Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
With publishing in the middle of a revolution, ideas and opinions are constantly being tossed around on the Internet. I’ve noticed a few ideas have taken hold that I’m not so quick to accept.
Here are a few examples:
The idea that maybe in the book world, “quality” matters less these days.
Books at every different level of “quality” (however you want to define it) are selling. But just because many readers are happy with their $1.99 Kindle purchases, it doesn’t lead to the conclusion that we no longer care about quality. There is a wide spectrum of “quality” and there are readers for every kind of book. You can see this dynamic in television and in movies: everything from mindless entertainment to incredibly sophisticated stories can find an audience. Some are clamoring for more “Real Housewives,” while others want “Stranger Things” or “This is Us.” It’s the same with books. I, for one, am glad we still have access to such a wide variety of books.
The idea that as publishing changes, there will be reduced need for agents.
Over the next decade, there may be fewer books being published traditionally by the large New York publishing houses; with fewer deals being done, there might be fewer agents. However, for those authors still working with traditional publishers, I believe the need for an agent will be greater than ever. As publishing models continue to evolve and publishers tighten their belts, an author will need an experienced agent to help them navigate the waters. Publishing contracts will keep getting more complicated and difficult to negotiate, as they have been the last few years. I don’t think it will be an environment in which most authors will have the time, energy, or knowledge to go it alone with a large publisher.
The idea that publishing is changing rapidly and very soon it will be completely different from what we’ve always known.
No doubt about it — our industry is changing as disruptive technologies take hold, and there is still a lot more change to come. But I don’t think it will be as rapid as many people believe. I recently read that disruptive cycles in business usually take place over periods of 15 to 30 years.* If we’re ten years into our digital revolution, that would predict we’re still 5 to 20 years away from publishing looking completely different. We can expect many more years of evolving… years in which we can all be watching what’s happening and doing our best to be prepared and positioned for whatever comes next.
The idea that self-publishing is an easier road to the goal of a published book — even a bestselling book.
I’m not against self-publishing or digital publishing of any kind. But I do think many authors are getting a skewed idea about self publishing. Doing it well is not nearly as easy as many advocates make it sound. And while there are obviously some highly visible spectacular successes, I’m still observing that the majority of self-published authors are seeing modest success. I also see many who are disappointed in their self-publishing experience, simply because the publishing media has given them unrealistic expectations. This is not to discourage anyone from trying it! But I encourage you to approach it with realism, and to plan to put a great deal of effort behind it, if you want to find success.
Have you bought into any of these ideas? Do you agree with my assessment? What are some other thoughts and opinions being tossed around these days that you’re not sure you buy into?
*Statistic about disruptive cycles is from a fascinating article in Harvard Business Review, The Inevitable Disruption of Television.
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Great post, Rachelle…and yeah, I can’t see the need for agents diminishing.
* Kind of interesting, when I first read “I’m still observing that the majority of self-published authors are seeing modest success” my brain put a ‘k’ into ‘seeing’…and I think there might be something there, that a lot of SP authors are looking for the modest success that validates their message. We don’t all need to make the NYT BS list (and sometimes ‘BS’ is indeed pejorative). A modest success and a loyal cadre of readers we can truly know seems to fit better with what evangelism is supposed to be about, yeah?
* Publishing will change, and has to change. Remember “Star Trek IV: The Journey Home”, in which Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins were referred to (tongue in cheek) as ‘the greats’? They were a product of TradPub, the very period for which so many have so much nostalgia. They shaped a morality; do you like it?
* Now, we have the opportunity for outreach that would have been a pipe dream forty and fifty years ago. As individuals, looking to modest successes, we won’t influence a nation. But we CAN influence, here and there, from Maine to Mexicali, the people who form a nation.
* Salvation is an individual choice; salvation for our horribly wounded and misguided country can only come from a hundred million and more individual choices, that we have had enough.
* As writers, the tools have been placed in our hands, to clean up the corners that in their aggregate make up the room, and the mansion, and the kingdom.
* Are you with me?
I am with you, Andrew, as we clean the corners, rooms and mansions–or, as I envision it, as we build doors for Jesus to enter and clean our readers’ rooms (hmmm, maybe I should use that as a blurb for my book).
* As written communication becomes shorter, without plot or punctuation (tweets and texts), a well-crafted book will stand out like a pearl in gravel, like cheesecake beside porridge. It’s an opportunity, my dear writer friends. Let’s use it well.
I’d like just a tiny bite of cheesecake with my porridge, please. 🙂 Trying to eat healthy, these days.
You are right, Andrew. As writers, there is so much opportunity for God to use us to reach wherever He chooses. Thank you for your thoughts.
Couldn’t agree with you more in all areas!
Yes, Andrew, I’m with you in using the tools God has placed in our hands to bring new people onto the Kingdom, and to clean up the corners He gives us. So beautifully put Andrew. Thank you.
Yes, for the most part, I agree with your assessment. For myself, my first choice would be to work with an agent. I know myself–I’m a collaborator. I want to be part of a team. And I’ve worked with magazine and newspaper editors, so I learned early on not to think my writing was finished until the last blue-line was addressed.
Self-publishing is an option, but I can’t see it as an easy option. Sure you can hire editors and cover designers, but it’s another set of skills to put to work. Not my first choice.
I think the reason self-publishing appeals to writers, is their burning need to be read. I imagine most would prefer working with an agent. But as they’re developing their writing skills, they’re also learning about marketing tools and social media. They may hire an independent editor for their manuscript. One learns about covers, formatting, platforms, websites…all kind of organically. It really doesn’t seem easy. But it does seem possible.
Hmmm … let’s see. That hardcover books are going out. Now, I have never bought a hardcover book for myself. I have a few that my husband got me as Christmas gifts, but I buy ebooks and less expensive products. However, even as a pennypincher who loves ebooks, I just purchased the newest “Wings of Fire” book for my middle son in hard cover … because he was just dying to find out what happened in the series and I couldn’t bear to see him languish for a year. So yes, as long as there are readers who adore a series and authors who write a cliffhanger ending, desperate folks will be snapping up hardcover books. Maybe they have the patience to wait a year for themselves … but just try gazing into the blue blue eyes of a twelve-year-old boy with shaggy blond hair who is wondering if Queen Scarlet is going to suceed in killing all the dragonets or not. How could I resist?
One of the problems with traditional publishers is that they make their readers wait for books that could be out a lot more quickly. If a hardcover book is out, the ebook could have come out at the same time. There is no need to wait at all, except for the need to make money off the hardback.
The ebooks are out at the same time. But I’m not going to buy an ebook for my son and have him staring at a screen in bed instead of reading a book. He only gets one hour a day of screen time due to his eyes. 30 minutes if it is on a tablet and 20 if it is a phone (what our eye DR. said) and (ha!) I’m not going to share my Nook that doesn’t have a backlit screen, so it’s books for him!
Rachelle, as I read through this, for me it was not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. Who am I to disagree? You’re the expert, and I trust your judgment in these matters. What happened inside me was tied to just the slightest rise in anxiety. The world of publishing (self or traditional) is presented as a frenetic scramble from X to Z, back to Y, to Z again, and then look out!! Here come the nonsense symbols #,%,@. I cannot make sense of it all. What is our focus supposed to be today? Facebook? Twitter is dead! Wait, no it isn’t. It’s showing a comeback surge. Stay tuned. Enter Medium. Google+ anyone?
So I have decided that I cannot keep up with all of that. If I could, I have no desire to do so. I want to just stay true to myself, my God, and the message he gives me. I’ll keep walking whatever path he puts in front of me, “working as unto the Lord,” and letting him hang fruit on the walkway railing as I go. With the inevitable changes that are coming, I’d wager that my need for an agent only increases. As for the rest of it, I’ll find peace in Malachi 3:6, “I am Yahweh. I change not.”
– damon
As a “successful” indie author with two books that oscillate on and off the Amazon bestseller lists in my categories, I’d like to confirm what Rachelle said.
*Self-publishing is easy. Self-publishing a novel that attracts reviews that say it is “profound,” “life-changing,” and “one of the best, if not the best historical Christian romances I have read” requires hard work to constantly gain skill in the craft of writing, almost obsessive dedication to getting everything as close to “perfect” as possible before release, and a message that God wants me to share with those who select and read my stories.
*For my own work, I can’t overemphasize the importance of listening to God in producing something worthwhile that people actually buy and love. Sales are not quite at the level that a traditional publisher needs, and I’ll never penetrate bookstores with print versions at a high level. But I’ve seen enough to know that my books honor and serve God, and that’s my goal as a writer of fiction. Too many things are working much better than I ever expected for Him not to be involved. If I were in this for my own glory, I don’t think I’d be doing that well.
*Everything a traditional publisher would do to produce a top-quality book must be done by me. I hire a superb editor, who is an acquisitions editor for a small publisher, for a portion of the beginning and the conversion scenes, but getting the quality that brings readers back for the next one requires more than a dozen edits by my own hand and input from beta readers and my critique partner before I submit it to my editor, just like a manuscript seeking a trad publisher would. (If anyone wants her contact info, contact me through my website. She does a truly excellent job and is a ton of fun to work with.)
*Marketing is a constant companion. When I went off-grid for 4 days last August, I did 5 days worth of marketing of my Roman history site (my main platform) before I left to keep sales from slipping while I was gone. Without constant marketing, my novels could quickly slip off the top 20 search pages and slide down into Amazonian oblivion (everything updates hourly so there’s no rest for the weary).
*I embraced self-publishing because we wanted to keep the rights for mission, and God is blessing my efforts, but I would never recommend going indie as an “easy” way to bypass the gatekeepers. As Rachelle says, it’s easy to self-publish, but publishing something you can hold beside the traditional product and know it’s just as good takes total dedication to producing a “perfect” product on your own.
“Doing it well is not nearly as easy as many advocates make it sound.” Nor is it as inexpensive as people assume.
I remain convinced of the value of traditional publishing and of my need for an agent to guide and advocate for me in that world. Over and over, when I read the ackowledgements in a novel, I read of the author’s gratitude to agents and editors for helping them to make their work better, better than they could have done it on their own. I want my work to be as good as it can possibly be, and for that, I need the input of those who know what they’re about.
One of the many reasons I am thankful for all the agents at Books & Such is that you are looking to the future. Our future. For us. Because honestly I need all the time and energy, creatively and physically, to keep on top of things as they are. Today. This contract. This book. This character. This emotional journey. This scene. This sentence. Because I agree most of all with your first point. Quality matters.
I actually have a question for you, Rachelle. I am currently rewriting my first novel, which I self-published through Amazon in October 2015. I am rewriting for the purpose of submitting to an agency. This book will be the first in a 3+ series, and I feel that a traditional publisher will help me to make the work/series more like the vision I have for it. But I’m wondering if the fact that the novel has already been around Amazon for two years, even though rewritten, it won’t be considered by an agency. Any truth to that?
I’m a bookaholic with no intention of getting into recovery. But I guess I’m old fashioned since I much prefer hard copies to e-books. However there are lots of people like me in the world, so I doubt that hard copy books will ever stop being produced. It’s impossible to predict the future. We could have an atomic war, be invaded by creatures from outer space, or even have the Second Coming interfere with the publishing industry. But if we’re called to write we should keep on keeping on and I doubt that agents and publishing houses will disappear any time in the near future.
The issue of quality resonated with me. In the last month I’ve done more reading of contemoporary authors, just trying to get a sense of current trends in terms of style, genre, and content. Quality, sadly, doesn’t seem to mean what it used to. I was disappointed by several books that sounded promising but proved extremely difficult to read because of the level of quality (I don’t need to be told what’s going on in a scene, then shown, then told again, for example). Obviously, though, it worked for a lot of other people, because the titles were popular and getting mostly stellar reviews. All I can say is I’m also grateful to have a wide variety of books to read!
I am the poster child for unsuccessful self-publishers. With 26 items published and currently for sale, I have a grand total of 526 sales, combination e-book and print book. This is with essentially zero marketing. While this is by no means a definition of success, I count it as 526 sales that I never would have had if I had continued to pursue trade publishing.
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Self-publishing can be done on the cheap. It can also be done expensively. It causes you to broaden your skills unless you have money to plunk down on paid services. I see lots of bogus statements about self-publishing and just as many bogus statements about trade publishing. Everyone needs to use some intelligence to sort it all out.
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Obviously I haven’t totally given up on trade publishing or I wouldn’t be here. It’s hard to see a scenario, however, that would move me into that camp.
Quality in writing is always needed! Yes. That shouldn’t be sacrificed, but you can do that and Indie publish, too. Indie publishing has been a blessing to me. I actually had editors turn my books down for reasons like–“I don’t like that your main characters will become missionaries,” and “Your books are too Christian.” My books are not preachy. No review has accused me of that. And both these editors told me my writing was good. Now, I know many other writers are better than I am, but I also know that after 8 years of studying the craft, writing and rewriting, going to critique groups and conferences, that it was time to publish. Many traditional publishers are afraid to take on new authors or only take on one or two a year. That are just too many good writers out there ready to publish, and that is why things are changing. There are also plenty of readers looking for new books and new authors. I think traditional publishing will have to change or get left behind. 🙂
Rachelle, I’ve been fortunate enough to have ten novels and a non-fiction book published by “traditional” publishing houses. I’ve also indie-published (actually, agent-assisted via White Glove) three novellas and a novel, with another one of each in the chute. To those who say it’s easy to indie-publish, I have to say that my experience has been that it’s a lot of work. Worth it? Possibly–the jury’s still out. But writing is hard work, whatever the route of publication. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Rachelle, thanks for bringing this information up to stir up our minds and comment. I so appreciate all the comments because it helps me to sort out and pin down my feelings and thoughts on this matter.
First, one of my favorite things to do is to pick up a new hardcopy and feel the substance of it physically, to turn the pages and smell them, to place my hands on the book. Books are such a treasure to me. My mother read them to me as a child and she did all the voices of the characters. I poured over pictures in the pages inserting myself into the scenes. My creativity was birthed in books of all kinds, and now I seek to do that for others. I understand the ease, quicker release time, and increased amount of space to store books with e books, but I still love to turn the paper pages, and if it’s a nonfiction book with pictures I can get lost for hours amidst the pages. For me, hard copy will always have a home in my heart and a space on my shelves.
An agent? Absolutely, positively, without a doubt (God always said things three times when he really wanted us to get the importance of something He was saying). I wouldn’t want to go indie or go it alone, my brain is highly creative, and I need someone to not only help harness and guide that creativity but to help with all the agent responsibilities. I love team work and input. I love people, so it works with me. I know my areas of strength, and my areas of weakness, or things that just aren’t in my wheel house, or things I could do but probably not near as good or efficiently as someone trained and skilled in say like reading contracts…ugh. I think a quality agent will be very important and beneficial to have. It would be so much more fun if a book does well, more people to celebrate with and have fun and cake and balloons! Did I mention I’m a sanguine personality? LOL!
Indie publishing? I think for the right person for the right reason it can work, but I don’t see me doing that. I would have my own YouTube channel first, which I actually do want to do.
Change in the publishing world is certain, but I’m convinced that there are people who can benefit from what God has placed in my heart, mind, and life. Life is an adventure, and I’m all in. Just ask my family.
As far as quality, I want to produce the best book I’m able, one that is marketable and can be used by God to speak to my readers’ hearts.
*No matter how the publishing world changes, I can’t do it all. I’ll always need an advocate to explain, go before, negotiate, advise and everything else an agent does.
*I’ve seen a couple of digital publishers who are experimenting with brick-and-mortar stores. Like hubby always says, “what goes around comes around.”
Love this post, Rachelle. Quality has long been a stumbling block for self-published books. They said in 2000 that we would soon be paperless. I don’t see agents going away any quicker than any industry going 100% green. I’ve been a bit afraid of self-publishing because I know my strengths and book design and formatting isn’t one of them. Like real estate–which is another industry quickly changing because of technology and transparency, publishing will evolve but the foundations remain the same.