Trust in Publishing
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 17th, 2012 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
When consumers make a book purchase they are placing their trust in the hands of the author and not the publisher. Most independent bookstores over the years have refused placement of independently published books because they feared the quality of the writing would be less than acceptable, and this reflects negatively on them. Certainly this is not true of all such books but the perception overall is negative. The only way to overcome this is to improve the minimum standards of all independently published titles.
Many large publishing companies have been guilty of marketing bad books but overall the writing quality is much better than the average independently published title. To restore consumers trust in independent authors they need to improve the editing of their work and begin the process of raising the standard in the industry. Good independent books exist but are rarely discovered simply because the marketplace has developed an overall negative market perception.
The author is the brand, never the publisher. Consumers who purchase your book(s) are customers. Bad writing reflects on the author, not the publisher, and will forever be linked to that person. It is time for writers to accept responsibility for the work they produce and focus on the quality of their writing. The reading public deserves the ability to trust that the books being published are well written, well edited, quality titles. Any published book is in essence a recommendation of that author and the consumer should be able to trust the quality of the writing in every published title.
Shrinking Marketplace
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 30th, 2011 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Turn the clock back to January 1981 and imagine you are living in a comfortable 4000 square foot home, fully furnished in an ideal location. Fast forward twenty years to January 2001 and the shock when you discover that your beautiful home has shrunk to 3000 square feet. This drastic 25 percent reduction happened right under your nose while you weren’t paying attention. Fast forward again, this time ten more years to January 2011 and a new shocker, your home is now only 2000 square feet. Another huge reduction in size of 33 percent while utilities, taxes and insurance never changed, you’re still paying to support a 4000 square foot home. You’ve shed some furniture but overall you have less living space with the same costs.
Obviously houses don’t shrink but markets do and this analogy is how you could describe the book publishing industry. The marketplace that was once capable of launching a new bestseller with 2.5 million copies out the door is now stretching to make 1.2 million copies. The sale of print copies is in decline as publishers are selling fewer and fewer books each and every year. This is a trend that started in the early 1990’s and continues to this day. As the market shrinks there are fewer retail locations and even fewer shelves to place titles and so cover prices have to rise to at least attempt to keep up with eroding revenues. It is a bad scenario.
Small Changes
Now that publishers recognize the enormity of their dilemma they are making costly adjustments. Shedding people in small groups is one way the business is adjusting, they do this in a way to avoid the media attention and alarm their authors. Most of the big publishing houses have been systematically eliminating jobs a few at a time. As a result there are tons of people still employed doing the work of three or more only a few short years ago. Everyone’s plate has gotten bigger so less gets done and even less gets attention. This impacts the authors and their books while placing more emphasis on the writers to help market and support their own titles.
If you wonder why it is so difficult to get an agents attention and land a contract one simple reason is a much smaller market. Publishers are much more selective because on average, in the good old days, only seven out of every ten titles published made the company money. With that kind of track record in good times the selection has gotten much more stringent in bad times. Publishers are publishing fewer titles than ever before and selling even fewer copies at only slightly higher prices. This is a formula for serious erosion because the industry cannot continue on their current path.
Market Opportunity
Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007 just in time to give the book publishers hope. But of course Amazon was difficult to deal with and it became their way or no way and so publishers agreed to allow them to sell eBooks below a fair market price while seeding the market for the future. The publishers were making their profit margins and Amazon was losing money on each eBook sold but made up for it in the sale of the Kindle. It was Amazon’s way and the suppliers of eBooks stood along the sideline and watched.
As the eBook market began to grow, at least according to Amazon’s self promotion, publishers began to see the public pay attention and sales were small but growth was being seen for the first time in many years. This alone was enough to make a few individuals in New York wonder about the possibilities. But as with all major book publishers they reverted back to their old selves and tried frantically to fix the print book sale problem, to no avail. Resources and bodies were devoted to print and not the future potential of digital.
Apple to the Rescue
Apple changed the game when they launched the iPad whose possibilities went far beyond the simple reading of text on a tablet. Suddenly sales of eBooks went from less than one percent of a book publisher’s revenue to more than ten percent in a single year, something they had not seen in decades. Now more resources and bodies are being applied to what may well be the savior of the book publishing business, the electronic book or eBook.
Even though overall the percentage of eBook sales as a revenue source for book publishers is small, the growth and potential is astronomical. Technology is also playing a major role in the publishing business with apps for iPhones, new ways of embedding video and audio into eBooks and of course the introduction of more than a dozen new tablet reading devices at the recent electronic show in Las Vegas.
The Author
What this means for writers and authors is that the market for your content is not on life support. Your manuscript has value to the consumer but you have to think beyond the printed book. Publishing is as business, the business of producing content. Not necessarily the printed book. My generation, the baby boomers, were raised on print. My entire career in New York was devoted to print books but the market is changing dramatically and you need to be open to new ways of sharing your writing.
When considering publishing as an investment, the cost of producing a single quality print book far outweighs that of the eBook. Certainly the eBook market is much smaller but growing faster than anything publishing has seen in many, many years. As the big publishers invest more in the digital market and more reading devices are launched at lower prices the market will only continue to grow at double digit rates. You need to be available to that market.
Setting a Price on Your Writing
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 30th, 2011 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
All authors value their writing at prices that often exceed the market, its natural. But the truth is that awareness of pricing and how it impacts your sales is crucial to selling copies. As supply of eBook grows the pressure to lower prices will be enormous. At the moment the market is at a sustainable level of available titles but with more coming online the price barriers to competition and acceptance will drop.
The single biggest opportunity for the independent author in 2011 is eBook at a price below what the major companies can afford to offer. Packaged properly and priced to sell, you have as much opportunity as anyone to create an audience for your writing. It is still critical that you market heavily and continue for as long as possible but starting the momentum is much more difficult than maintaining.
Why Books Do Not Sell
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 17th, 2010 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
When you ask any experienced publisher why a new title by an unknown author was unsuccessful in the market they can give you plenty of reasons but ask why a similar title was successful and the answers are few and far between. The truth is that publishers rarely know why a new title is successful, certainly there are always components that work but timing plays a role and no one can accurately predict when the time is right to publish.
Most titles are unsuccessful for a handful of reasons—overpriced, bad market timing, unidentifiable package, poorly written, poorly edited and lack of appropriate marketing are the most common reasons. For the independent author is could be all of the above plus the method in which the title was produced and published. The marketplace for book sales is a tough one and one misstep can result in bad or nonexistent sales.
Under the very best of circumstance book sales are unpredictable, combine that with a print-on-demand production process with a combination of bad decisions and the result is highly predictable. Failure to market is the single biggest reason why books fail to sell copies. Marketing a book is a difficult process and the only way to maximize the opportunities for any title is to work with a professional.
Self-marketing without consulting an expert is tantamount to sailing around the world without experience in a boat. You won’t lose your life with a bad book but you can certainly put a hit on your wallet and sacrifice hours treading water. The price of a consult is much less expensive than any product or service you can buy. Starting with a basic consult will save money as well as time.
Content is all that Matters
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 16th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
The day you sign that first publishing contract recognize that your publisher is not in love with you, but your writing. The content you create on a consistent basis that keeps readers turning pages is all that matters. You can do that from an island paradise or your basement office, at the south Pacific or Toledo, it’s all irrelevant. Content drives the bus, you are a back seat passenger, and your writing creates the revenue stream.
Once you complete that first manuscript and move on to the next step in the publishing process do not waste all of your time marketing and promoting your first work, begin writing your second and third. Once the first is off the computer and into the hands of professionals handling your publication the sooner you will need a follow-up. New writers without a few manuscript ideas ready to complete, submit and publish are seen as authors with less than stellar value. The more you have in the pipeline to publish the better.
The business of publishing centers around books to be published, if computers could write bestsellers you better believe these big companies would be the first in line to sign them up. The author is secondary, your book comes first. You are a commodity and as long as you can submit consistent, predictable writing that has the potential to sell in incrementally greater numbers year after year the greater your value. Writers that can achieve that are the gold standard, they are the ones you never hear about but who earn a substantial living as an author.
Writing Comes First
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 15th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Many times first time writers approach me with questions about marketing, publishing and even distribution before their manuscript is complete. There is nothing wrong with asking the questions but the answers would be for purposes of educating them about the business and not taking direct immediate action. Preparation is important, learning more about the marketplace and business of publishing is highly recommended but the writing always comes first.
Once the writing is complete and editing in progress, that would be the time to have a preliminary discussion about the next step. Once the revising and rewriting is complete and the manuscript is ready to go, then is the time to launch into the next phase. However that next phase is dependent on the personal goals for the writer and whether or not the manuscript is strong enough to meet those goals.
Final marketing, publishing and distribution decisions are highly dependent on the strength of the writing, genre and current market conditions. It might mean writing the query letter and shopping to agents or making independent publishing decisions. However none of that should happen before the manuscript is complete, done, over and finished. I’m all for getting an early start but not too early, the writing comes first.
Creating Author Value
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 12th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Writers produce value in three ways: first, they create marketable content that moves the reader from page to page; second they have an ability to generate publicity through their platform namely their personality, background and writing; third they are able to deliver a product that sells consistently and predictably over the course of several years. The rest is fluff!
Writers value their work and that is understandable but at some point reality needs to set in and they must understand they are producing a product to be marketed and sold. That product has value, the writer is a commodity. There are tons of writers that can produce valued content however the market is only so big. It can accommodate only so many books. There is not an unlimited market for quality content.
As the business transitions the model under which publishers can work will change. There is little time now to nurture authors who need their hand held through the tough times. Resources are limited and the new publishing model will require authors to have a basic understanding of the market. There will be no more hand holding or nurturing through poor sales. Start now, learn the market, and get smart about your business or else you will be destined to become a former author.
Ownership, Rights & Control
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 10th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
When you sign that publishing contract be aware, you lose ownership, rights and control of that content. You will always be the author and maintain the copyright but ownership of your writing has transferred to your publisher who is paying you for those rights. When an editor asks for editorial changes you are under a legal obligation to rewrite, revise and make any and all requested changes and deliver on time.
Writers should not marry themselves to a title and never specifically categorize their manuscript. Leave this to the experts, either your agent or publisher. Broad categorizations are fine but unless you can provide specific examples of how your writing fits a particular sub-genre then I would avoid at all costs. Your publisher may very well want to change the title, category or ending as they see fit to maximize the potential sale based on current market conditions at the time of publication.
Publishing is a business and should be approached as such. The more savvy the writers the better opportunity they have of being successful. The business is extremely competitive and writers need every advantage they can get to separate themselves from the competition including authors published under the same imprint. Knowledge is key, understand the business before you sign that contract.
90/10 Rule
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 9th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
The fact that publishing is a business with limited time and resources considering the thousands of titles produced each year gives rise to what is called the 90/10 rule. This states that approximately 90 percent of a publishers revenue is generated from approximately 10 percent of the titles published. If you are an author whose book falls within that 10 percent range then consider yourself fortunate. Books with low expectations that are published to fill a hole in the seasonal list are part of the 90 percent generating less than 10 percent of the revenue. If this is where your book falls then you have an issue you must deal with.
Books with low expectations are not the problem, the real trouble starts when your publisher is deciding how to market and sell your book. If as an author you do not understand the nature of the issue then you have a real problem. This means your publisher will never spend time or money marketing you and your book which hinders your ability to have a high sell-through also referred to as percentage of sale. Titles with low expectations but a high sell-through will survive to see another day.
If your book falls outside of the 10 percent range and you are one of the 90 percent of authors whose books generate approximately 10 percent of the revenues, this only means you have to be much more proactive and understand what goes on behind the scenes and how you can impact the decisions made about your book. Being outside the 90/10 range is not important, it is about your sell-through or percentage of sale that matters and the higher the better.
Percentage of Sale
By Jerry D. Simmons | November 8th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Many authors think that having a large print order for their published book is important, this in effect hopefully means a lot of copies are getting placed into retail bookstores. When it fact the number of copies being shipped in total is not as important as the sell-through or percent of sale for that book. Every book has a guaranteed sale to the bookseller. When a company orders copies from a publisher directly or through a distributor those copies are guaranteed to sell. Otherwise the unsold copies can be returned to the publisher for full price.
For example, if a bookseller receives an order for 1000 copies from the publisher or distributor and is only able to sell 600 copies to consumers, the 400 remaining copies are called “returns.” In this case the author’s sell-through would be 60 percent. If 300 copies were returned the sell-through would be 70 percent. Sell-through, also referred to as percent of sale, is the key to a successful career as a writer. The higher the sell-through, the more likely any writer will have a bright future as an author.
For published authors it should never be about the total copies out in the market rather the placement of those copies and their potential to sell is the key. Higher sell through or percent of sale is preferred over the number of net copies sold. The higher for both the better, be smart about the business and you have a better chance of continuing as a publisher author.
