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Got Nuthin' But Time Version (Can't Promise It Won't Go On Forever)
From where I sit, there are far more reasons not to sign with a mainstream publisher than reasons to sign with one. They've killed the midlist, they've adopted Hollywood's blockbuster marketing model, they've chipped away at advances and promo budgets for all but their prestige and bestseller clients, and now that Borders is reducing its in-store stock by 20% to display more titles face out (a move they've reported has led to a sales spike, so you can bet it'll be rolling out to B&N too), big publishers can't even guarantee a new author's book will be shelved in brick-and-mortar stores anymore.

What's astonishing is the fact that so many aspiring authors still see mainstream publishers as the gold standard in authorship and are willing to give up so much---even risking their entire future careers by putting all their literary eggs in one basket with that first manuscript sale, betting their future prospects on the slim chance their book hits big in spite of DIY marketing and poor exposure---in exchange for some kind of perceived status. The emperor clearly has no clothes, so why don't more of my peers see it too? To be sure, bestselling authors have their publishers to thank, in large part, for their careers. But given that bestselling authors make up maybe 1-2% of all published fiction writers at any given time, we've all got as good a chance of hitting the lottery as entering that rarified group. And if we don't enter that rarified group, we would've done better if we never published anything with a big house to begin with. Lemme break it down for you:

First off, it's widely accepted that only about 5% of all manuscripts submitted to publishers get contracts, and marketability/screenplay-likelihood is as large (or larger) a factor in rejection as quality of the work nowadays. Maybe 25% of that 5% is made up of manuscripts from famous, prestige, or previous-bestseller authors, and these will get the lion's share of attention, advances and promotional budget. The rest will get paltry advances of a few thousand dollars, which sounds all right until you realize that's your payday for the past months or even years of work you put into writing the manuscript. It's less attractive still when you realize the publisher's sole contribution to marketing your book will be promo copies, and you'll have to spend most or all of your advance on marketing. Have fun trying to sell your book, because the publisher can't guarantee it will be shelved in brick-and-mortar stores, and doesn't even want to broach the subject of audiobook or ebook editions until or unless some worthwhile sales figures come in. "Worthwhile" to these folks are sales on the order of more than 40K copies, and if your book doesn't cross that threshold the publisher (and all its imprints) won't want to publish you again. Talk about a vicious circle. Compounding your misery, you're facing an uphill battle in trying to sell future manuscripts to any of the other 5 major publishing conglomerates because you'll be viewed as damaged goods.

Some of us will make it, and the risk will have been worthwhile for those few, but all the other authors who get a contract will find their celebrations short-lived. I'm truly baffled by the 90% of aspiring authors who stay in the hunt for a prize they've only got a 5% chance of getting in the first place, which more often than not turns out to hurt the author more than help him or her. What up with that?!

Terrific Resources For Indie Authors

Bottom Line It For Me Baby, Version (200 words or less) :

My ultimate goal with Indie Author is to build it up into a time-saving, one-stop resource for independents such as myself, with information for every step of the process. Eventually, ideally, whether you're trying to decide if going indie is the right choice for you, figure out how to use various technologies in self-publishing, find ways to promote yourself and your work, or just locate some kindred spirits in the movement, I want Indie Author to serve your needs. When I first began this blog, it was disheartening to find "indie author" wasn't already taken as either a gmail username or a blog name. It made me wonder if there were any other independents out there at all. As it turns out, there are others who are just as passionate about the movement as me. I've been very, very busy, but I'm taking a brief breather to post links to the most valuable sites and resources I've found for indie authors so far. It's good to know I will not have to author all of that much-needed content myself, but I'm also writing some articles of my own to fill in the gaps. Check the 'Links of Interest' at my author website for the new stuff.

Go On An' Run Yo Mouth, I Got Nuthin' But Time Version (can't promise it won't go on forever):

So much to do, so much to do. Based on my own needs and requests from others, here's my short list (in no particular order): inspect and (hopefully) approve my latest trade paperback proofs, get a promotional blitz going for them, order and distribute editorial review copies of the trade paperbacks, continue my promotional efforts on my Kindle editions, convert the manuscripts into all the most popular ebook formats and offer them for sale, write and offer more Indie Author how-to articles on how to do everything from establishing a web presence to creating your own cover art, and last but not least, get back to my two works-in-progress.

However, while researching ways to promote my work---notoriously challenging for any author, but particularly so for an independent---I've come across some sites of tremendous value. I've added these to my 'Links of Interest' at my author website, and provide a brief overview of them below. This is some excellent stuff, and whenever a given site or resource includes a link to email or send a comment to the creator, I strongly encourage each of you to let the authors of these sites know how much you appreciate their generosity in sharing their wealth of experience and information. Any indie movement is a grass-roots movement, so anything you, I or other indie authors can do to help one another ultimately benefits the movement as a whole.

Trying to decide whether or not 'indie' is the right choice for you? Read the pertinent articles on The Populist Publisher and Foner Books' Self-Publishing Blog. Want to know what's going on in the world of indie publishing? Check out Independent Publisher and The Independent Authors Guild.

Want to know how to publish your work for the Kindle, using Amazon's Digital Text Platform and MS Word 2003 or higher? Read my how-to article on that very topic.

It's written and published, but now you don't know how to promote your work online? Try posting something at Independent Authors, 1 Chapter Free, or Pages Unbound. For information and links to get your author 'web presence' going, try these tips from Marsha Jordan.

It's written and published, you've got your web presence and you've posted in every possible corner of the internet, but now you need some editorial reviews and old-school marketing help? To quickly locate a ton of news and editorial outlets that have expressed a willingness to review and/or share news about your type of work, sign up for a free account at BookConnector and you can do a search of such outlets all over the world. Need to solicit editorial reviews from newspapers and magazines? Search for the periodicals best suited to your request at Newspapers of the World. Not surprisingly, Marsha Jordan offers some great ideas in her Tools You Can Use article and her Book Promoting Tips article. Also check out the articles by Carolyn Howard Johnson, The Frugal Book Promoter.

And there you have it, my indie brothers- and sisters-at-arms. Anytime I find a new resource or article I think could be of some use to you, I'll post it here at Indie Author. In the meantime, I hope today's stuff is enough to keep you busy for at least a couple of weeks while I try to check a few more things off of my own to-do list.