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Well, here we go again. Once in a while, lengthy articles on the state of publishing pop up in the most reputable of magazines. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for it and the articles are great – well researched and thought provoking and much needed. The only thing is – they are kind of repetitive and, well old. What they are saying is nothing new, at least not to us, the team at Slush Pile reader, or for that matter to you, the Slush Pile Reader’s authors and readers. If it were, you wouldn’t be here, would you?
The latest article is wordy, but worth a read. It dwells a bit too much on e-books and the wonder of the iPad (What do you all think of that one?! Is it the second coming or just another fabulous marketing ploy by Jobs et al?) but it touches upon quite a few very relevant topics. The best quote I believe is the one by Tim O’Reilly, of O’Reilly Media who believes that the publisher’s model is fundamentally flawed: “Publishers never built the infrastructure to respond to customers.”. In other words, the old school publishers have forgotten one simple little thing – asking the customers what they want to read. In extension, no matter how obsolete some want to make out brick and mortar book stores to be, without them publishers wouldn’t have a clue on how to sell or to whom, since that is the only market data they have to go on. Basically publishers do no market research, have no data on their customers, and basically publish books based on nothing more than feeling and instinct, kind of like putting your finger up to the wind to see where it blows from.
The opposite of what Slush Pile Reader is all about…
Here’s the deal – everyone complains about the low margins and the decreasing profitability of publishing. Publishers do not like Amazon’s pricing and they get their knickers in a twist over it, claiming they absolutely need e-pricing to be higher since they are already losing money. How on earth can they loose money on a 9.99 e-book is beyond me? If people can make money on a snickers bar, they can make money on a virtual product that has already been vetted and produced in the off line world. E-books is just another outlet – it doesn’t entail greater costs. The reality is – it is not pricing that is flawed but costs. It is possible to lower costs (fancy offices, meetings, oodles of staff…) and make the profits higher for everyone, including the author, without whom there would be no publishing industry after all (which many publishers seem to forget and often they act as if they are indeed granting authors a favor simply by gracing them with a second of their time). By selecting books based on facts, not on gut feeling or the picking of manuscripts based on who knows who and who is the best cookie pusher – but on, gasp, literary merit and what the readers actually want to read, more books would be sold; costs cut, profits increased and everyone would be merrier for it. N’est pas?
Change is slow, especially when it comes to an existing giant of an industry that has been run the same way basically since Gutenberg came along. Ignoring the way it has always been done, and sticking to ones guns is vital. Remember change seldom, if ever, comes from within an industry. E-book readers were not invented by the giants dominating publishing. With authors and readers like all of you here at Slush Pile Reader change will come from the customers themselves and finally books will be published based on merit and demand, not arbitrary reasons such as luck, nepotism and some more luck.
Malcolm James Thomson
/ May 10, 2010Good points raised here. However, I am wondering whether we are overlooking one of the most significant points with regard to the narrative fiction and electronic interface devices. What I spy on the horizon is a move towards transmediality. I look forward to storytelling as compelling as any successful novel, but delivered not just as written prose, but in multiple forms on multiple platforms.
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Johanna
/ May 11, 2010I believe you are onto something and I have indeed heard of those venturing into multichannel publishing. The major problems, however, are production cost and end price to customer. Is it doable? I do not know but it will sure be interesting to see.
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Alexie Aaron
/ May 14, 2010I have to agree that the major publishers are tying their own knot as they step on the gallows of bad decisions. My immediate family purchases a lot of books, and as I entered the volumes, both paperback and hardback, into our library database I noticed something interesting. All but a few were from small publishing houses. Not just the survivors of takeovers but new enterprises that seem to be listening to their customers. My husband looked not to the bestseller lists for his next author to read but to the publisher of the last series he read and was not disappointed. E-books haven’t hit our household yet, mostly due to the limitations of the present technology, but I expect this to change, and when it does I expect that SPR to be a major source of quality reads.
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Lexi Revellian
/ May 15, 2010Big publishers tend to be good at marketing, which gives them the assurance that they know what they are doing. If they sign a writer, celebrity or unknown, market her book aggressively, and it makes good sales, that tells them they must be on the right track. What they don’t know is how many readers are disappointed after the hype, and won’t be buying the next book by that author.
Nor do they know how well the books they reject would have sold, given the opportunity. And because they’ve handed over the slush pile to agents, new writers come expensive. I’d happily sign a no-advance contract in order to get published, and let my novel take its chance with the public. But no agent would be interested in obtaining that deal for me.
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Karl Kronlage
/ May 17, 2010Big publishers gamble everytime they publish a book, so the try to make the safest bet possible – an established author or celeb. I love the philosophy of slushpilereader – an alternative that can work.
And good point about cutting costs.
It’s interesting to see what will happen with e-books. They are slowly gaining in popularity. I have a Kindle and now going to a book store seems like a waste of time. I’m reading more and buying more books. I wonder if some day students will have all their textbooks on a device similar to an i-pad. My feeling is there will be a demand for print books for awhile, even if that demand lessens. I believe publishers will have to print fewer copies and big chains like Borders and B -n- N will need to adjust.
The point I see is this: times are changing.
And Lexi, you’ve got the right attitude. I too don’t feel the need for an advance and would rather throw that money into promotion / advertising. If a book doesn’t sell, an author should be paid lavishly for it.
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rod griffiths
/ May 26, 2010The tricky thing with e-books is how do you find out about your audience? Hard to do book signings when the thing is in cyberspace.
We also need someone to invent a better e-browsing experience. In a book shop you can skim your eyes over a hundred books in a few minutes, on Amazon, or Smashwords or itunes (guessing here because the books bit hasn’t made it to the UK yet), you get ten little pictures on a page and then you have to refresh to get ten more. You are very dependent on the available search categories, unless you know what you are looking for. It takes a while to get through 5,000 thrillers on the Kindle site at ten books per page.
What I’d like to see is something in a coffee bar or somewhere like that where I could browse and chat and drink a latte or whatever and buy an e-book. We need someone to invent an e-browsing bookshop-in-a-box. It has to be cheaper than bricks and mortar and all that inventory.
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