Self-Publishing
The New York Times Book Review today published an excellent overview of the self-publishing business: How to Be Your Own Publisher (free registration required). It is one of the most balanced and insightful pieces I've read on the topic, even if the title is a bit misleading — it is not at all a how-to article.

The large mainstream publishers continue to consolidate as they chase after the next John Grisham or Danielle Steel, leaving much better midlist authors with infinitely more interesting books in the dust. It's all about the big deal, the franchise, the movie rights, the ancillary sales. It's sad, really, that in this day of ever more personalized content (e.g., your RSS reader, this page, niche cable stations, podcasts...) that there aren't all that many in the publishing world anymore interested in pursuing the "nice" deal instead of the blockbuster deal. Not that I think complete personalization is the best course; there's a lot to be said for having common cultural touchstones, even if they are pop cultural. But variety is the spice of life.

As best I can tell, mainstream commercial publishing has become a game in which the author is given a pat on the ass to nudge him in the direction of home plate, where he will face a mean fastball from a major league pitcher. His manager may have equipped him with a cheap team T-shirt, but more often than not only a wiffle-ball bat, if he's lucky to have a bat at all. Forget the batting helmet altogether. Good equipment and marketing budgets are given to the already successful so as to protect the team's most valuable assets, and the potentially successful are given one strike to make it big or not make it at all. Every team manager wants acquire the big-name player or at least his clone, to ride the coattails of the Dan Browns of the world, and far too few are interested in putting in the hard work of fielding a farm team and developing unique talent there.

It's my old annoyance with short-term vs. long-term thinking.

I'm not entirely lamenting this situation, though. I just think it's important to realize that this is the role the big publishers play. HarperCollins is no longer interested in a book that will make them $10,000. That's chump change on their balance sheet. The good news is that there are plenty of niche publishers out there that are very interested in that $10,000, and that there are increasing opportunities to become successful with a do-it-yourself approach IF you are willing to put in the time and effort to do it right. This is the value-added service that traditional publishers provide: they know how to make books. That's what you give up when you do it yourself. Self-publishing has a stigma for a reason: 98 percent of what's out there is crap. Another 1 percent is decent stuff treated like crap.

A self-publisher can pay $495 or whatever it is to iUniverse or whomever and sling a hastily produced PDF off to them and have a book in his hands X number of days later, but chances are there won't be too many people interested in it if he hasn't done his part to make it be the best it can be. You wouldn't spend six years of your life pursuing a finance degree and an MBA only to go to a job interview in your painting clothes, so why would you send the fruits of your literary labor out into the world in 12-pt. Times New Roman with underlined headings and seventeen different display fonts working hard to disguise that you never really did understand when you're supposed to use a comma and when not, and that you think "utilize" is always better than "use," and that you believe "that" and "which" are equivalent even though you don't live in Britain, and so on ad naseum down my list of pet peeves?

This is why mainstream publishers are never going to go away. They play a valuable role as gatekeepers, and for the most part what they produce is moderately well done. (Although lately I do see a lot more typos and inconsistencies in major books than ever before — I suspect that might be related to either the "I'm a godlike author how dare you touch my words" syndrome or the "this book might make us $25,000 if we're lucky let's not 'waste' $1000 of that on a copyeditor" syndrome.) If you buy a book from a known imprint, you know what you're getting.

A self-publisher already has the cards stacked against him. But one who is extra vigilant in making sure that his book stands out from the vast sea of self-published schlock, one who hires at least a copyeditor if not a developmental editor, one who learns about design or hires a designer, one who is willing to do research and put in the effort to market the book well now has a better shot than ever at succeeding in the publishing game.

And this I applaud.
- posted by Lori @ 12:33:00 PM | permanent link | |