Changing The Face of Publishing
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 31st, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Recently I attended a writer’s conference where nearly 300 hopeful authors paid close to a $400 entry fee for the opportunity to meet a few dozen agents and editors. Many traveled hundreds of miles, stayed in an expensive hotel, paid extra for CD’s of workshops presented simultaneously to the ones they attended on their own, all for the chance at three-minute pitches to agents and editors from around the country. There has to be a better way.
This is the way the business of publishing works; agents and editors-in-chief of publishers large and small direct their staff to attend the biggest conferences in hopes of discovering three things:
- A writer considered a diamond in the rough,
- An idea for what their competitors are looking for and publishing, and
- The pulse of America, trends that New Yorkers may have missed.
Aspiring authors as well as agents and publishers spend thousands of dollars in travel not to mention time away from family on weekends hoping for a competitive advantage.
Considering the fact that most Independent Authors pursue the chance to become published by a major New York based company wouldn’t it make sense for those Independent Writers to market themselves and their writing through an interactive platform; a destination point? Imagine a community of Independent Writers from around the world where agents and editors could shop from their offices for that diamond in the rough? Imagine one website where Independent Writers from around the globe formed a destination point for readers to buy their books? One location where agents, editors, and readers could find an Independent Writer, read their work, and interact.
It’s not only possible, it’s available, something so revolutionary it may change the face of publishing. Check out www.NothingBinding.com.
Community of Independent Authors
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 24th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
As much as we all try to find new ways to sell books, there are still only three basic methods.
- Traditional market which would include bookstores, mass merchants, and retailers that market and sell books.
- Through the use of technology via the Internet.
- Individual sales initiated through your own marketing efforts; usually one book at a time, a result of your own hard work.
The major publishers dominate and control the traditional marketplace. This system is well established and inflexible to participation by most authors outside the system.
The Internet offers one major website and plenty of secondary sites designed to sell books. Most are part of the “pay-for-play” program of charging for placement on their site or take a huge piece of each book sale. This makes them hardly accessible or affordable to the Independent Author.
Most Independent Authors sell books by the individual sales that can be generated by their own hard work. This is where they find the most success through sales initiated by their own marketing efforts selling books from one person to the next.
The Independent Author market is highly fractured and no one is focused on selling books and marketing authors or ideas. Most websites sell products or services designed to “assist” the Independent Author with entry into the traditional marketplace. In order to attract consumers from the traditional market it will require a combination of individual sales through the use of Internet technology by way of an Independent Author community.
What this means is that the power of a combined community of Independent Authors selling books through the use of technology where the focus is on the book and author or idea, will redirect a certain percentage of consumers that otherwise would not have considered the book written by an Independent Author.
Independent Authors need to make buying their book convenient for consumers. The best way to do this is through the formation of a community.
Former New York Publishing Executive Takes a Stand Against the Exploitation of Writers and Authors
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 16th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TEMPE, AZ–Former New York Publishing Executive Jerry D. Simmons announced today that he is shocked and angered by the unscrupulous tactics of so-called industry experts in the exploitation of Independent Authors and has decided to take a stand to assist those writers with accurate and reliable information.
Mr. Simmons has launched an Informational Website whose goal is to provide free information about the publishing business to writers and authors before they spend thousands of dollars and waste valuable time trying to research and find the best method of publishing, marketing and selling their independently published books.
“It’s incredible to me that so many opportunists are selling bogus information, services, and products to writers under the pretense that it will help them sell books,” explained Mr. Simmons. “Unsuspecting writers are being taken advantage of in alarming numbers simply because they do not have a reliable resource to turn to for information about the business of publishing. It is my goal to supply that information,” he said in his announcement.
Jerry D. Simmons has spent almost 30 years in the publishing business, 25 with two of the biggest publishers in the world, Random House and the former Time Warner Book Group. He retired in 2003 as Vice-President Director Field Sales, to write, lecture and assist writers in their quest at getting their manuscript published, successfully. He can be reached by email at Jerry@WritersReaders.com and his website is www.WritersReaders.com.
Authors Leaving Big Publishers
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 16th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
There was a December 16, 2006 article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Hot New Advance” $0″ written by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg. I bring this to your attention to illustrate not only how most authors are clueless about the marketplace for selling books, but also how many journalists lack a basic understanding of the business.
The crux of the article was that some former bestselling authors have switched publishers, from the big to the small imprints for a reason: “To embrace new ways of finding readers.” By forgoing the advance, these authors “Have been promised that their latest works will be promoted more substantially to readers in stores, online and in the newspapers.” They also “Receive a higher-than-normal royalty rate and have a bigger say in how and where their books are marketed.”
One author turned down a six-figure advance from his New York publishing house to join a small company who promised to rekindle his career. The author, David Morrell said “Traditional publishing functions as an assembly line.” The article states that big publishers are often forced to concentrate on each season’s biggest bets and do not have the time or inclination to spend marketing dollars on the mid-list titles.
Dennis Loy Johnson, publisher of Melville House who landed one of the authors states “Avoiding the upfront advances, (means his company) can spend more money promoting its books, and thereby increase sales for its authors.” Author Eileen Goudge says “I have sympathy for the bigger houses; they have bosses who are focused on the bottom line, and they publish lots of books. I wanted a more aggressive marketing approach.”
All great points, but they miss the most important aspect about publishing. Read in my next installment, entitled “What Authors Are Missing.”
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
What Authors Are Missing
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 16th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
In my previous blog I highlighted a Wall Street Journal article about why some big name authors are leaving their major publishers for the greener pastures of smaller imprints. (Click here to read). Several good points were made in the Journal article with one big exception: Regardless of who publishes your book, big or small company, the fact remains that the marketplace for selling books, the booksellers themselves, have sales history that determines how many copies to purchase for their stores. They will not buy a book by an author who has a poor sales history simply because some small publisher decided to focus their marketing on the new book. When an author turns down a six-figure advance for $0 with promises of a rekindled career, this tells me they needed some education on how the business of publishing really works.
Certainly the bigger New York publishers spend money on the top titles and concentrate their efforts on those books that generate the highest revenues for the company. In turn, if an author was once high upon the seasonal list of titles in a top position and found him or herself slowly dropping down in priority, the only reason is lack of sales. This means fewer net copies were being sold with each successive title. That has little to do with the amount of marketing, promotion, or support simply because when successive titles by an author drops in sales the marketing expenditures typically increases for one or two books before that author is relegated to a lower position on the list. This fact holds true for authors who have several published books and a proven track record of sales.
There is nothing wrong with switching publishers but please understand, both large and small publishers drink from the same well. They sell to the same booksellers and sales history speaks the loudest, regardless of how concentrated and focused the marketing effort. It boils down to which author sells more books, no matter who publishes them. It pays to be informed about the facts of the business before you make a career change.
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
New Year
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 10th, 2007 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
After a lengthy holiday vacation to recharge the batteries, I couldn’t help but contemplate the challenges and opportunites that lie ahead for writers and authors. When I started my newsletter and website, speaking to writing groups and working with authors, I felt that my audience would be writers under contract with the big New York based publishers. Instead, the vast majority of all that I work, correspond and consult with are authors whose books have been self-published.
The term self-published is descriptive but in many cases derogatory in nature because of the stigma the biggest publishers and national booksellers in the country have attached to the term. I prefer Independent Authors as more representative of the determination to succeed despite the barriers imposed by the old-school traditional world of publishing. The problem with most Independent Authors is that their product, the book(s), are largely unedited. The former Editor-In-Chief for Writer’s Digest magazine, Melanie Rigney, says that only about 20% of all self-published books on the market are editorially correct and could be considered equal in story and content to most mid-list books published by the big New York companies.
If you are an Independent Author or considering becoming one, please invest in a good editor, both for content and copy. If you are debating whether to spend money on marketing or editing, please make the editing decision. All the marketing money in the world may not overcome a bad product, and the marketplace will consider any book that has little or no editing, bad product. Independent Authors can only begin to make strides in sales and legitimacy when their product is editorially sound.
This blog is unedited, please disregard mistakes in spelling and grammar.
