Right now, my micropress is operating more like a cooperative than anything else, after our sales dropped into the sub-basement in 2021. I could give up, I suppose, but after 20 years I just can't. I may have taken on too many writers more interested in getting published than selling books, but their books are all terrific, in my opinion, and deserve to be read. Excelsior! as Stan Lee used to yell.
Small indie publishers are struggling. Some are closing their doors. The big-name publishers won't look at your ms. if you don't have a big-name agent. So, you submit to the small indie publishers who you think might be a good fit. And you wait. If you're lucky, you might receive a kind word with your rejection notice. Some don't answer at all. At some point, you self-publish and hope someone bothers to buy the ebook version or the paperback and read it. I'm 76 and publishimg my first novel. I'm not expecting money or fame, but it'd be nice to be read.
I’d say that anyone who wants to sell books, who is not willing to learn the business, is very foolish. Understanding expectations, understanding what you do vs what others do, understanding how the money flows, are critical bits of knowledge. If you think you get to sit in an Ivory tower and toss your work out the window to where it magically becomes a best seller…. I have a 🌉 to sell you. 😉
I saw the ranges image in another post last week but I forget where. Nice to have it again. All great info and as you say, trad pub is far from over. There are challenges everywhere, and no one forces anyone to write, we do it voluntarily, and anyone who does a modicum of research will find plenty of info, in the end, all the advice, info and hard work aside, you also need to have some luck.
It's most common if you are writing in multiple genres or forms. Like, your publisher specializes in crime fiction and you write a memoir. I had simultaneous contracts for my novel on one publisher and an anthology I was editing at another. Brian Evenson publishes mostly with Coffee House Press but has published novels on Tor and Tor.com (confusingly Tor and Tor.com Publishing are separate imprints.) between Coffee House Books. Victor LaValle also published a novel with Tor.com between One World books. Chatted with a friend a few nights ago who has two books coming out on two different publishers this fall, with one book fiction and one non-fiction.
While I'm talking horror authors, just looked at Stephen King's bibliography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King_bibliography) and he publishes most of his books these days with Scribner but also seems to have contracts with a crime press (Hard Case) and a horror press (Cemetery Dance) and often publishes 2 novels on 2 different publishers in the same year.
There's also a lot of productive genre writers who write under multiple pen names and will have one series (say a Romance) on one publisher and another series (say YA fantasy) on a different one.
Note these aren't just different imprints at the same company, but different publishers. E.g., Scribner is part of S&S but Hard Case and Cemetery Dance are independent publishers. And scrolling through King's bibliography he's also had books on Random House (PRH) and Grant (independent) during his run with Scribner.
Yeah. I had a contract that stipulated that I had to give my publisher first look at any book I wrote. If they declined, I was free to take the book elsewhere. That went away when my publisher 'out-of-print-ed' my books. I got all my rights back and could do what I wanted with them.
“Understanding the industry helps me preserve my love of the far more important thing: the art.” Yes! Art and commerce are not mutually exclusive. I want to be read…but I also want to create a life that allows me to write.
Excellent article on the writing game. Hey I got a question. What is your experience with magazine rack fiction? Have you or those you've worked with published in Asimov's, Hitchcock's, etc? I made a run at that market a few years ago and got nowhere.
I've never published with those two, but have with other magazines. They can be very tough to crack certainly. The volume of submissions magazines get can be pretty crazy so it's a bit of a numbers game. Perseverance seems like the most important thing.
Thanks Lincoln. I'm bored and might try again : ) These occupy a peculiar strata, not at all like Sunset, Motor Boat & Yachting, Runners World, etc. and I think you're right. They get bombed by writers
traditional publishers assume all the financial risk. This is the primary benefit they offer. If one’s objective is royalty income..getting into bookstores makes no business sense. My experience and that of others is that Amazon is actually excellent at distributing paperbacks at volumes that make money for authors but would not interest the Big Four. Amazon has effectively unlocked an entire market segment of books that sell 3-10K copies per year. Forever. Smart folks with marketing savvy do far better financially building an Amazon backlist than building it with Penguin. Self-publishing is misunderstood by many because they include the majority of the uploads are vanity acts. If you delete them from your dataset and study only those with commercial intent…my guess is that we do better financially than the average new author with a typical small advance (and no marketing skills)
I agree with a lot of that but would note here there's a big difference between the Big 5 and smaller independent publishers. The Graywolfs, Coffee Houses, McSweeney's, Groves, etc. of the world. Often, those are non-profits and know they'll only sell a few thousand of most titles. (Also 3-10k per year would be a lot for even a big 5 if it was sustained for years)
I also think hybrid authors are sometimes overlooked in this discussion. Lots of successful self-pub authors republish on Big 5 presses and some big 5 authors--Brandon Sanderson, famously with his big Kickstarter campaign--also self-publish to get the benefits of both worlds.
This should be the world of books, leaving ghost memoirs and vanity books to the big presses. Unfortunately it seems most of the boutique presses are exclusively lit when it comes to fiction
I would guess 3-10K copies per year all on your lonesome would have been of interest to The Big Four, who could generate multiples of this number with their promo, distribution, access to libraries, etc. Where were they? What went wrong?
I agree traditional houses have a killer ability to stuff libraries…but there is no agent or editor who looks at a proposal and says - probably a 3K per year book and we want it. They only value this sales rate after they shoot for bestseller and fail. In retrospect books like mine have value, but never up front. This is probably because they can’t justify a production cost that takes 12-18 months to recoup IF it bombs at a low intended sales rate. A they can’t sell it up the chain. A lot of great new authors get stopped by this fear-based publisher logic…thousands…
I meant 3-10K copies per year self pub surely translates into many multiples for a traditional publisher. You would think agents would be all over an author who pulled this off
Great post!🤗 However, I disagree that a self-published author can't distribute her/his books. I sold paperbacks worldwide. It takes a lot of effort, but it is possible.
Thanks for alerting writers with the myths. More is needed !
Can I add the following.
In the publishing industry, we have read about rationalizations; acquisitions and mergers; there use to be several publishers to choose from, now only a handful ...
and what about Indie publishers too, shutting operations as well online literary magazines folding ?
Of course publishing as a business reduce costs for profitability
But what does this mean ? people are not reading ? -- short attention spans ?
or is this the result of the cost of living crisis, high inflation; rents, energy, food, housing affordability etc - recall stagflation of the 70's - it lasted longer than people expected.
Yes people buy books, but what sort of books ? used; discounted; remaindered ? or at airport newsstands for a beach read ???
You need also to bust the myth of Writers Earnings with a better deep-dive.
Scenario of a typical writer.
I read that the average earnings for a typical writer is $15,000 a year.
So, $ 15,000 a year freelancing which writing working on a novel when projects dry up; writing 4 hours a day for 365 days a year - which includes several drafts and editing.
That is 365 days X 4 hours = the annual commitment of 1456 hours to writing.
which is $15,000 divide 1456 hours= $10.30 a day earning rate or for a five day working week, equals $51.5 pay a week. I haven't deducted expenses heating/cooling costs, electricity, moleskin note books, pens etc, coffee etc
Slave labor wage rates yo say ? - someone is making a million ! and it is not you.
Yes of course, writing is a craft, so is making lampshades and soap, or selling fresh produce from a hobby farm by the roadside.
New writers need to understand the reality, before quitting their jobs, or taking a sabbatical to write their book.
We are never told what the secret sauce is for decades old successful authors who sold over 400 million books.
Caveat Emptor { buyer beware } for buying into this lifestyle/craft.
$51.50/week. I made less than that. So, if you're compelled to write, like I am, you don't do it for the money. One of the first things I learned about writing and publishing, is that everyone makes money (real money) except the author. :) It is what it is. So you do it for the sheer joy of it, ego, whatever. The 'authors' who make real money are politicians, sport jocks, models, movie stars, and others.
ive found that many self-publishing people are cowards in that they have never even TRIED to send their work to traditional publishers. Some are too lazy to do that amount of grinding work it takes. Some have never done an inkling of work. Some have a cloak of arrogance that covers their doubt and uncertainty. And some have more muscles in their mouth than in their back and legs..
Cowards, lazy, arrogant, doubt, uncertainty... Wow, I have to take issue with that. Having published my first four books with commercial houses, starting in 95, I've seen the slow demise (in my opinion) of commercial publishing. I was forced into self-publishing when it became obvious that to get an agent (so a publisher would look at my work) could take a year or more. And for that agent to find a publisher could take a year or more. And from acceptance to your book appearing in book stores could take a year to three. Despite that, I put in the work and time. To no avail. Then I became part of that first wave of Kindle authors and it was great because the big 5 would not use Amazon Kindle. So Kindle was starving for 'content.' And with other authors, I published with Kindle and it kept my books alive for ten years or so.
Anyway, Ernie, sounds like you have done well. But you might want to temper your characterization of other scribblers who might not have done as well as yourself.
Good advice, just gonna need some notes in order to help my fantasy novels sell as it is a niche genre and one that will require all the assistance one can get for selling the said novels.
Any tips you might offer for getting noticed more hereon Substack? I publish lit analysis stuff and fantasy serial-novels, and have been stuck in the mid 500s for subs for some time and would like to get some more growth. This is my main platform, I use and want to use to market my fantasy novels.
Thank you, Lincoln. This was very informative. As a mid-list writer who's read about publishing deals, highs and lows, I've learned a few more things here. In the beginning of my writing life I had a commercial house, three-book publishing deal-- a series-- and another one off to a major house. Then, it got harder and harder to get back in. Then Kindle launched, and I got my rights back, scanned my books, and re-launched them on Kindle. In the beginning it was great, sold way more books then I did commercially. But then, as you know, more and more books became available and mine got lost in the crowd.
The points you make about what a publisher can do for a book, especially, the marketing aspect, are right on target. This is why on my latest book, instead of going straight to Kindle, I'm spending months, maybe a year, trying to get a traditional publishing deal. If you've written a good book with mass appeal, nothing can beat that initial launch, with your books going into stores all across the country. It's also a thrill to go into a book store (and to do it back in the day when there were a hell of a lot more bookstores then there are now) and see a rack full of your latest book, face out.
Those days are over for most authors. However, like the lottery, you can't win if you don't buy a ticket.
This is excellent information. I was rejected by Coffee House Press but was encouraged by Brandylane publishers. Still trying to learn more about them.
Right now, my micropress is operating more like a cooperative than anything else, after our sales dropped into the sub-basement in 2021. I could give up, I suppose, but after 20 years I just can't. I may have taken on too many writers more interested in getting published than selling books, but their books are all terrific, in my opinion, and deserve to be read. Excelsior! as Stan Lee used to yell.
Small indie publishers are struggling. Some are closing their doors. The big-name publishers won't look at your ms. if you don't have a big-name agent. So, you submit to the small indie publishers who you think might be a good fit. And you wait. If you're lucky, you might receive a kind word with your rejection notice. Some don't answer at all. At some point, you self-publish and hope someone bothers to buy the ebook version or the paperback and read it. I'm 76 and publishimg my first novel. I'm not expecting money or fame, but it'd be nice to be read.
I’d say that anyone who wants to sell books, who is not willing to learn the business, is very foolish. Understanding expectations, understanding what you do vs what others do, understanding how the money flows, are critical bits of knowledge. If you think you get to sit in an Ivory tower and toss your work out the window to where it magically becomes a best seller…. I have a 🌉 to sell you. 😉
I saw the ranges image in another post last week but I forget where. Nice to have it again. All great info and as you say, trad pub is far from over. There are challenges everywhere, and no one forces anyone to write, we do it voluntarily, and anyone who does a modicum of research will find plenty of info, in the end, all the advice, info and hard work aside, you also need to have some luck.
Yes, 🍀 luck plays a part too.
Any specific examples of this, anyone?
… which is why authors can sell books to multiple publishers at the same time.
It's most common if you are writing in multiple genres or forms. Like, your publisher specializes in crime fiction and you write a memoir. I had simultaneous contracts for my novel on one publisher and an anthology I was editing at another. Brian Evenson publishes mostly with Coffee House Press but has published novels on Tor and Tor.com (confusingly Tor and Tor.com Publishing are separate imprints.) between Coffee House Books. Victor LaValle also published a novel with Tor.com between One World books. Chatted with a friend a few nights ago who has two books coming out on two different publishers this fall, with one book fiction and one non-fiction.
While I'm talking horror authors, just looked at Stephen King's bibliography (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King_bibliography) and he publishes most of his books these days with Scribner but also seems to have contracts with a crime press (Hard Case) and a horror press (Cemetery Dance) and often publishes 2 novels on 2 different publishers in the same year.
There's also a lot of productive genre writers who write under multiple pen names and will have one series (say a Romance) on one publisher and another series (say YA fantasy) on a different one.
Note these aren't just different imprints at the same company, but different publishers. E.g., Scribner is part of S&S but Hard Case and Cemetery Dance are independent publishers. And scrolling through King's bibliography he's also had books on Random House (PRH) and Grant (independent) during his run with Scribner.
Yeah. I had a contract that stipulated that I had to give my publisher first look at any book I wrote. If they declined, I was free to take the book elsewhere. That went away when my publisher 'out-of-print-ed' my books. I got all my rights back and could do what I wanted with them.
“Understanding the industry helps me preserve my love of the far more important thing: the art.” Yes! Art and commerce are not mutually exclusive. I want to be read…but I also want to create a life that allows me to write.
Well said.
Excellent article on the writing game. Hey I got a question. What is your experience with magazine rack fiction? Have you or those you've worked with published in Asimov's, Hitchcock's, etc? I made a run at that market a few years ago and got nowhere.
I've never published with those two, but have with other magazines. They can be very tough to crack certainly. The volume of submissions magazines get can be pretty crazy so it's a bit of a numbers game. Perseverance seems like the most important thing.
Thanks Lincoln. I'm bored and might try again : ) These occupy a peculiar strata, not at all like Sunset, Motor Boat & Yachting, Runners World, etc. and I think you're right. They get bombed by writers
traditional publishers assume all the financial risk. This is the primary benefit they offer. If one’s objective is royalty income..getting into bookstores makes no business sense. My experience and that of others is that Amazon is actually excellent at distributing paperbacks at volumes that make money for authors but would not interest the Big Four. Amazon has effectively unlocked an entire market segment of books that sell 3-10K copies per year. Forever. Smart folks with marketing savvy do far better financially building an Amazon backlist than building it with Penguin. Self-publishing is misunderstood by many because they include the majority of the uploads are vanity acts. If you delete them from your dataset and study only those with commercial intent…my guess is that we do better financially than the average new author with a typical small advance (and no marketing skills)
I agree with a lot of that but would note here there's a big difference between the Big 5 and smaller independent publishers. The Graywolfs, Coffee Houses, McSweeney's, Groves, etc. of the world. Often, those are non-profits and know they'll only sell a few thousand of most titles. (Also 3-10k per year would be a lot for even a big 5 if it was sustained for years)
I also think hybrid authors are sometimes overlooked in this discussion. Lots of successful self-pub authors republish on Big 5 presses and some big 5 authors--Brandon Sanderson, famously with his big Kickstarter campaign--also self-publish to get the benefits of both worlds.
Yes--I worked in editorial at one of the big independents, and regularly saw books get picked up with projected sales of 3,000-7,000.
This should be the world of books, leaving ghost memoirs and vanity books to the big presses. Unfortunately it seems most of the boutique presses are exclusively lit when it comes to fiction
I would guess 3-10K copies per year all on your lonesome would have been of interest to The Big Four, who could generate multiples of this number with their promo, distribution, access to libraries, etc. Where were they? What went wrong?
I agree traditional houses have a killer ability to stuff libraries…but there is no agent or editor who looks at a proposal and says - probably a 3K per year book and we want it. They only value this sales rate after they shoot for bestseller and fail. In retrospect books like mine have value, but never up front. This is probably because they can’t justify a production cost that takes 12-18 months to recoup IF it bombs at a low intended sales rate. A they can’t sell it up the chain. A lot of great new authors get stopped by this fear-based publisher logic…thousands…
I meant 3-10K copies per year self pub surely translates into many multiples for a traditional publisher. You would think agents would be all over an author who pulled this off
Great post!🤗 However, I disagree that a self-published author can't distribute her/his books. I sold paperbacks worldwide. It takes a lot of effort, but it is possible.
Thanks for alerting writers with the myths. More is needed !
Can I add the following.
In the publishing industry, we have read about rationalizations; acquisitions and mergers; there use to be several publishers to choose from, now only a handful ...
and what about Indie publishers too, shutting operations as well online literary magazines folding ?
Of course publishing as a business reduce costs for profitability
But what does this mean ? people are not reading ? -- short attention spans ?
or is this the result of the cost of living crisis, high inflation; rents, energy, food, housing affordability etc - recall stagflation of the 70's - it lasted longer than people expected.
Yes people buy books, but what sort of books ? used; discounted; remaindered ? or at airport newsstands for a beach read ???
You need also to bust the myth of Writers Earnings with a better deep-dive.
Scenario of a typical writer.
I read that the average earnings for a typical writer is $15,000 a year.
So, $ 15,000 a year freelancing which writing working on a novel when projects dry up; writing 4 hours a day for 365 days a year - which includes several drafts and editing.
That is 365 days X 4 hours = the annual commitment of 1456 hours to writing.
which is $15,000 divide 1456 hours= $10.30 a day earning rate or for a five day working week, equals $51.5 pay a week. I haven't deducted expenses heating/cooling costs, electricity, moleskin note books, pens etc, coffee etc
Slave labor wage rates yo say ? - someone is making a million ! and it is not you.
Yes of course, writing is a craft, so is making lampshades and soap, or selling fresh produce from a hobby farm by the roadside.
New writers need to understand the reality, before quitting their jobs, or taking a sabbatical to write their book.
We are never told what the secret sauce is for decades old successful authors who sold over 400 million books.
Caveat Emptor { buyer beware } for buying into this lifestyle/craft.
$51.50/week. I made less than that. So, if you're compelled to write, like I am, you don't do it for the money. One of the first things I learned about writing and publishing, is that everyone makes money (real money) except the author. :) It is what it is. So you do it for the sheer joy of it, ego, whatever. The 'authors' who make real money are politicians, sport jocks, models, movie stars, and others.
ive found that many self-publishing people are cowards in that they have never even TRIED to send their work to traditional publishers. Some are too lazy to do that amount of grinding work it takes. Some have never done an inkling of work. Some have a cloak of arrogance that covers their doubt and uncertainty. And some have more muscles in their mouth than in their back and legs..
And some ran into a brick wall, the agent.
Cowards, lazy, arrogant, doubt, uncertainty... Wow, I have to take issue with that. Having published my first four books with commercial houses, starting in 95, I've seen the slow demise (in my opinion) of commercial publishing. I was forced into self-publishing when it became obvious that to get an agent (so a publisher would look at my work) could take a year or more. And for that agent to find a publisher could take a year or more. And from acceptance to your book appearing in book stores could take a year to three. Despite that, I put in the work and time. To no avail. Then I became part of that first wave of Kindle authors and it was great because the big 5 would not use Amazon Kindle. So Kindle was starving for 'content.' And with other authors, I published with Kindle and it kept my books alive for ten years or so.
Anyway, Ernie, sounds like you have done well. But you might want to temper your characterization of other scribblers who might not have done as well as yourself.
So the degree any are cowards, I’d say it had more to do with getting critical and expert feedback on their (imperfect) ms
“To the degree…”
Good advice, just gonna need some notes in order to help my fantasy novels sell as it is a niche genre and one that will require all the assistance one can get for selling the said novels.
Any tips you might offer for getting noticed more hereon Substack? I publish lit analysis stuff and fantasy serial-novels, and have been stuck in the mid 500s for subs for some time and would like to get some more growth. This is my main platform, I use and want to use to market my fantasy novels.
Thank you, Lincoln. This was very informative. As a mid-list writer who's read about publishing deals, highs and lows, I've learned a few more things here. In the beginning of my writing life I had a commercial house, three-book publishing deal-- a series-- and another one off to a major house. Then, it got harder and harder to get back in. Then Kindle launched, and I got my rights back, scanned my books, and re-launched them on Kindle. In the beginning it was great, sold way more books then I did commercially. But then, as you know, more and more books became available and mine got lost in the crowd.
The points you make about what a publisher can do for a book, especially, the marketing aspect, are right on target. This is why on my latest book, instead of going straight to Kindle, I'm spending months, maybe a year, trying to get a traditional publishing deal. If you've written a good book with mass appeal, nothing can beat that initial launch, with your books going into stores all across the country. It's also a thrill to go into a book store (and to do it back in the day when there were a hell of a lot more bookstores then there are now) and see a rack full of your latest book, face out.
Those days are over for most authors. However, like the lottery, you can't win if you don't buy a ticket.
Nice post. Keep 'em coming.
So
this thread from Nat Eliason was also very helpful on this: https://twitter.com/nateliason/status/1780983784378175948
This is excellent information. I was rejected by Coffee House Press but was encouraged by Brandylane publishers. Still trying to learn more about them.
Sorry about the Coffee House Press rejection. They recently rejected me too. I'll have to look into Brandylane.
Not sure I recommend them. Look at their titles.
Yeah, the books don't seem to be doing that well.