Publishing Tidbits - Things Every Author Should Know
Last year the computer gurus were all about “The Long Tail” and especially how the computer and Internet have changed the lives of marketable products by finding specialty niches.
I mention this because in the book, the very sad information is revealed regarding the sales figures of novels. A mere 1% of the population sells more than 1,000 copies of their novels (figures subject to correction). Most of us aren’t Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts or Janet Evanovich (forgive me Janet if I misspelled your last name). It’s an awful, hard fact.
A lot of authors judge their success by the dollar income they receive both in royalties and advances.  It is so easy to think that more is good. Afterall dollar figures in the thousands are part of why a lot of writers are in this business…they want to make money off their creative efforts.
Publishers want to make a profit. As many of their costs continue to rise, publishers have difficulty in assigning a firm profit forecast for any given book. Therefore publishers work with a Profit and Loss estimate. An editor works to determine if and how many copies a given novel will sell, taking into consideration the cost to produce the book and advertise it (and advertising is a direct impact on the profit margin and can and is easily adjusted). What cost do publishers encur? Paper, ink, shipping, a discount to the distributors (as much as 55% in some cases), taxes, royalties, editing, cover art, utilities, rent, employee salaries, and some for advertising.Â
This all impacts the profit a given title may or may not make. And the real bottom line is that no publisher knows if the novel he just contracted is going to be the next best seller. In other words, publishing is a huge gamble.Â
That gamble is part of what is used to determine an advance. In e-publishing, the risk overall is lower, but so is the return. That is why so many e-publishers are reluctant to play this particular brand of poker.
Recently I participated on a publishers panel at the Epicon in Virginia Beach. Every publisher represented revealed what their best selling genre was. Every publisher said something different. How can anyone make an intelligent wager against unknown odds?
Factor in other things like returns which run as high as 50% and you can see why a lot of e-publishers either don’t go to print or go with print-on-demand where the costs are more controlled.
So what should an author do? The only real thing an author has pure control over is the quality of his/her product. Do you write the best story you absolutely can, with little to no factual errors and little to no punctuation errors? Do you write consistently, get your name out in front of the public on a regular basis? Agents are now saying an author’s backlist is as important to a publisher as the novel they are purchasing. Name recognition and a finished product that they don’t have to put near as much risk money into.
Write your six hundred page opus. Then follow with something that helps brand you (similar style, characters, subject matter, voice) that is much shorter. Ever wonder why so many “name” authors are in anthologies? It keeps their name alive in the public eye and helps bring attention to newer authors.
Morgan Hawke (I love you Morgan!) once said to sell shorter things first so that you can keep something coming out on a very regular basis. Once a year isn’t enough. Jacquie D’Alessandro (USA Today Bestselling author) writes at least three works a year.
Everyone in the print world is fighting for shelf space. You don’t have that problem with e-publishing, but you still have to get your name out there and regularly. A solid, well-written, creative story is truly the only factor you can control. So, are you doing it?