Why Is It Tough To Get In The Business Today

This is not an easy time to get into publishing. I am not, in any way going to sugar coat things here. With all of the streaming services out there, publishers are struggling to get people to just pick up a book. It also doesn't help when our wonderful K-12 education system is not promoting reading (I can say that because I am in that system and I am fighting with it daily). Yes, we are seeing an increase in some book sales, but it is just not enough to get the publishers to go out an invest in new readers. They are simply sticking to what they know. 

So, why is that? They know all of you will go out and buy those books. Readers are like a bunch of lemmings. You just follow when someone tells you to. Let me give you an example. A friend of mine said she went running to her latest B&N to get the latest book by two of her favorite authors. Her comment? She didn't care if it was good, she just wanted a book to read.

What does this tell you? Publishers know readers buy books from authors they know. I am sorry to say this, but unknown authors have no chance right now. Even the established authors trying to move from one house to the next are struggling because there is limited book space.

To add to all of this, the market is saturated by a ton, and I mean a ton of authors who, after being rejected, and who had (or have) little patience, self-publish and dump their books out there. Now, let's take a guess of who is making the money? Not the authors, that is for sure. 

What a lot of people do not understand is that there are a lot of authors out there and not a lot of readers. I want you to think back to the basics of Economics called supply and demand. Supply is High and Demand is Low. That simply means your value is also low, in fact, VERY low.

All I can say is that those who will succeed are those who have the patience to hold on and just keep trying but not giving up and just jumping for the easiest path.