I made it through those times because of a self-discipline learned from both martial arts and building houses, but I’m a battered old warrior who doesn’t know how long he can keep up the agility to rebound. Compared to this process, the posting of random opinions and the rehashing of news seems small change indeed. I lay up words up like gluing up pieces of wood, then saw and plane them into shape.
After I designed my book and it was finally published I joined an organization called Publisher’s Marketing Association that is designed for small presses and self-publishers. One of the attractions was the fact that every six months they have a competition among member books for selection to be handled by a distributor. Every book is supposed to be given an evaluation, so I was positive that with the care I had put into my book (see Part 3) it would be a sure selection. When the results came in I was an also-ran. The evaluation was a terse,
“The cover made us think it was about Native Americans, but it only appears to be about the author’s life.”
The flap copy had far more information about the book than was represented in the comment, so I knew they hadn’t even opened it. The book WAS about Native Americans and it WAS about me, but it was also about the magnificent landscape of the Sierra Nevada and the landscape of the internal symbolic mind. All this was represented on the flap. The selections were dominated by books that fit a formula--cookbooks and how-to books--books with a definable audience. Literature is a hard sell.
A person I know has extensive dealings with book distributors. At one meeting she asked the head of the distribution company if he had looked at one of the books she represented. He picked the book up, looked at the front and back, made a few comments. She asked if he had read the cover letter that came with the book. His reply was, “You know I don’t read things.”
In light of all this, my writing and self-publishing path is not easy. Some of you are wondering what success I have achieved. The answer is that it’s still a struggle. My experience of the publishing industry is that it is an 1890s model trying to survive in the 21st century. The present model can generally only rely on formulae and is not flexible enough or creative enough to deal with the quantity of writing out there in order to find the quality. I’m cynical enough to believe that finding quality writing isn’t any longer part of the mission statement. Marketing is the dominant driving force. I find I can’t fight for my market share in the same old way though. It’s not who I am and not what is represented in my writing. So, I have to create a new way or go down with the effort.
Article comments
1 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
John, i just came across this series, an i'm lookin forward to catchin up.
That quote you have from the distributor is incredibly disturbing. I'm currently writin somethin i hope'll have merit, but the notion that, as you say, unless it's somethin with a clearly defined audience then it ain't more than a whisper midst hell-fire, well, that's enough to make a fella uncomfortable.
i remember an english teacher tellin me the average shelf-life for a paperback was a year. that's also incredibly worryin.
regardless, i for one hope this series continues.
2 - Victor Lana
John, this series continues to be a pleasure. I too am mortified by the responses I sometimes get. My last book, a collection of 9/11 short stories, was evaluated by one publisher this way:
"The novel loses its way by chapter three and..."
Obviously, didn't even read the cover. So we are up against it, but articles like yours certainly keep the hope alive.
3 - Mark Saleski
hooboy! great stuff again.
dang though, that cynicism (perhaps very appropriate) tends to lay over the publishing industry like an old wool blanket with tons 'o mold in it.
weirdly, i still tend to find tons of great books out there. but still, i know that i'm not seeing what goes on 'behind the scenes'.
cary on john, we're all really enjoying this stuff.
4 - John Spivey
I appreciate all the commentary. I don't think the industry is going to wake up some day and make a drastic change. Someone just has to do it. I'm cynical about the process, but I don't want cynicism to be the end of the discusssion. The same in politics or life. Is it possible we could find a collective brilliance?
5 - T
I just want to say that the reality of publishing is this--you need to be a hit before anyone will pay attention--so I think authors have to do what indie bands are doing. Get the best book together that you can, with the money you have, and press as many palms as you can...it's all about traffic. I day we should do away with the idea of agents and publishers--most of us are wasting our time..Use the internet to establish a following-give books away for review to whoever wants them and sell, sell, sell. Yes, it sucks but we have to be our own marketing dept, publishing dept, and agent.
6 - John Spivey
T-
Though I admire what indie bands are doing, books are a different kettle of fish. I can't go play clubs and build a fan base. Bookstore appearances when you are unknown bring in a handful of people. I have to believe that somewhere in the internet lies a solution. We have to create it, but we can't bog it down with shitty work and random spewings. We have to be able to learn to sort things out for ourselves without a self-selected elite to do it for us.
js
7 - Marilyn Barnicke Belleghem
Selling books is hard work. I originally thought writing a book was a major event. I still do. I was so excited to have my first books in my hands. Seeing them on a library shelf and in local book stores was also a dream come true. Creating a market and actually getting in the money after giving away books for reviews, as prizes, entering contests and making media appearances is a whole new career.
I too have had people comment on my book who obviously never really looked at it never mind reading it. My books are non-fiction on personal growth through travel and I’ve had people say “What an interesting idea for a novel.” One review on line was a personal attack on me as a person and not much about what the book is about. I’m learning and getting a thicker skin.
I’m pleased to hear what others have to say here and share stories. Thanks John.
8 - gypsyman
The closer I get to sending anything to a publisher the less I like the idea. I keep finding excueses not to be finished revising the first three chapters they want as samples, or whatever excuse works.
I've been lucky to receive lots of advice, and positive encouragement from people who have succesfully negotiated the labarynth of publishing, and the common element is, get published outside the United States first.
Sicne that's where I am , I had already pretty much accepted that, anyway there's something about being published in England that has a certain cachet to it. It appeals to the literary snob in me I guess.
Once published you can then perhaps seek to find an American agent to handle the rights in the States. You'll be a published author, with a track record which will make you attractive to them.
Very few publishers, in the States, seem to be taking submissions directly from writers anymore, while very few agents take on writers who aren't published.
Distribution without a publisher paying for things costs more money than a writer is bound to have at hand. Even publish on demand places end up charging so much per book that you have to price a papperback at far more than what's charged in the stores.
Unlike handmade crafts, handmade books don't have the ability to attract a higher price. People are liable to say, well its only a book like this book why should I pay extra for it just because you can't get a publisher?
There it is the stigma of not having a publisher, not good enough is everyone's first thought, and boy does that cut into your sales.
So you can't afford to do a 10,000 copy printing to flood the stores so that everyone sees your name, you can't get it reviewed by the major press because you don't have a publisher, so your pretty much stuck standing on a street corner yelling "buy my book"
Depressing, but such is the lot of the independant currently. Me I don't have a solution to the problem, so I'm going to go the standard route of trying to find someone out there who will pay me to publish it for me.
You know when you think about it that way, that's a pretty good deal, they pay you to publish and publicize what you've written. I think that's worth the effort of contacting publisher after publisher.
I'll let you know how I feel about that after a few months, I might be singing a different tune when the rejection letters start piling up.
gypsyman
9 - John Spivey
gypsyman-
I hope my upcoming posts can deal with some of that.
js
10 - Elvira Black
I think the novelist's lot has always been a difficult one. One of my favorite minor Victorian novelists, George Gissing, described the vagaries of the publishing industry and its voracious commercialization in New Grub Street, which was written in the latter years of the 19th century. Though he had a classical education, Gissing struggled between the desire to create high art and the demands of the marketplace. Back then in England the "triple decker" novel was the demanded form, where writers were paid to produce serialized tomes and paid by the word for their bloated prose. Gissing himself led a miserable, impoverished, even starving existence as a writer in England for a good portion of his life.
The market today is just as commercialized--more so--and there are of course many more writers than publishers to represent them. Plus, I don't think the general public reads as avidly and broadly as they used to. Although the New Yorker still publishes poetry, it is one of the scant few, if not the only, major magazine that still does. And novels, likewise, seem to be a particularly tough sell, because I believe their popularity is also waning. Non-fiction or even memoirs seem like a more potentially lucrative route, but of course for a novelist these vehicles may just not do--though perhaps they can be a stepping stone in some cases to establish enough of a following to achieve success as a novelist later down the line (as with, say, Susan Sontag).
The only choice for writers serious about getting published is, to my mind, a very thick skin and endless perserverance in a fiercely competitive market. Perhaps some networking and schmoozing and cultivating connections at, say, writer's conferences may be in order as well--I don't know. If one wants to try to find an agent and publisher, this is a very tough route; if one wants to self-publish, one has little choice but to try and market like a madman. It may seem undignified, but that seems like the only way to go.
Perhaps as you say, John, the internet will provide some sort of new alternative for writers struggling for an audience and recognition. I think a site like Blogcritics, which has so many visitors (including, I woud imagine, various editors and publishers), may signal an emerging trend and may give an additional source of hope and opportunity to today's struggling novelists trying to find their readers.