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New Publishing Industry Needs New Editors
As small runs and self-publishing vastly increase the selection of books available, the industry needs agents who can promote the ones actually worth reading.
Recently, HarperCollins, a traditional big publishing house, announced they intended to take a very non-traditional step: they were going to stop paying authors advances on books in a new imprint, citing changes in the publishing business.
Authors pretty uniformly responded by saying under their breath “what changes? The publishers have always wanted to avoid paying the authors.” More openly, some authors responded by asking what publishers were good for in the new world of the Internet.
It’s a good question. And so as to not keep you on tenterhooks, the short answer is “not much.” I already discussed this in a recent piece on PJM about the music industry, but the book and the magazine publishing industry are structurally similar to record publishing: the business model is driven, first and foremost, by the costs of producing the physical realization on which the content comes. In the record business, it was those large rotating media — first cylinders, then lacquer, then vinyl, and finally the CDs and DVDs. In the publishing business, it’s the paper newspapers, glossy paper magazines, and the lovely big books. The ones trying to crowd me out of a two-bedroom apartment. But that’s another story.
Without beating it to death — go back and read the music industry piece if you want to read me beat it to death — the old-fashioned way of publishing means that the manuscript for the book had to be translated into physical printing plates, and these plates had to be used to print physical pages which were bound and distributed. For most of the last hundred years, this was largely done with Linotype machines, lovely old things that literally cast a lead “slug” of type for each line of text on the page. These “lines o’ type” were assembled into frames for each page, the frames were put into printing presses, and thousands of pages were printed, assembled, and bound. Then the bound books had to be transported to bookstores, promoted, and sold.
Setting this up is expensive: Linotype machines aren’t cheap, printing presses that can print thousands of pages an hour aren’t cheap, and once you have the presses, the time you spend putting the new type into them for a new set of pages is definitely not cheap. Nor were the printing and shipping. Once your printing is done, you have massive frames of type to store — and we’re talking thousands of pounds of lead alloy and steel fixtures.
Since setting them up was so expensive and reprinting was very nearly as expensive as the first printing, it only made sense to print when you could print a lot of copies; but then these copies had to be shipped or stored, and each one of them added some to that cost as well. If they didn’t sell, they had to be disposed of; neither warehouse space nor disposal were cheap either.
What this means is that for a book to have a chance of making a profit at a reasonable price, you have to sell a lot of them in order to spread the large fixed costs across many copies. Again, this is completely analogous to the record industry. So you need a filter: someone has to decide what to publish, and has to make those decisions based on how many copies they expect to be able to sell. Those people are called “editors,” and their job is to read all the incoming material, decide what is going to have the best chance of selling, and then determine how to promote each item in order to maximize the sales.
So, as it always does, time passed and things changed. The old-fashioned “hot type” Linotype was replaced with photo-composition and photo-offset printing, and now instead of massive frames full of lead type, printing presses used “plates” of thick foil that were easier to change and easier to store. Now it was possible to make smaller print runs and reprint more often.
Then along comes the laser printer, and it became possible to print pages with nearly the quality of typeset print on a machine that sits on the desk and costs a couple of hundred dollars. Other changes in technology have combined with improvements in printing so that “print on demand” is possible. In fact, small print-on-demand machines will be available which can print a book and bind it in a matter of minutes.
For, at least, those old-fashioned people who want a bound book. In a transition that has just gotten started, “electronic paper” is making devices like the Kindle possible; the printing press is completely out of the equation.
Which means the whole business model of “publishing” is gone. Let’s just compare:
| Old model | New Model |
|---|---|
| Author writes content | Author writes content |
| Content chosen by editors | ? |
| Type set or cast by hand | Manuscript translated to type by machine |
| Type installed in press | No need |
| Thousands of pages printed | One copy printed |
| Thousands of copies bound | One copy bound |
| Thousands of copies shipped | Bound copy mailed or delivered to buyer |
| Book tours, advertising, promotion, PR by editorial staff | ? |
| Unsold copies returned | No unsold copies |
| Remaining print run stored | Printable form stored on computer |
| Unsold books disposed of | No need |
Just as with music, this means that an author can now get work to the public without needing a conventional publisher at all; print-on-demand publishers like iUniverse and LuLu make it possible for an author to produce a book and sell it himself.
This can be somewhat of a good deal for an author writing fiction or labor-of-love books on obscure subjects. It’s no longer necessary to be able to sell enough copies to pay for expensive professional typesetting and production, so the barriers to entry are down: anyone who can write fifty thousand words can publish a professional-looking book. Which then sells dozens of copies. Whether it’s any good or not.
But what then? Unlike the music business, where someone can perform a new track in minutes and produce a final, publishable track in hours, it still takes a long time to write a book. (A long, long time. Such a long, long time. But I digress.) For that to be anything but a hobby, books need to sell thousands of copies.
Self-publishing isn’t new; it’s just much cheaper and easier than it was before. Self-published books have gone on to become best-selling, through word of mouth — which usually translates to “incessant self-promotion by the author.” Not everyone is good at self-promotion; publicity, promotion, and selling are vastly different skills from writing.
On the other side of the sale, we the book-buying public are presented with another problem: there are going to be a lot of books out there, just like there are a lot of blogs now. How do we know which ones are good? Every science-fiction reader knows this problem already — SF used to be a dozen paperbacks at the bottom of the shelf, and you could read nearly everything that got published. Now it occupies whole sections of big bookstores, and it can be pretty tough to find the dozen or so really good books hidden among them.
It used to be that there was a filter — someone, a professional reader, had chosen a manuscript and put up the money to print it, so you had some reason to think it might well be worth buying.
It’s a pretty problem: on the one hand, authors find themselves ready and able to publish, and much more easily than ever before; on the other, the books readers want are hidden in the mass of easily published books. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way for readers to know what books will suit them, and for writers to have someone to promote their books? Just like editors used to do?
That’s the answer, of course. Of all the steps in the publishing business, both old and new, the holes are at the “choose content” and “promote content” steps. And there are a whole group of people, namely editors, who know how to do that.
Where there’s a hole, there’s a business model. The logic of the situation says that in publishing, it’s the editors — and their counterparts, the writers’ agents — that have the opportunity. Someone who will choose the best content, publicize it, promote it. This new business model is someone who chooses content, promotes it at their own expense, and in return gets a share of the author’s proceeds, so the job in some ways looks more like an agent than an editor — but it’s an agent with an editorial staff to do promotion.
These editor/agents, some of them at least, will become celebrities in their own right, as Judith Regan did. Others will let their advertising and promotion budgets — and their authors — speak for themselves. But someone who can turn a few thousand sales into a hundred thousand will be worth a lot to authors, and where there’s money to be made you can bet someone will come along to make it.
Charlie Martin is a Colorado computer scientist and nearly-successful screenwriter who contributes to the Flares Into Darkness political blog as ‘Seneca the Younger,’ and blogs under his own name at the aggressively non-political Explorations blog.
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19 Comments
1. Andrew Ian Dodge:As someone who uses iUniverse I have to say its most satisfying. I had a publisher a few years ago that went under. I am starting to hear of authors with proper deals who want to expand their writing horizons using iUniverse/Lulu. Its a good way of rising it up the pole and see who salutes.
Apr 10, 2008 - 3:59 am 2. A New Kind of Agent | Explorations:[...] new piece up on Pajamas [...]
Apr 10, 2008 - 7:23 am 3. Writer:There are two major errors in this article. You can’t really print a book worthy of the name on a laser printer that “sits on the desk.” It takes large and expensive machines to do proper print on demand. Watch the video (on the right side) at lightningsource.com to see them in operation. Done that way, the book is virtually indistinguishable from one traditionally printed and also cheaper in quantities less than about 1,000. That’s what is making it popular with publishers, large and small.
Second, in the last few weeks the print-on-demand model he describes has been endangered by the greed and bullying tactics of Amazon, which has begun to threaten not to sell any such books unless those books are printing on its own BookSurge print-on-demand presses. Others are also reporting that university presses that use web presses are being threatened with “use BookSurge or get dropped.” In the UK, publishers who sell at a discount online (in competition with Amazon UK) are receiving threats. You can find more details at:
http://www.writersweekly.com/amazon.php
Like Microsoft, also based in metro-Seattle, Amazon is becoming a classic case that power corrupts. Their behavior has gotten dubious enough that the Washington State Attorney General’s office has begun an antitrust investigation.
Most unfortunately for authors, several of the large self-publishing companies, including AuthorHouse, iUniverse and LuLu, have given in to Amazon’s demands and placed themselves in a bind. Amazon is requiring a draconian non-disclosure agreement, so writers who sign with those companies don’t have a clue as to what that Amazon contract says. It may have clauses you’ll come to regret. If you’re looking for a publisher who can be open and honest with you, Xlibris and BookLocker have refused bow to Amazon’s bullying. There may be others.
One final note. Amazon, which bought BookSurge in 2005, has had to turn nasty because the market has rejected BookSurge. Most print-on-demand publishers have gone with LightningSource because it offers the best combination of price, service and quality. BookSurge has a reputation for shoddy quality, typically off-center covers and pages that fall out. Sign with one of the self-publishing houses that have done this secret deal with Amazon and you can never be certain what your books will look like. You can, however, be certain that the public blame you when they are badly printed by Amazon.
Apr 10, 2008 - 9:34 am 4. Charlie (Colorado):I’ll simply note first that desktop-sized book printing is available. The quality is not what we bibliophiles might like, but I don’t expect progress to stop next Friday, either. There are already better quality single-unit printers in development.
I’m a little unclear on how my failure to note the Amazon dispute constitutes an “error.” There is indeed a tension between Amazon’s attempt to dominate the market and what individual writers might like. That sounds to me like another place for this editor/agent role to become useful. I do think if you feel so strongly about this, you should definitely write something of some greater length about it and publish it somewhere.
Apr 10, 2008 - 1:14 pm 5. John Blake:Let’s face it, editors are commercial opportunists. J.K. Toole’s “Confederacy of Dunces” went unpublished for eleven years after his suicide, whereupon it won a Pulitzer Prize. Rowling reports that 21 submissions yielded only rejections (”no audience, vocabulary too sophisticated” etc.).. but churn out a sex-and-death potboiler replete with car chases and evil corporations, you’re in!
Literary quality is not synonymous with short-term marketability. Probably 90% of authors produce hack-work anyhow, but if editors of integrity can’t flag classics in advance, what’s a publisher to do?
Apr 10, 2008 - 2:00 pm 6. Gozer the Carpathian:I like how you mentioned ebooks for a moment but nothing more. Do you have another article about them or just think it’s too early for them?
In the Pen and Paper gaming industry I know PDF and eBooks have really started to take off with sites like RPG Now, Drive Thru RPG, and e23 selling regularly. The problem of “sifting through the junk” doesn’t hurt as much when you can get a book for $1.50. You can “give it a shot” more often in digital format than in print. (Since often times digital versions are 50% the cost. Even the DRMed versions)
Making a PDF is easy, making a GOOD PDF is a bit harder and that’s just the start of ebook publishing. Though here again the rest of your article fits nicely with the whole “how to get scene and promoted” bit. What are new writers to do in this era?
Apr 10, 2008 - 5:41 pm 7. Christopher:With regard to the editor/agent problem–what to do if my manuscript is issues orientated with a conservative point of view?
It was edited locally by others, and been rejected by some 40 agents (pardon me; they were not rejected, the agents simply never responded).
I will tell you 75% of the agents contacted were women, resident of New York City. Almost all the men contacted were also from New York City.
The political dynamic here is obvious. The effect every bit as pernicious as Amazon and single copy publishing.
Ideology trumps moderate earnings every time. Look at Hollywood and the uniform failure of its anti-war movies.
Where does a writer go to find a listing of conservative perspective literary agents?
Apr 10, 2008 - 5:42 pm 8. Diane:Chris
I was really interested in your statement that desktop-sized book printing is currently available. Do you have the names of some companies making them, or web site links? Thanks so much
Apr 10, 2008 - 6:37 pm 9. Charlie (Colorado):Gozer, it was just a matter of what I thought fit with the point of the article; I’ve got a Kindle sitting right next to me. To be fair, I think ebooks are a generation or two of hardware before they’re really going to be ready for everyone, but I’m finding it very handy. I’m going on vacation one of these days, and instead of my usual bag o’ bricks, I’m just going to load up the Kindle.
As far as how to get noticed, well, I’m trying writing for blogs…..
Chris, there are lots of agents, and lots of conservative book publishers. Every writer — I can say this with some authority — has trouble getting the first book sold. Writer’s Digest has lots of listings in their various “Market” publications.
Apr 10, 2008 - 8:45 pm 10. Curly Smith:Diane, Charlie can obviously type for himself but I think you’d be better off using one of the various book printing services. As an example (not a recommendation) this site http://www.diggypod.com/index.iml?mdl=subPage/view.mdl&PAGE_ID=26431 will print a 240 page 8 1/2″ x 11″ bound book for $11.94 each in small quantities or $5.25 each in large quantities. There are many such services just a Yahoo away. Here’s a site that might be of some use http://www.speakernetnews.com/post/printondemand.html
Unless you have some burning desire to print books then your time (and money) would be better spent writing. Purchase of the necessary equipment would only be cost effective if you could amortize the cost over very large quantities. As a minimum you’d need to form a printing co-op of several writers and would probably still have to take-in outside printing work. I’d compare home book publishing to home printing of photos — you can do it but it’s really not cost effective.
However, I see this as a good entrepreneurial opportunity for FedEx/Kinko’s …
Apr 11, 2008 - 6:40 am 11. Charlie (Colorado):Oh, sorry, you know I thought I wrote a line more there. Anyway, Diane, I’m digging for that link to the soon-to-come desktop size machine; in the mean time, though, Curly has it right: unless you are fixing to open a print-on-demand bookstore, the online services are a good choice. I’ve got several books that were printed by such services and they’re perfectly acceptable.
Apr 11, 2008 - 7:47 pm 12. Cogito Ergo Doleo:You’ve covered the production and distribution sides of the industry with some accuracy; however, you’ve failed to adequately address the promotional aspects of a given volume or, for that matter, recorded composition. What about the critic or blogger — the individual arbiter of quality who possesses some small clout — when it comes to actually selling books (despite reports to the contrary)? Where does either fit, given both your old and new bizthness models? (S’pose integrity’s on the wane, too, eh? Quel fromage and, no, I don’t mean moon-made
.)
Apr 12, 2008 - 12:01 pm 13. amba:As an editor as well as a writer, I object to calling these creatures you’re describing “editors,” unless they also edit. Call them impresarios, or something.
The problem is and always will be that the “filter” filters out good stuff along with the bad, and not just obscure elitist good stuff either (as witness the experiences of eventually bestselling authors from Puzo to Rowling who collected dozens of rejections). The filter is usually set by what succeeded in the past, so when something is genuinely original, or doesn’t fit a MFA-program trend, it tends to fall through the cracks in the culture. Another HUGE problem we need to do something about is that PAPERBACKS (as most on-demand books are) DO NOT GET REVIEWED.
My brother wrote a highly entertaining, darkly funny novel about a drug death in the Peace Corps, and published it with a “micropublisher,” another interesting trend. I’ve sent him the link to this post, and maybe he’ll come comment.
Apr 13, 2008 - 9:24 am 14. Pajamas Media » Blog Archive » What Will Your Next Computer Be Able to Do?:[...] us bibliophiles: you can take your whole library with you in a package the size of a big checkbook. Publishing will be much easier, too: no more heavy paper bricks. So you’ll have the space for 3,200 books, but you’ll also [...]
Apr 24, 2008 - 12:21 am 15. Pajamas Media » Amazon’s Kindle Draws the Reader In:[...] future of these things is bright, though. First of all, the price is sure to drop; electronics always does. Soon, a lot of schools will be ordering texts that can be delivered as [...]
May 19, 2008 - 3:23 am 16. Rich:If you’re interested in self publishing, you might find this book of use:
http://www.johntreed.com/HTWP.html
Sep 17, 2008 - 9:20 pm 17. Pajamas Media » Manufacturing on Demand: The Future Is Now:[...] daily life: music distribution without the need for big physical production plants, electronic book publishing, and even what the continuing advances in computer technology will mean to computers themselves. [...]
Sep 19, 2008 - 4:17 am 18. New Publishing Industry Needs New Editors | New Fiction Blog:[...] some authors responded by asking what publishers were good for in the new world of the Internet.
Jan 14, 2009 - 10:22 am 19. Tom Lopy:I don’t think self publishing is the best route because of the promotion aspect. Its critical to push the book in a variety of formats like podcasts and audio books. You need to have an expert to handle that. A company like newfiction.com does that.
Jan 14, 2009 - 10:24 am