Publishing Myths, Part 5: The Publishing Industry is Broken
Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
(Update at the bottom.)
(Before I get started, allow me to express my gratitude to everyone who
has said kind things about this series and spread the word about it via
Twitter. If you're new, please see Part 1
for a disclaimer and background notes. In a nutshell, these are opinion
pieces. While the focus is primarily on fiction authors, there will be
some info - like this article - that others may find interesting.
Enjoy.)
There is perhaps more than a shred of truth to this
particular myth, and given the latest rounds of layoffs, imprint
closures, delays (including an anthology containing a story of mine),
and general attitude of "holy cr@p" that seems to be pervading the
industry, there's perhaps a dollop of truth. A certain amount of the
finger pointing in the general direction of the slumping economy is
certainly justified. It's not just the publishers who are hurting in
this respect. Book sales are off, and that hurts everyone along the
line from the authors to the publishers, distributors, retailers, and
so on.
The myth? The "broken" refrain has been sounding for a
good long time. One major issue (and I won't call it a problem) with
publishing houses is - like any other business - they have to make
money. This means they can only publish a select number of books per
year. The books (particularly at large houses) get editing, cover
design and marketing support among other things. They're a business
with expenses - rent, utilities, and so on. They have to pay for
printing, warehousing, employees, and - ta da! - the author's advance
and royalties. From a practical standpoint it stands to reason that
they can't take on every manuscript that gets submitted, even if
they're all very good. And that's in the best of times.
From
the above standpoint, the industry isn't "broken." Yet, there are
practices that suggest otherwise, such as the inability of the majority of
publishers to grasp the concept of digital books. I saw a comment
somewhere today (which I could remember where) that they're in the same
spot the recording industry was years ago. They need to learn from
those mistakes and move forward. They can't stop piracy, but they sure
as heck can reduce it by making e-books affordable and free of
crippling DRM. Ask Steve Jobs Tim Cook how it's working out for iTunes.
I'm
not even going to get into the whole distribution mess. That's a great
lumbering operation that won't be changed overnight, in spite of
lawsuits and threats, IMO. I'm not saying that change shouldn't
happen, but I am saying that it will take some time and ought to
balance the interests of all parties concerned. At least that's the way
it looks from this messy desk. Perhaps someone else has a better
perspective?
So, is the publishing industry really broken? Well,
they haven't asked for a bailout yet. By that measure at least, things
could be a lot worse.
( Update 3/12/2015: The anthology referenced in the second paragraph was eventually published and did very well. Now I have another anthology story stuck in the works. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Struck Steve Jobs' name and replace it with Tim Cook. And it's still not easy to get books on iTunes.) Thanks for reading, and check out the previous parts: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Tags: Publishing Myths
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