I
have a hard time answering certain questions, simply because they touch upon
things that are difficult to respond to.
Here are a few:
1.
Authors
who are starting out and want to get a literary agent or publisher interested in
them, are told they need to have a platform and social media following if their
book is to be considered for publication. They are in a Catch-22 situation: How do
they become known before they have a book to promote?
2.
Authors
who write great books – maybe even masterpieces – want to know how they can
convince the media to look at their work of art if no one knows that their book
is so wonderful?
3.
If
there’s no consensus on a recognizable standard of what makes a book great, how
are publishers or literary agents able to judge which books should be published
based soley on the quality of writing?
4.
Why
does a book win several awards but not even place in the finalists of others?
5.
Why
do some books that sell a lot, of copies not make a best-seller list? Why do books make one best-seller list but
not any others?
The
book industry seems to be plagued by questions such as these five. Some of this
is due to lack of information or understanding of the process by authors, but
some of it comes up because authors feel like they aren’t being treated fairly.
The
book industry attracts a lot of competitive egos. Authors are jealous
of those who get published or succeed.
There’s a sibling rivalry quality to how many authors view one
another. The smarter authors help each
other and realize there’s room for many published authors to carve out their
turf.
Still,
I can see why authors get depressed or feel frustrated by the process, from
getting published and reviewed, to promoted and marketed. They just, more than anything else, want to
write and to be read and appreciated for their talent, ideas, passion, and
works of art. They want to be judged for
their words and not the sideshow stuff of platforms, Tweets, and Facebook
likes. But authors are judged by certain
metrics, just as some women are judged by their looks, men by their earning
power, or athletes by their size. It
may not be fair, but writers, and others get measured by things that they may
not value or see as relevant.
The
world of publishing is, like any other industry, plagued by politics, money,
perceptions, personalities, and the prejudices of those in important
positions. There may always remain an
inherent lack of fairness when it comes to something that is art and not
science, but it would be nice if we could find a way to answer the questions
that writers confront on a daily basis.
We’d
like to think that regardless of the weaknesses to any system – publishing
included – that somehow the really good writer does get discovered and that all
great books find their readers. But we
know that isn’t so, leaving us with this question: How do we improve the system
by which books are published and sold?
That
is one question that has been around since the first book came off the presses
and will continue to fester at those who now practice publishing in the digital
era.
RECENT POSTS
The real payoff from
blogging for five years
Why must you promote your book?
Can books lead us to the truth?
Children’s Books Are The Hardest Genre
What Book PR Is In Your Equipment Bag?
In Death, Do Writers Part With Their Work?
2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit
Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.