Even
though traditional publishing releases at least 1,000 books every day of the
year – including weekends and holidays, through snowstorms, heatwaves, hurricanes, floods, wars, and any situation – self-published books are estimated to be double that. Though there are some strategic and economic
advantages to self-publishing for some authors, the vast majority of writers
wish to be published by someone other than themselves. Is the process to get published getting
harder or easier?
Based
on the increased amount of competition out there, it’s getting harder to be
published, but if you look at the number of published books to the number of
American citizens ratio it’s a little better than 1 in 1,000 get published.
When I started in 1989 in the book industry, some 45,000 books were released by
traditional publishers and with a population then of around 250 million, about
1 in 5,000 got published.
It’s
getting harder to be published today because most publishers work only with
literary agents and not directly with authors. The number of agents has
dwindled and these agents filter submissions not based on your book’s
creativity, content quality, or importance, but on whether you have a
“platform” and a built-in readership through your network of contacts, social
media connections, and bulk-sale relationships.
Self-publishing
has ballooned because of technology, its low cost, and the ego of writers. But
it also has grown because closed-minded literary agents and publish-by-formula
publishers won’t take a chance on some talented writers who have a unique voice
to share but lack a following.
Book
publishing has a long history of rejecting writers who went on to pen
best-sellers, win awards, and have movies made based on their works, and in
some cases, lives. The self-publishing
world allows for the rejected author to get published, and in some cases,
affords the author a chance to shine.
Some of the most popular books of all-time began as self-published. The
Celestine Prophecy is one that comes to mind Rich Dad, Poor Dad is another. So’s The Joy of Cooking, Your
Erroneous Zones, and In Search of
Excellence.
Publishers
have rejected Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, John Grisham, George Orwell, Dr.
Seuss, Jack London, Louis L’Amour, and James Joyce. Publishers rejected M.A.S.H., Lord of the Flies, A Wrinkle in Time, Carrie, Still Alice,
and Catch-22. Chicken
Soup for the Soul was reportedly rejected by 144 publishers.
Many
famous authors have self-published, including Gertrude Stein, Deepak Chopra,
Mark Twain, Beatrix Potter, Virginia Wolff, Ezra Pound, and Anais Nin. Books like The Bridges of Madison County, What
Color is Your Parachute?, Ulysses,
and The Elements of Style were
originally self-published. Many publishers missed goldmine opportunities when
they rejected superstar-to-be authors.
Why
are so many great books and talented writers going unpublished or turned away
by literary agents and book publishers?
Marketing.
Publicity.
Everyone
in book publishing is consumed by the numbers – namely how many Facebook connections
and Twitter followers one has. But none
of this has proven to be a reliable metric for book sales. And even if there is
some type of correlation between one’s social media following and book sales,
should that be the final metric to determine which books get a proper chance to
be read – and which don’t? Why do we let
popularity contests dictate whose words get exposed to the public?
On
the other hand, writers can and should do more to gain brand exposure and to
build a platform. Publishers may just
find that once authors do the heavy lifting on publicity and marketing, that
writers will see they don’t always need a publisher.
Book
publishers, however, still add value to a writer’s works and brand. They can sell rights – foreign, audio, film,
etc. They can get better distribution
than a self-publisher. They add
legitimacy to the work, and they style, edit, and package the book appropriately.
Publishers
want books that will sell. Authors want
a publisher to support their book. But publishers need to go a bit deeper and
invest in quality books without looking purely at social media clicks. Authors must recognize they play a key role in promoting and marketing
themselves and their books.
Do
you want to be published or self-published? They each hold advantages and in
most cases, the choice is made for the writer. Perhaps the book landscape needs
to have traditional publishers and self-publishers – as well as hybrid
publishers. Together, the reading public
is given well over one million new options each year. Getting published is less of a problem than
getting your book read!
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