They say that everyone has a book in them. Who ‘they’ are, and which book they’re talking about isn’t clear. Publishing a book is an ominous business. A writer is a writer. But how do you become a published writer? The traditional route is to send off your manuscript, synopsis, personal profile and a pint of blood to an agent. Well — lots of agents, and sit back and wait for the rejection letters to land from those that are courteous enough to respond. You could try contacting a publisher directly, but in reality, most only deal through agents. So why should an agent take you on? There’s no reason at all. Unless of course, you’re famous or notorious, which makes marketing, and making money easy. Most agents already have a stable of writers they’re perfectly happy to represent. Besides which it doesn’t do for an agent to spread his or her resources too thinly. There are to many other agents sniffing around with juicy bones on offer. An agent may take on one or two new writers per year. Look at the number of recognised agents there are, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the chances of getting your book published are small.
But the world has changed. What downloading had done for the music industry, digital printing will do for book publishing. It’s now perfectly feasible to print 250 copies of a book and sell them for an acceptable retail price, and make a profit. The complacent world of big publishers, who depend upon massive sales, is about to be blown apart. What does this mean for the reader? It means that niche and specialist subjects will be better serviced. If you’re into goth/romantic/medically-themed, science fiction, there’s no more chance you’ll be able to find something to suit your specific taste. If you write books in this genre, you can now get published and find your audience.
How do you do it? Watch this space for more information.
4 Comments
January 2, 2008 at 4:34 pm
No, not everyone has a book in them, no more than anyone can split an atom or explain the theory of relativity. Writing is the hardest work you’ll ever do and writing WELL is even more fraught with pain and difficulty. The proliferation of new publishing technologies means a proliferation of BAD WRITERS, all of whom are clogging up the marketplace with their lousy offerings and making it hard for pros to find an editor or publisher who isn’t swamped. Good writers suffer…and wannabes get to pretend they’re creating something of significance. Sometimes the world isn’t fair…
January 2, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Ah the “indies” of publishing. I agree that this is a great step up for authors of all sorts to build their dreams in roads off the beaten path. However, barring some new information that will be in your next updates, I think perhaps you’re still understating the difficulty involved with private or personal publication.
A publisher doesn’t just create the books for you, it also provides distribution, merchandising, advertising, and actual venues/merchants who will stock your product. This umbrella comes at great expense, but it also gives your works a notability that self-publishing simply can’t compete with.
Not to say that I wouldn’t love to see more self-published authors, but on the whole, most of them will likely be writing drivel that was refused by a publisher for a reason. The best thing self-publishing allows is a niche by which the small amount of remarkable but unpublished writers will be able to fill. Just how large a niche this is though is my matter of concern.
January 26, 2008 at 1:16 pm
I am pleased that I will have the opportunity to publish a book in the upcoming year, but I still have a way to go before the book hits the shelves. The editor is going to go over the manuscript on a page by page basis. I imagine that this will take a great deal of time. That is not a problem for me. I am a diligent writer and my desire to publish a book is a driving force that will keep me on my toes.
September 10, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Ha! Not any more!