What Aspiring Authors Can Learn From The 2005 Publishing Year
- Posted by Essays Blog in Essays Blog |
- January 9th, 2009 |
- Comments
‘Tis the season for evaluating the year gone by! Over the next few weeks you’ll accompany plenty of articles rundown the successes and failures in industries all across the board: receiver, movies, automobiles, retail. It’s no different for the publishing industry. Already the New York Times has run an article examining publishing’s good, bad and ugly decisions of 2005. Thither are many tidbits here and thither in Publishers Weekly as advantageously. Piece the overall message can appear daunting for an aspiring author (sales down, even any celebrity books didn’t do advantageously), thither are a few choice nuggets you can pluck from the dust and consume to energize your publishing process for 2006.
Beware of Mixed Messages
Yes, sales are down. Both the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Association reported a drop of 2 percent in adult hardcover and overall bookstore sales. This continues a trend that’s a few years old. However, the USA’s major bookstore chains (Barnes & Noble, Borders and Books-A-Million) are planning to open about 80 new stores in 2006, ten more than this year. And we’re talking HUGE stores, with the B&N ones superior out at nearly 30,000 sq. ft.!
Obviously, individual is making enough money to justify these openings. Granted, much stores do sell more than books these days. Music, DVDs and expensive cups of java figure prominently in the sales ledgers. But I don’t accompany Books-A-Million changing their name to Cups-A-Million! Bottom line: as long as the big guys believe it’s profitable to be in the book business, it can be profitable for you to be in the book business.
When Celebrities Fail
It seems like Martha Stewart had a banner year, doesn’t it? She got out of prison, launched a couple of TV shows, made a striking return to the cover of her magazine and she wrote a book, The Martha Rules: 10 Essentials for Achieving Achiever as You Start, Build, or Manage a Business. Despite her huge successes elsewhere, tho’, things didn’t activity out so advantageously for that book. The New York Times reports that after Rodale Books autographed Ms. Stewart to a $2 million contract and planned a printing of 500,000, the book has oversubscribed just 37,000 copies since its October release.
I asked around about this and one editor wondered whether Ms. Stewart had crossed a line into overexposure land. But let’s be clear about this and get the lesson right: this isn’t just about perception Martha Stewart everywhere and being also disgusted her to deprivation to read about her in a book. This is about whether Ms. Stewart had anything left to tell us that we don’t feel we already know.
Apprehension this nuance is important because in this time where having a “platform” is the “it” abstraction, you have to be quite dig in how you put yourself out thither. If you give away all your tips, secrets, strategies, life account, connections, etc., each and every time you’re in front of people, you won’t have anything left for them to look for in a book! Of course this only pertains to non-fiction authors and only for certain subjects. I’m careful Ms. Stewart’s audience, for example, will never hoop of getting new recipes and new household tips from her!
Classic Success Move: Address Actuality From the Heart
I’m a fiction writer, so it pains me to have it, but right now in the publishing industry non-fiction is king. And the block that people deprivation to read includes bemused, heartfelt stories and essays from noted voices much as Joan Didion (The Year of Magical Cerebration), Jimmy Carter (Our Endangered Values) and Kurt Vonnegut (A Man Without a Country). The lesson here is a simple one: be accurate to yourself, compose what you feel and at any point your audience will find you.
I know that can be hard to believe when it seems you can’t get anyone to read a query letter let alone a manuscript, but this is an industry that rewards persistence. Thither are many distance to get your account out thither and in a few weeks you’ll have a entire new year in which to find the one that’s right for you. The choice is yours. Good luck.