Comments on: Publishing Wish #4: Old Rules, New World

By: Lucy

Lucy — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:05:09 +0000

Janet, if I understand the complaints with Harlequin and Thomas Nelson correctly (particularly with Harlequin), it’s less of an issue that they’ve started self-publishing or vanity-publishing divisions, and more of an issue that they are attempting to attract authors to those divisions through advertising and language that is controversial if not actually misleading.

I’ve been following the articles on the subject posted by Writer Beware, and you can perhaps imagine the conflict of interest created by a publisher who allows a rejected author to think that paying for publication, no matter how poor or unsalable the manuscript may be, could ultimately lead an editor to take a second look at it.

I’m sure there are plenty of folks out there who will say, “Buyer beware,” but it’s my opinion that there are already too many writers falling into the vanity publishing trap without understanding the realities of pay-to-publish. When a publisher with a name and an established reputation begins to steer rejected writers into its own vanity publishing arm, and glossing over the unfavorable facts while it does so, writers’ advocacy organizations have plenty of reason to complain.

You can go to Writer Beware at http://accrispin.blogspot.com, and look up the November 2009 archives for some interesting takes on the discussion.

Thanks for running such an interesting and informative blog!

Lucy

By: Eva Ulian

Eva Ulian — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:42:41 +0000

Brave article Janet.

By: Janet Ann Collins

Janet Ann Collins — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:19:08 +0000

I’m frustrated because so many people in the industry assume all POD books are self-published. Mine are with a royalty-paying small press but Barnes and Noble refuses to stock any books from a company that does POD. They need to realize this is the 21st century.

By: She Reads

She Reads — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:07:10 +0000

To the best of our knowledge (which is limited, granted) She Reads is the only place that gathers actual readers on a large scale. Part of why it works, and why we’ve had such early success (an average of 10,000 readers – not writers – a month) is that we focus solely on the reader. Without readers there is no publishing industry, after all.

Because we tap into book clubs (historically a very elusive market) we are able to quickly spread the word about great Christian novels. And we have found that many of the women visiting our site are sampling Christian fiction for the first time.

Great novels deserve great promotion and we exist to connect readers with those books – and the people who write them.

It will be interesting to see how a large community of readers will shape the publishing industry in the years to come.

By: Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:50:38 +0000

Just checked out the FW site, and it reminds me a little of the concept behind iPods and Pandora in that they group like things together so that someone who finds something to their liking can easily explore new artists who may be similar. Brilliant!

By: janetgrant

janetgrant — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:03:50 +0000

In terms of where-do-we-go-from here, I’ve been following an innovative company called F+W Media. You can visit their website here: http://www.fwmedia.com.
F+W understands that, in the 21st century, companies (and authors) need to think vertically rather than horizontally.
What do I mean by that? We need to build our communities based on interest rather than trying to build community based on variety or breadth. So, if you write about the World War II, whether in fiction or nonfiction, you need to find World War II buffs, not try to grab readers who just enjoy a good book. Building a community of World War II aficionados is part of building your brand.
For publishing houses, historically, they’ve operated horizontally–trying to reach as broad an audience as possible for every title published. They need to learn a new way to find audiences for each book, and that’s by thinking vertically.
F+W is all about vertical publishing. It offers books and magazines that the same reader might find of interest, and it decided to be what it calls “format agnostic.” In other words, it doesn’t show preference for format or for how the content is delivered–ebook, physical book, magazine are viewed as equals. And it chose to revamp itself not gradually but all at once late in 2008, based on the belief that the future was all about thinking vertically. This company went for broke–quite literally.
By early December 2009, the company reported an annual increase of up to 140% in its 20 e-stores. Its gamble appears to be paying off.
For the rest of us, F+W is the canary in the coal mine. As we watch how it innovates, we can become imitators and decide how to translate what works for it into what could work on an individual basis.
As Steve suggested, doesn’t it make sense for authors to band together? Yes! Combine forces and become a greater sum than your individual parts.
The blog, Novel Matters, was the brain child of Wendy and me. Between the two of us, we represented several authors who wrote upmarket fiction (good book club reads). So we asked the writers if they’d like to band together to create a blog and thereby pull each of their readers together and create synergy. It’s a 21st-century kind of idea, and it’s working beautifully. And now SheReads (a sort of online book club) and Novel Matters have created a partnership, which strengthens both entities.
I’m not aware of much that draws readers together online beyond She Reads and Novel Matters. Maybe some of you do and can point the rest of us in that direction. Or maybe that’s a way to contribute to the publishing community–why don’t you find a way to bring readers together?
Too many authors write blogs that appeal to other writers. Hey, we’re already a community! What we need to do is create community for readers.
Thanks for all of your thoughts. Let’s keep tossing ideas out to each other and dare to be canaries in our own right.

By: Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:13:02 +0000

I think a lot of us who write are “all ears” when it comes to learning about marketing. Writers write. Editors edit. Publishers publish. Marketers market. When writers must learn to self-edit and self-market, they do begin to wonder about self-publishing. In a way, the 21st century requires a new type of “Renaissance man.”

By: janetgrant

janetgrant — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:49:51 +0000

Ohmygosh, you all think I have the answer! That’s scary. Actually, I do have some thoughts; none is THE answer, but I can see clearly enough the beginnings of a path to follow.
First, to the question about ACFW reviewing its policy about self-published books receiving awards. Well, why not? I remember several years ago, the top fiction prize in Christian publishing went to a self-published book in one of the categories. If the book was good enough to win an award, why should it be eliminated from the get-go because it was self-published? The truth of the matter is that most self-published books weren’t of a high enough quality to find a royalty-paying publisher; so opening up awards to having to review the huge influx of inferior entries is off-putting. So I can understand holding onto the rule that the book must be produced by a royalty-paying publisher (for now anyway), but why not keep those awards open to authors who publish with a royalty paying division of a publishers who also has a self-publishing wing?
To keep my comments shorter and segmented, I’ll send another comment that responds to the question about what we should be doing in the brave new 21st world.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:14:59 +0000

Great post. I don’t know all the old rules, but you got me thinking… A big part of that new world is the web.It is still guesses as to what “online” really means for publishing and authors, but I expect time is the one element to see who makes the best choices. It takes some time to get established, to get a following, to get to the “tipping point”.

I see a lot of writers (both pre-pubbed and post-pubbed) gathering together online, but I am still looking for where the readers are congregating (it is hard to find a readers blog with more than 100 followers). I expect there are grass root organizations (like http://www.SheReads.org) that will be harbours for readers, to which the writers and publishers will be docking their ships. Maybe writers need to get a few readers around them to develop strategies and places to connect to them. The authors do their own websites and Facebook pages, etc, but that still means the reader has to put the effort in to finding you. I am told that does not work in churches any more (the “attractional model”). Authors are like anglers. They do their best to get an attractive bait, and then they troll around looking for the school of fish; except it is a happier ending for the fish (readers) in the new scenario.

What about YA readers? They are becoming full fledged adults in a couple of years. Are publishers getting their brand in there so they are recognizable when they “graduate” to adult novels? Maybe authors do a YA novel or two (to get their branding in), or at least make their novels readable for the next generation of writers coming up?

Who are the marketing “guru’s” that are cutting edge? What are they doing? I hear a lot about branding, but maybe we need to marry that with other ideas. Why not marry marketing and web design and video production with a graphic artist? One person can organize a website/book trailer/print media/one sheet package and then get the connections for promotion. That is a growth industry, especially since the publishers are dropping that. A good one stop shop for authors and publishers has to be out there. Maybe if people start regionally and expand from there, like SouthWest Airlines. Maybe the current guys doing this are so expensive that there is room for younger “upstarts” to come in and shake things up a bit with newer sensibilities.

If authors are doing the lion’s share of promoting now, they need to be getting together, forming their own marketing community/company that leverages many minds with the common task. Authors banding together to create a “group” brand sounds like 21C to me. The http://www.NovelMatters.blogspot.com ladies seem to have the potential to do that, as an example.

If I was 20 something, I know what I would be pursuing as a career! Are some of these things happening or am I way off base to what could be happening?

By: Teri Dawn Smith

Teri Dawn Smith — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:38:58 +0000

You always make us think!

Do you recommend that organizations such as ACFW take a look at their stand on self-publishing?