The whole pre-order thing has always baffled me. Human beings are really, really bad at delayed gratification, so why are publishers building entire decision-making structures around something we're so incredibly bad at? For the average reader and the average book, there's no benefit at all to pre-ordering. Why would I spend money now on something I'm not going to get for months?
The situation with social media is only going to get worse. The major platforms have been throttling any post that includes an external link for a few years now, so even if there weren't a huge amount of noise to cut through, authors would still be reaching fewer people than they used to. The abdication of responsibility for marketing might have worked for publishers for a while, but it's going to come back to bite them on the arse as more authors find it nigh on impossible to get traction in a fractured social media landscape that is, in many cases, on fire. There's going to have to be a rethink.
This is so wise and refreshing. I'm very interested to see how things shake out, and what the next "it" method is going to be for authors trying to build a platform.
I just did a post reflecting on my past decade in publishing, and one of my points touched on how things that used to work just aren't working anymore. Preorder pushes/preorder campaigns was one of my examples. They just don't pay off like they used to (so much competing online noise) and I feel like we authors are shouting "preorder my book" into an void.
I don't know what the solution is, but I appreciate this post.
Good points here! Times are tough, really tough. The publishing industry is falling apart, and most authors don't make enough to actually live without another job or a supportive spouse (although this has always been true to a great extent). And now, due to the television writers strike, I know how bad the income prospects for professional television writers are (I had no idea until a few days ago how dire it is!).
I think the death spiral started when publishers decided to expect authors to do marketing and pulled their marketing budgets for all but the biggest names (but maybe it started before that?) I mean, the writer's job is to write, isn't it? One of the key indicators of a dying business is when the boss comes in and says, "So, Sara, you're now responsible for this other thing that wasn't your job before, and you won't get paid extra. Also, start bringing your own toilet paper to the office." -- I think that's where we're at, and the result is that the long-tail of unsuccessful books/authors has seen a huge shift in the wrong direction.
As a self-published author, the situation is exactly the same. I don't have time to be my own marketer, and I can't replicate the random virality of the few indie authors who sold thousands/millions of copies. So I've decided to spend the maximum free time doing what I really want to do -- just write the words that I want to write, and send them out to the world, regardless of whether my audience is 1 or 1 million.
Interesting article. Have a question: I hear that authors get 7.5% of the retail cover price for their books, and various things are charged against it. Is that true?
InDesign is really more program than most self-published writers need, unless you already possess the program and have had training to use it. If you're doing complex layout and formatting, then yes, InDesign or QuarkExpress is what you need. But I'd dare say that about 90% or more of self-published writers can get away with the basic templates in Vellum, or the free options through Reedsy or Draft2Digital.
Editing is the big challenge. I have a network of hybrid (trad and indie) writer friends with whom I swap reads and edits. Most of them also have editorial experience, as do I (besides my own word-of-mouth editing business, I spent a couple of years as a volunteer proofreader for a respected SFF indie press). Additionally, I used to teach middle school special education with an emphasis on remedial writing. That included grammar, along with a dose of basic sentence diagramming.
I've found that changing programs allows me to spot typos and problems--I draft a chapter in Word, paste it into Scrivener and review it, then export the whole document back into Word before a final review in Vellum. It's surprising how many errors you can spot.
That said, I am not a fan of grammar software. Besides the many, many errors in programs such as Word (amongst others, do not get me started on Word's insistence that "free reign" is correct when it isn't--it's "free rein"), grammar software also tends to homogenize a writer's fiction voice.
The whole pre-order thing has always baffled me. Human beings are really, really bad at delayed gratification, so why are publishers building entire decision-making structures around something we're so incredibly bad at? For the average reader and the average book, there's no benefit at all to pre-ordering. Why would I spend money now on something I'm not going to get for months?
The situation with social media is only going to get worse. The major platforms have been throttling any post that includes an external link for a few years now, so even if there weren't a huge amount of noise to cut through, authors would still be reaching fewer people than they used to. The abdication of responsibility for marketing might have worked for publishers for a while, but it's going to come back to bite them on the arse as more authors find it nigh on impossible to get traction in a fractured social media landscape that is, in many cases, on fire. There's going to have to be a rethink.
This is so wise and refreshing. I'm very interested to see how things shake out, and what the next "it" method is going to be for authors trying to build a platform.
I just did a post reflecting on my past decade in publishing, and one of my points touched on how things that used to work just aren't working anymore. Preorder pushes/preorder campaigns was one of my examples. They just don't pay off like they used to (so much competing online noise) and I feel like we authors are shouting "preorder my book" into an void.
I don't know what the solution is, but I appreciate this post.
Good points here! Times are tough, really tough. The publishing industry is falling apart, and most authors don't make enough to actually live without another job or a supportive spouse (although this has always been true to a great extent). And now, due to the television writers strike, I know how bad the income prospects for professional television writers are (I had no idea until a few days ago how dire it is!).
I think the death spiral started when publishers decided to expect authors to do marketing and pulled their marketing budgets for all but the biggest names (but maybe it started before that?) I mean, the writer's job is to write, isn't it? One of the key indicators of a dying business is when the boss comes in and says, "So, Sara, you're now responsible for this other thing that wasn't your job before, and you won't get paid extra. Also, start bringing your own toilet paper to the office." -- I think that's where we're at, and the result is that the long-tail of unsuccessful books/authors has seen a huge shift in the wrong direction.
As a self-published author, the situation is exactly the same. I don't have time to be my own marketer, and I can't replicate the random virality of the few indie authors who sold thousands/millions of copies. So I've decided to spend the maximum free time doing what I really want to do -- just write the words that I want to write, and send them out to the world, regardless of whether my audience is 1 or 1 million.
-Rick :-)
THANK YOU. Honestly, thank you so much for saying all this.
I want to say more, but...I don't know if I can really explain how it feels to see someone like you acknowledge all of this.
Fantastic article My friend and I were just discussing the issue you mentioned. He said he was investing in more advertising.
Another great post
Interesting article. Have a question: I hear that authors get 7.5% of the retail cover price for their books, and various things are charged against it. Is that true?
InDesign is really more program than most self-published writers need, unless you already possess the program and have had training to use it. If you're doing complex layout and formatting, then yes, InDesign or QuarkExpress is what you need. But I'd dare say that about 90% or more of self-published writers can get away with the basic templates in Vellum, or the free options through Reedsy or Draft2Digital.
Editing is the big challenge. I have a network of hybrid (trad and indie) writer friends with whom I swap reads and edits. Most of them also have editorial experience, as do I (besides my own word-of-mouth editing business, I spent a couple of years as a volunteer proofreader for a respected SFF indie press). Additionally, I used to teach middle school special education with an emphasis on remedial writing. That included grammar, along with a dose of basic sentence diagramming.
I've found that changing programs allows me to spot typos and problems--I draft a chapter in Word, paste it into Scrivener and review it, then export the whole document back into Word before a final review in Vellum. It's surprising how many errors you can spot.
That said, I am not a fan of grammar software. Besides the many, many errors in programs such as Word (amongst others, do not get me started on Word's insistence that "free reign" is correct when it isn't--it's "free rein"), grammar software also tends to homogenize a writer's fiction voice.