Blogger: Mary Keeley
I try to stay informed about publishing news and culture so that I can keep you informed, because I know you’re busy writing and learning and writing more, growing relationships with readers, and marketing your books. Publishing was a stable industry for decades, but the changes in just the past eight years are mindboggling. Technology will continue to influence change, but other forms could add to the mix in the future. I read about two what-ifs recently that are worth our discussion.
WHAT IF…
What if Amazon really were to open bricks and mortar stores?
Rumors have abounded about this since large chains such as Barnes & Noble decided they wouldn’t carry Amazon Publishing’s books. However, 
nothing came of it until now. This month both Shelf Awareness and USA Today reported on the secretive rehabbing of a store in a popular shopping center in Seattle, which is where Amazon’s home office is located. According to one report boxes of books and bookshelves were seen through the window of the former restaurant. Amazon also has sought out and interviewed booksellers from area indie stores, giving vague information about available positions. The main focus would likely be on their Amazon Exclusives line and their devices.
The growing elephant in the room that is going unnoticed by publishing executives is the buzz among gifted writers who are tired of waiting for traditional publishers and are talking collectively about alternate routes to publication. This may be the time traditional publishers get serious about taking more risks on talented new authors before they turn to the biggest publisher in the world that will distribute their books directly to the shelves of their own local bookstores.
What if freedom of speech is endangered?
A cloud hung over the Frankfurt Book Fair’s official opening this year as news of Iran’s boycott of the fair spread through the newswires. The reason: the Iranian Ministry of Culture (Iranian government) decided to exclude Iranian publishers’ participation, to the expressed disappointment of those publishers. Why? Because British Indian author Salman Rushdie was present. Salman Rushdie’s response? He sees Iran’s action as a threat against freedom of expression. You can read more about what went on here and here.
But that’s somewhere else. It couldn’t ever happen here in the US because free speech is protected by our Constitution, right? Maybe not forever. That protection is being questioned. The next step up the PC (political correctness) ladder may be speech codes if college students have any say about it. A McLaughlin & Associates study commissioned by a program at Yale University gives you insight into the next generation of adult readers. They surveyed 800 students at various colleges across the country. Of them 51 percent are in favor of having speech codes to regulate speech for students and faculty, and some 30 percent think the First Amendment is outdated. Sobering data.
We don’t know that either of these scenarios will materialize. But you need to be flexible, resilient, informed, and strong. The bottom line is that we serve the God of the universe, and I am confident that
If you keep on
- mastering your craft
- growing your platform
- getting to know your target readers so that you speak into their lives to influence them toward Christ
- keeping up with the industry through blogs like this and with the guidance and management of a good agent to navigate this moving target,
you will be in demand as an author, because quality books, in whatever form they take, will always be wanted and needed.
Speak out. What is your reaction to these recent what if scenarios? Do they invigorate your passion for your writing? If those post-millennial students are part of our target audience, how do you think you need to adjust your approach to win their reading ear, so to speak?
TWEETABLE:
Writers, stay informed, be flexible, and be ready to respond to what-if scenarios like these. Click to Tweet.
Someone once said, Mary, that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Some of the issues facing writers were also felt by writers thousands of years ago: how to be relevant, distribution, grammar and accuracy, pricing, packaging, audience fit, the influences of culture and governmental authorities, materials, archival issues, etc. Yes, sure, repression may come, but from what I have seen in history, that was always the most productive time for writers. Its non-threatening and often incidental to a homogeneous society, but to be a voice of reason in an age of unreason is the stuff of true writing. As such, Paul said, “where sin abounds, grace the more so”. Not unlike the press of today, or its writers, the prophets of old were exposed and challenged the tides of corruption. Many died for it, which is somewhat career limiting, but the written word rarely dies as readily as mortal writers do and thus their words still inform us today.
Pete,you bring to mind the words of Lovelace –
“For how can a man die better
than in facing fearful odds
for the ashes of his fathers
and the temples of his gods.”
Great words Drew
Well said, Peter! Inspiring words to begin our discussion.
In my college days, making the banned-book list would have boosted student readership. Forbidden fruit looks sweeter. Has our culture changed that much?
Banned books used to describe sinful lifestyles, and sin always attracts. Secular pressure mocks Godly choices. I wouldn’t expect a sale increase among the college-educated young without Spirit-driven revival in this country.
Shirlee, the one change I see from the article and the survey is that the students are demanding the college make restrictions, rather than the college putting restrictions on the students. Demands for speech codes and the opinion of 30 percent of them that the first amendment is outdated is something I haven’t heard in the past.
This is a very enlightening and encouraging post, Mary. And what if authors and agents continue to pray for each other in their positions? I believe this is all a very good plan. God did not call us to worry. He called us to believe and to live out our faith using our abilities and talents.
I love your response, Carol!
Great reply, Carol. Don’t worry and pray for each other.
Absolutely, Carol. Great point. We need to be aware of changing cultural nuances and pray for each other as we serve our readers and clients.
Let us pray!
Fascinating post, Mary. The Amazon bricks and mortar idea would definitely change the publishing landscape. But, would they still be able/willing to offer books for 99 cents in the stores? It’s interesting to ponder.
*I like your takeaway. Your tips for being an author in demand make a lot of sense for authors, regardless of the audience.
Interesting thought, Jeanne. I think we can assume Amazon’s pricing would change somehow. Maybe they would stock only select books in the bricks and mortar stores. There are so many possibilities.
Interesting post, Mary! Thank you for this.
* Concerning Amazon, I suspect that TradPub need not run screaming to the analyst’s couch just yet. There is a quality issue; when Amazon opened wide the gates, many talented authors entered, but so did many whose ability to type outpaced their ability to write. Amazon may become the TJ Maxx of the literary world, but Neiman-Marcus is still in business.
* While giving new authors an opportunity is a good idea – or SEEMS like one for new authors, at least – how many readers have picked up a book on the basis of “Wow, here’s a NEW AUTHOR!”? It’s always going to be the serendipity of discovery, and TradPub does not owe the literary world the risk of taking on an untried name in which it does not have massive confidence. There will always be new authors supported by TradPub; the supply outstips demand. They won’t run out, and there will always be enough.
* Having been both a student and a professor, I’m unworried about the threat they would like to pose to free speech. The professorial influence is overrated; most students tend to look on their teachers with a sort of benign contempt, and the general public tends to see academic PhDs as overeducated fatheads who can’t get a real job. I always said I was a teacher, and would add ‘college; if pressed, hoping that it would be assumed I taught at a JC; ‘professor’ drew smirks, sneers, and snide asides.
* As for the students, they talk big but are easily distracted by sex and drugs, and when they realize they actually have to make a living, tend to get a lot more apolitical. Unless, of course, there’s the opportunity for a night of looting and bank-burning (mixed in with sex and drugs), for I remember the 60s.
* The readers they will one day be…the college students of the 60s grew up to read Susan Howatch and Tom Clancy and Beverly Lewis and Nicholas Sparks. I’m not concerned.
* The First Amendment is probably pretty safe; it’s survived countless challenges, and while the establishment clause tends to be interpreted differently by different generation, there’s no serious risk. And we ALL, I think, disagree with part of it – I personally think that pornography should be banned and its purveyors shot in the market square at sunup for their role in human trafficking, but they are unfortunately protected from my wrath (though God may view things differently in the great by-and-by). But really, actually repealing the First is very improbable…though as I write that I am uncomfortably aware of the ghost of a freely-elected Hitler, chuckling at my elbow, and at my naivete.
LOL Andrew, you must have been posting as the pathetic left side of my brain was still grappling with type. Your speed at wit and wisdom is far reaching. I shall wait next time.
Dear Lara, you have made a smiling sun rise on what has been a dark and bloody morning…your words area treasure. Funny thing…the screen’s gone all blurry, so may I just say, Thank You.
I do tend to agree that the 1st is watertight, but with over 30 amendments, the constitution is not. By implication it must adapt to a changing society, albeit at a very restrained pace, else it will become irrelevant – after all, the law was made for man (society), not the vice versa. So, with time, and changes in society, I guess it is not impossible. What makes it feasible for me, is not that the authorities want it (I am sure many security minded officials would love a little less rhetoric and provocation), but that the liberal minded students who will dominate the next generation, are advocating it. Fundamentalism is also fueling it, along with the concomitant fears. The irony is that liberal is at risk of being anything but, as we the law has already done in limiting religious expression, prayer in schools, the boundaries of PC, etc. I perceive a slow burn that may not be obvious to all.
Peter, you could be right, and this is a strong case for why we need to be informed. Thank you.
Every army fights better in the know, Mary. Burying heads in the sands of denial is unlikely to equip us better for what might yet become very real.
This is great: “Amazon may become the TJ Maxx of the literary world, but Neiman-Marcus is still in business.” Barnes & Noble would undoubtedly like to take that to the bank, Andrew. Regarding trade publishers and new authors, we need to remember that, as splendid as a favorite author can be, readers eventually want to try something new. It’s our human nature. Some publishers are stuck in risk avoidance mode. Perhaps bricks and mortar Amazon stores will serve to unstick them. What do you think?
Thanks for reminding us to keep focused on mastering the craft of writing and growing our audience. And the main thing for me it to write stories that honor God. These are all things I can work on.
If Amazon opened a store, I wonder if they’d be like LL Bean…mostly catalog sales (online sales) and only a few stores.
Could be, Jackie. Another focus in the bricks and mortar stores is sure to be their reading devices, where customers can try them out.
That’s a good plan. Our job is to do our best at that which God has gifted us. The rest is his job.
Good historical point, Peter. Revolutionaries and secret printing presses came to mind. Talk about writing under pressure. I also think kids in college have always had the “I’m going to change the world” mind set. In many respects, they do. I grew up during the turbulent, bra-flag burning era of the 70’s, but I’d venture to say most of that college age generation settled into the establishment they fought against and are reading the books we like to read and write as well. As for freedom of speech, I’m sure our forefathers never intended to protect the evils of porn, but unfortunately when you start chipping away at any part of the foundation of a house, it will crumble. I am intrigued by the aspect of an Amazon book store/publishing conglomeration, but they’ll still need great editors and agents. Otherwise they might as well invest in the toilet paper industry.
Some of the best books in the world were banned books. I think trials only stir up the creative fire in an artistic sense. But as far as safety goes that can be another story in such serious situations as the trouble with Isis. God is with us, whatever horrors humanity manages to bring about, but books can bring a touch of light to dark times as well. He will use us, whatever the case.
Amen, Kristen.
The perceived influence of college students recalls a song from the early 19802, “New World Man”, by the band Bush –
“Trying to match the beat of the old world man,
trying to catch the heat of the Thirst World man,
he’s a New World Man…”
* Sadly, only the first part’s really been true. The Third World was largely abandoned, to turn upon itself with a savagery that surely warmed the heart of Moloch. I’ve stood knee-deep in the killing fields, and often wondered, as I still do, on the geographical, racial and economic limits of our compassion.
And that is why I stand, today, in a house that has become a lifeboat for the small canine souls whose needs outweigh my desires, and whose lives have been judged to have scant value by the society in which we live. I am not a good man; but even a sinner does what he can.
Recalls the Monroe doctrine – your hemisphere is yours, ours is ours.
Good point – I had not made that connection.
Andrew, ☺️☺️
Lara, thank you…but I’m truly living the dream, in spite of setbacks both to morale and physical being.
* The jewels are few, perhaps, but their scarcity makes them shine with their true brilliance. The brilliance of your kind and lovely comment, for example, which is engraved on my heart, and girds it for the struggle that this day will become.
* My wealth is measureless. I would not trade places with anyone.
When you heat sap, you get syrup.
When you polish certain rocks, you get diamonds.
When you squeeze a soul, you get fire.
In Canada, Christianity is not as respected as it used to be. So, before we speak out, we need to make sure we have all our ducks in a row.
PC speech is alive and well here, and yes, it’s sickening. And our reputations for being nice people can get us in trouble when decide to argue. We pick our battles, and stay firm.
I have 3 older kids who have grown up in a culture that is not friendly to Christianity, so they know what the world is like. One fell away, and two stand firm. And the 4th kid is as firm as a 12 year old can be.
One would think that a Western culture that has become unfriendly to Christians would make Christians more sensitive to the evils of religious persecution, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in many prominent and public circles.
* The only television I watch now is Trinity Broadcasting, but I’m often appalled at the way Islam is vilified, either through ignorance or a deliberate misinterpretation of the Qu’ran and revisionist history (such as calling the Barbary Coast Wars an example of Islamic terrorism). While I’m not a Muslim, I certainly feel that it’s beholden on me to respect both their right to their beliefs and the common humanity and heritage we share.
* Perhaps more pernicious is the disrespect shown Judaism, the tenets and practices of which are routinely and condescendingly co-opted by certain preachers who appear on the screen decked out in prayer shawls and phylacteries, speaking in a cherry-picked version of Hebrew.
* In the face of our own persecution, we have to be better than this, and I’m uncomfortably aware that by supporting Trinity in spirit, I’m also providing implicit support to the arrogance and hatred that they seem to tolerate without qualm.
Many TV preachers equate ALL Arabs with Islam.
Trust me, that is not the case.
And like most Anglos, most Arabs are rather secular.
That is all I’ll say on that subject.
I have some very, very fine Muslim clients who can be as noble as the best of Christians. I definitely do not advocate M-bashing as it is generalistic and quite unbecoming of our faith or the commands of Jesus. Personally, the raging rhetoric about the threats of Islam to global freedom, is widely off mark. It is a pretext for a coming religious repression that, if my take on eschatology is right, will target all monotheistic faiths – the global threat is a more darker, pagan-rooted, sinister monster that few will see coming until has come. Its not surprising to me that many Muslims are converting, but will they still do that if we are as threatening to their necks as they are to ours. Love trumps evil. In the same breath I defend my roots, the Jew, who was cast into the most dreadful dilemmas by global policy and yet has thrived and thrived, against all odds, whilst benefiting so much of humanity with their ingenuity.
Well said. The PC movement is limiting open public discourse and hampering the ability for people to be straight up honest. It does force us as a people to be careful and astute in how we frame a statement. I like your opening examples. Good reminders to carry on…
I’m truly horrified by the results of that McLaughlin & Associates study. What happened to, “I disagree with what you say, but I’ll fight to protect your right to say it”? (I am the daughter, niece, sister, and wife of career service members.)
I take comfort in the fact that surveys and polls are often inaccurate reflections of the public’s true feelings.
PC seems to have reached the Canine Mind…PITunia JezeBULL, a bundle of muscle wrapped around a ferocious love, positively loathes the Confederate flag flown by my neighbour. When the morning sun hits it, she leaps to the window and unleashes a barrage of sheer noise that will one day,wake the ghosts of the Army of the Potomac, and bring them wrathfully West.
This is an interesting report out, Mary. I appreciate knowing what is happening on both subjects. If you want to read another eye opening article, read this one from the NYT about the workplace at Amazon. It is also sobering, almost hard to believe. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0
The interesting thing about Amazon’s ‘culture’ is that for all of its Darwinian attitude, it survives only because Bezos and his lawyers can hide behind the legal protections afforded by our society. They can push the abuse of employees so far, and they know the limits.
* In the real world, where contract negotiations are backed by Kalashnikovs and loyalty upward demands loyalty downward, these people would not last a day; their careers would have the ephemerality of a moth drawn to an oxy-acetylene flame.
One reason I never put too much stock in anything coming out of academia is personal experience – the people there, both professors and in very many cases students are simply educated beyond their intelligence.
* Two examples, both from tenured professors of engineering. One refused to believe that an automobile crankshaft is hollow, until a student brought in an example. The other maintained that aluminum could be welded to steel. I would have LOVED to see him try to validate that hypothesis.
* And the students…I had several who refused to learn how to do engineering calculations by hand, saying that they would always have a computer (and if a laptop at a field site broke, another would be flown out immediately). The really funny thing is that when I reduced their grades for refusing to do the work, the idiot administrators overruled me. I suspect the admin folks had rubber stamps for their signatures, as I rather doubted they could read and write.
I support freedom of speech, and freedom to read. There are books in our library I’d rather burn than read. At the same time, I would protest if someone attempted to remove these books from our shelves.I pray we will always have the freedom to choose in America.