New Challenges in Publishing

I was reading this morning an interesting article that highlighted elements from a speech of Steve Wasserman. I have put the full link to the article below, but it really got me thinking about what new challenges we have to face in publishing.

The predicament facing the publishing industry is best understood against the backdrop of several overlapping and contending crises...
I'm not sure if we are at a full crisis stage but I do have to say, the boat is sinking and we need to get organized and be ready before we go down with the ship. I think that too often, in publishing and likely many other industries out there, we seem to believe that things will find a solution on their own if we just give it time. While this might be the case, taking a more active role may insure that we have a better time surviving.

This active role does imply critical thinking and not simply reactionary thinking. As I look at many of the things that have happened in the romance and women's fiction industry, I see more of the reactionary thinking than critical thinking. I have seen new writing organizations form because they didn't like what happened in RWA. Instead of fixing a problem, people dove to new organizations. I am not saying this is bad. There is the saying, "if you don't like the way the game is being played, you can find another field to play on." This works here as well, but I often wonder if these new groups that formed, did nothing more than bring the same problems with them. Are any groups out there really looking at the key underlying problems, or are they looking only at the symptoms?

I was talking to a friend that is on an athletic team struggling for money. The team is doing all they can to "raise the money" to save the team. While this is good, I did ask if they were going to do anything about the spending and the structure of the team. Instead of reducing spending, they were just going to try to make more money. This is reactionary thinking, not critical thinking.

the first is the general challenge confronting publishers of adapting to the new digital and electronic technologies that are increasingly rendering traditional methods of production and distribution obsolete, and undercutting profit margins...
Remember the phrase, change is the only constant. Well that is what we are dealing with here. The publishing industry must be aware of these changes and take immediate steps to move in that direction. No, I am not saying to throw out the old methods. The key word here is INTEGRATE!

I find it interesting that when I read articles about e-publishing and then see surveys, we find that people are not necessarily diving all over the e-book think as much as we thought. Sure, sales are doing find from the perspective of e-publishers, but does this mean it really is replacing the traditional methods of publishing? I don't think so. Do the old methods undercut profit? I honestly have to say that I don't believe that to be the case. I think we have a larger issue to deal with. People just aren't reading.

Look, we are in a tough economy right now. When given a choice between buying a dinner or buying the latest book, we go for the dinner. I remember when my wife and I would spend hundreds of dollars at the book store buying books. They piled up around the house. Today, that is simply not the case.

I think the issue also applies to time people have to read (or the time they wish to devote). I know I run from 5:00 am until 11:00 pm every day. I find it tough some days just to sit down and casually read. Now, extend this argument. If I don't read, it means I am not buying books, which means the company isn't making money (e-format or not).

the second is the profound structural transformation roiling the entire book-publishing and book-selling industry in the age of conglomeration and digitization...
I think in this case, we are just dealing with companies that are becoming too large to handle. It's all about the money. I am afraid, however, that we are often focusing more on the money side of thing instead of the quality.

Sure, I get it it. As an agent, I often turn down stories that are really good, the writing is great, but selling the story is impossible. Not that people might not buy it, but the publishers have said they won't buy it.

and the third and most troubling crisis is the sea change in the culture of literacy itself, the degree to which our overwhelmingly fast and visually furious culture renders serious reading increasingly irrelevant, hollowing out habits of attention indispensable for absorbing long-form narrative and the following of sustained argument....
With my background in literarcy development and enhancement, this one really gets to me. Although I see purposes for blogs, twitter and the like. Although I love technology (but can't often afford it), it is this technology that is reducing our reading. We want it fast and we want it short.

When students do research papers, they rely on abstracts and not the entire research paper. They love programs like ProQuest and ignore the books. Little by little the reading is disappearing.

Even in schools, programs like the Accellerated Reader program promote reading for points not reading for quality. Students are forced to read books that are chosen for them and not those they want. Even the anthologies are full of stories that are not the highest quality. They were chosen for themes and the length. The days of reading novels are simply disappearing.


Sure, this is long winded but I think we see there are bigger things to deal with. I would encourage everyone to really stop and think about what the underlying problems are they have to deal with. Fix those, not the symptoms. And more importantly, THINK!

Scott

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/12/future_of_book_publishing.php

Why are you writing what you are writing?

I love asking this question of writers. Why? Because I get to sit there and watch them squirm. I get to observe writers justifying a story that really they had no business writing. So, do you know why you are writing your current project?

For many authors, they are writing it because it is far from the story that they should be writing. You need to write from the heart. You need to write the story that really means something to you and the passion of your own life comes across in the story. Too often though, writers choose stories for completely different reasons. I see it all of the time.

• Because their CP said they would be good a writing that story.
• Because it is hot right now.
• Because some editor or agent said they were looking for it.
• Because their entire chapter is writing in that genre (or for that publisher).
• and so on...

Now there is potential side effect of this. The story that is your passion, the story that you may want to write may be one that will never sell. There will be no publisher or agent that will sign that book. Does that mean it is a bad book? No way! It simply means it is not something that the public would buy (in their humble opinion).

Let's extend that thought a bit. If all of your stories that you want to write are those not suitable for publishing what does that tell you? It means you should keep writing. Write from the heart and enjoy it. Publishing may simply not be in your future.

Scott

The World Is Not Fair

I am sorry to break this to you, but the world of publishing is not fair. I know, this comes as a shock to many of you, but it is true. I am bringing this up today because of recent conversations floating out there in cyber space. Writers complaining "But Writer X got this and I didn't." or "How come that agent is able to do this and this other agent can't." or "My book is just as good as this other writer's story."

It seems that I can't go a single day without a new comment that flitters across my twitter (had to use that line, it worked so well) of some new complaint. Look, the world is simply not fair.

One thing we have to realize is that every situation, and I really do stress, EVERY, is different. There are a lot of circumstances that we simply do not see or hear about in any element of the process of the book getting to print. The key word we are working with here is VARIABLES. You remember that math term that discussed a number that would change from one situation to the next. The same thing happens here.

For example: An author pitches a book to an editor but, only has one book and a couple of follow up ideas. They may get an advance that is less than someone who might have 3 books ready to go. This doesn't mean that the second author gets a higher advance, but it might simply be a different re-structuring of the contract. Both might get a three-book deal, but the dollar figure is different since the publisher doesn't have to wait on the future projects.

For example: Agent Z seems to be able to get stories to Publisher G on a more regular basis than Agent W. Does this mean that Agent Z is better, or has better authors? Not necessarily. Agent Z may have been around longer and has done more work with that publisher. That agent might just have the knack for knowing the right voice specifically for that publisher.

What we have to remember is that we don't know all that goes on behind the doors. For that reason, we can't just assume that everyone is starting from the same place or heading in the same direction. Now, is it frustrating when you see someone else getting what you want? You better believe it, but it is not a reason for getting angry about it. Remember that there are others that are looking at you the same way.


Scott