Here’s the issue with traditional publishing in my
opinion: it’s like a brand name label
you slap on a product. People perceive
that if a publishing house puts it out, the writing and story are automatically
good. The literary gods have smiled upon
that writer and deemed them worthy. The
editing and marketing will be top notch and the work is destined to be a
bestseller.
Wrong. Even the big
publishers are becoming a mockery of themselves these days. For one thing, when a book is initially
released, they make even the e-book version stupidly expensive. Yes, it’s a business. Yes, they have to make money. But it feels like a slap in the face to have
publishing houses digging greedily into my wallet, drooling for every penny
they can find. I refuse to pay more for
an e-book than what a paperback goes for.
Next fallacy about the traditional publishers: that they will market your writing. Wrong, unless you’re Stephen King, John
Grisham, or J.K. Rowling. Nope, if
you’re a midlist writer, all the promoting and marketing is up to you. You’ve got to draw the readers in and make
them take notice. At least half your
time (if you’re serious about this stuff) is spent marketing.
My biggest bitch about the traditional publishing
world: editing. I’m a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series
(upon which the HBO series True Blood
is based). I have every single book
except the latest one -- because the ebook is still at the hardcover price. Now this is a bestselling series with a large
well-known publisher. So I’m horrified
when I see the many editing snafus present in these books. In certain places, it’s like the editor was
drunk when they looked it over. It’s
awful.
The hard, cold truth of it is being traditionally published
is it’s like paying contractors a huge amount of money ... more than half of
what your work will earn ... to present your thousands of hours of writing to
the public in such a way that they will buy it.
Sure, there are plenty of books that publishers will spend more to
produce than they’ll make back. I know
that. In too many cases however, you’re
paying for crap. When there are massive
formatting errors, a cover that doesn’t represent the story at all, and poor
editing, why would anyone bother to sign a contract? It’s like having your work spit on. And you’re essentially paying them to do it
with the tiny percentage you receive on sales.
My own two books, finally accepted by a small but
established publisher, were similarly mistreated. The formatting for both the print and e-book
versions were completely horrid. The
e-books were eventually straightened out, but who knows how my sales were
affected in those first days before they were?
And the publisher has mis-categorized them both as ‘Romance’ with no
apparently no interest in correcting that.
Also a sales killer. Now the
books are out of print, and I found out about it by accident ... no one from
the publisher bothered to tell me this was going to happen.
I’ve checked into
what it takes to do this publishing thing right, and quite honestly it’s not
that difficult. Unfortunately, I signed
a three-year contract for both books, so it will be awhile before I can get
them back and start over.
So I’m going to self-publish Willow in the Desert, coming out in the new year. I already have a cover artist who is amazing
at what she does. The rest I will be
doing myself and the results are going to be much better.
The biggest problem will be that for many, self-published writer
= hack who’s not good enough to be traditionally published. So be it.
I’m proud of my writing. I worked
very hard on it, and those who have read my books and talked to me about them
have had nothing but praise. Heaven
knows, traditional publishing has been a big disappointment, so as far as I’m
concerned, I have nothing to lose and a lot of happiness to gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment