There's a fantastic article about the future of publishing that was published on Time's website this past Wednesday:
Click here to read the article.
What are some of the lessons of the article?
1. Writers should self-publish their books--even their literary fiction--even if every agent and traditional publishing house in the world has rejected their book. There are just too many recent examples of self-published books receiving traditional publishing deals or selling millions of copies on their own outright to ignore.
2. Self-publishing is becoming a sort of "farm team" for the traditional publishing industry, as is highlighted by the following quote from the article:
"Daniel Suarez, a software consultant in Los Angeles, sent his techno-thriller Daemon to 48 literary agents. No go. So he self-published instead. Bit by bit, bloggers got behind Daemon. Eventually Penguin noticed and bought it and a sequel for a sum in the high six figures. 'I really see a future in doing that,' Suarez says, 'where agencies would monitor the performance of self-published books, in a sort of Darwinian selection process, and see what bubbles to the surface. I think of it as crowd-sourcing the manuscript-submission process.' "
This concept reminds me of iUniverse's Star program (as I think it's called) and, closer to home, Wheatmark's own Great Expectations program.
3. Before we pat ourselves on the back too much, we must remember that the whole concept of the "book" is radically changing before our eyes. Everyone--writers, editors, agents, publishers, distributors, and retailers--is going to have to work overtime to figure out how to provide quality written content to readers.
The question remains as to whether or not any of these critical components of the publishing industry will be earning a living while doing it, as highlighted by this quote:
"So if the economic and technological changes of the 18th century gave rise to the modern novel, what's the 21st century giving us? Well, we've gone from industrialized printing to electronic replication so cheap, fast and easy, it greases the skids of literary production to the point of frictionlessness. From a modern capitalist marketplace, we've moved to a postmodern, postcapitalist bazaar where money is increasingly optional."
Happy Friday!
Click here to read the article.
What are some of the lessons of the article?
1. Writers should self-publish their books--even their literary fiction--even if every agent and traditional publishing house in the world has rejected their book. There are just too many recent examples of self-published books receiving traditional publishing deals or selling millions of copies on their own outright to ignore.
2. Self-publishing is becoming a sort of "farm team" for the traditional publishing industry, as is highlighted by the following quote from the article:
"Daniel Suarez, a software consultant in Los Angeles, sent his techno-thriller Daemon to 48 literary agents. No go. So he self-published instead. Bit by bit, bloggers got behind Daemon. Eventually Penguin noticed and bought it and a sequel for a sum in the high six figures. 'I really see a future in doing that,' Suarez says, 'where agencies would monitor the performance of self-published books, in a sort of Darwinian selection process, and see what bubbles to the surface. I think of it as crowd-sourcing the manuscript-submission process.' "
This concept reminds me of iUniverse's Star program (as I think it's called) and, closer to home, Wheatmark's own Great Expectations program.
3. Before we pat ourselves on the back too much, we must remember that the whole concept of the "book" is radically changing before our eyes. Everyone--writers, editors, agents, publishers, distributors, and retailers--is going to have to work overtime to figure out how to provide quality written content to readers.
The question remains as to whether or not any of these critical components of the publishing industry will be earning a living while doing it, as highlighted by this quote:
"So if the economic and technological changes of the 18th century gave rise to the modern novel, what's the 21st century giving us? Well, we've gone from industrialized printing to electronic replication so cheap, fast and easy, it greases the skids of literary production to the point of frictionlessness. From a modern capitalist marketplace, we've moved to a postmodern, postcapitalist bazaar where money is increasingly optional."
Happy Friday!
posted by Grael Norton on 1/23/2009
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2 Comments:
"it greases the skids of literary production to the point of frictionlessness"
When you try to walk on wet glare ice, there's virtually no friction - and you end up bruising your bottom.
With great opportunity comes great danger. Things are going to work out well for the writer who's also a great marketer - but that person has never fared badly.
Many writers have difficulty remaining organized enough to get their writing done. If they must handle all the details of fulfilling orders, they're going to be in even taller weeds.
No point in complaining about the weather, I suppose - but this change is not altogether good.
There are a whole lot of self-publishing options out there, though. If you're a total do-it-yourselfer, reveling in your ability to buy your ISBN, design your own cover, fulfill your own orders, etc., then you can do that. If you want to hire someone to take care of all of those details, allowing you to just concentrate on the writing, you can do that too.
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