Reading this gave me such relief! The whole "authors must be influencers" narrative has been haunting me while writing my first book. But you're right - it's not about social media numbers, it's about creating something worth reading. Thank you for restoring my faith in the craft itself 🌱
I just read this article.... I loved your insights here!!!! Now I'm super curious about all of your secrets.... Do let us know if and when someone pays you to release them to the public 😄
You say too many books are published and the market is saturated. In other contexts, I've heard you discuss your time as an agent when you felt like really good books that normally would've gotten published, weren't. Is the problem what's getting published to oversaturate the market?
> Book publishing has no scarcity, and scarcity is what sells. I have one big idea to help solve this, but…that is my secret sauce.
Can you expand here on what you mean by "scarcity" sells? I'm thinking analogously to something like limited edition vinyl pressings in the recording industry. Is that the kind of scarcity you are referring to?
It is marketing 101 in consumer behavior. If people think something is selling out, they will jump on it. We have seen this with brands who do "drops": a limited qty of a collection that is not available once it sells out. Or is it? It is all in the marketing. In book publishing, there is no urgency to buy most books bc we know they'll always be available.
I couldn't get further in that article than the "only five books" claim when it popped up in my feed. I thought, what you're saying is, there are five spots open to new authors! Wow! Great! I'm a glass half full kind of person. The journalist is clearly a pessimist.
Thank you for all of this, but this in particular: We live in a society where preorders are impossible because consumers want what they want when they want it. Preorder campaigns rarely equate to meaningful sales. Let’s stop torturing authors with this task. Low preorders aren’t a precursor for bad sales.
Congrats on reaching 10K subscribers! I think that speaks to how opaque the rest of the publishing industry is and how we so need this honest take on how it all really works.
Reading this gave me such relief! The whole "authors must be influencers" narrative has been haunting me while writing my first book. But you're right - it's not about social media numbers, it's about creating something worth reading. Thank you for restoring my faith in the craft itself 🌱
I just read this article.... I loved your insights here!!!! Now I'm super curious about all of your secrets.... Do let us know if and when someone pays you to release them to the public 😄
You say too many books are published and the market is saturated. In other contexts, I've heard you discuss your time as an agent when you felt like really good books that normally would've gotten published, weren't. Is the problem what's getting published to oversaturate the market?
Yes, it is. A quick look around Barnes & Noble will make your eyes hurt because the covers are so similar that they bleed into each other.
Hi!
> Book publishing has no scarcity, and scarcity is what sells. I have one big idea to help solve this, but…that is my secret sauce.
Can you expand here on what you mean by "scarcity" sells? I'm thinking analogously to something like limited edition vinyl pressings in the recording industry. Is that the kind of scarcity you are referring to?
It is marketing 101 in consumer behavior. If people think something is selling out, they will jump on it. We have seen this with brands who do "drops": a limited qty of a collection that is not available once it sells out. Or is it? It is all in the marketing. In book publishing, there is no urgency to buy most books bc we know they'll always be available.
Excellent as always. Thanks for your always-thorough takes, Kathleen. Sound and helpful info for authors.
Terrific piece. Smart, real and insightful. Thank you for writing!
I couldn't get further in that article than the "only five books" claim when it popped up in my feed. I thought, what you're saying is, there are five spots open to new authors! Wow! Great! I'm a glass half full kind of person. The journalist is clearly a pessimist.
Great piece and thanks for mentioning A Mighty Blaze! (I have a show called The Thoughtful Bro on AMB).
So many nuggets of wisdom and clarity here. Thank you!
Best article I've read so far on the subject. A lot of food for thought for me as a debut author.
Thanks so much.
Thank you for all of this, but this in particular: We live in a society where preorders are impossible because consumers want what they want when they want it. Preorder campaigns rarely equate to meaningful sales. Let’s stop torturing authors with this task. Low preorders aren’t a precursor for bad sales.
Congrats on reaching 10K subscribers! I think that speaks to how opaque the rest of the publishing industry is and how we so need this honest take on how it all really works.
Thank you :)
Thank you for this! Most of the news on publishing is so bleak - great to see a proper take.
Thank you!
I would love to hear more about your preorder opinion in future issue! 😊
It’s the worst way to take the temperature of a book. I’ll write about it more.
Thank you for this helpful information!
This is so funny because I literally read the article this morning & found it extremely disheartening!
Thanks for the clarification!