In
the blink of an eye, on the East Coast, summer turned into fall as soon as
Labor Day Weekend escorted away any remnant of the heat a summer should
have. But I’m not here to write about
the weather. That’s the job of meteorologists,
who by the way seem to be wrong 50% of the time. But I will say that the weather pattern we
are experiencing can come to symbolize the book industry.
Some
books come on strong, like a hurricane.
Others have to weather cloudy days until they get to shine. Some never seem to have their day in the
sun. Book success is as random as the
weather. But sometimes one loses perspective
when seeking to peek beyond raindrops or through sunglasses. Sometimes the weather – and books – surprise
us.
This
summer seemed short and mild. Can a long
winter be coming soon?
Some
in the book world feel that way about a specific title or line of books. Will they get to experience summer or winter? That is the question all authors and
publishers grapple with.
While
we take this analogy a bit further, can one describe global warming’s dangers
as being akin to what Amazon may bring to the book industry? Whereas global warming endangers a planet’s
survival, Amazon threatens the life of books, and the publishing industry.
The
weather, though seemingly unpredictable at any moment’s notice, generally
follows seasonal patterns and historical cycles. This is why we’re not shocked at a big
hurricane in August in Houston or a big
snowfall in February in Boston. But bad
weather is not guaranteed at a specific moment in time any more than a book is
destined to be a best-seller at a specific point in time.
Authors
and publishers constantly gamble on what they think is a good book and of what
will sell.
Sometimes
they lose -- royally -- and sometimes they get lucky and break through with a big
book. And sometimes it’s 50º in August
in NYC and 80º in March in Rhode Island.
Rare, but it happens.
Publishers
are like uninsured homes in flood zones.
They take risks and hope to buck tends and patterns. They don’t want to believe that their destiny
is to be under water and will seek to prove the experts wrong. But there are times where they play it safe, issuing
typical fare that barely meets expectations.
They want to have Christmas in July and a heat wave in January, even
though it’s unlikely to happen that way.
A
lot of publishing, though profit-aware, is driven purely by personal tastes,
ethics, beliefs, and passions. Books get
published not because they seem like gigantic money-makers, but because a
publisher wants to release certain kinds of books, written by authors who feel
passionate about their works but have no research to support a potential
economic windfall from their writings.
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