Why Don’t The Best Books Get Published, Sold, or Read?

 

There were roughly 2.7 million books released last year. But some of the best books never got published. America has been deprived of some amazing books.

Why?

Some writers craft a manuscript but are crippled by the publishing process and feel intimidated by the fear of rejection. It goes unpublished.

Many writers try the traditional publishing route and after failing to land a literary agent, they feel not worthy of being published. It is never seen.

Of the writers who luckily land an agent, no publisher can be found to take your book on. Feeling defeated, you pack up your toys and go home.

Some dejected authors will contemplate self-publishing, but feel overwhelmed by the process and believe they can’t afford the costs associated with a solo venture. Their book is nowhere to be found.

There are also authors who realize they can’t publicly publish a book and be identified because it will put them in danger of physical harm, arrest, divorce, public shame, debt, or career suicide. Some stories simply cannot be told because to do so means lives are at risk. Some truths will go unknown. There book never could be.

All of these writers lack emotional support, strategic guidance, or the financial and legal resources to get what could be an amazing book published.

More than 85% of the books published this year are self-published and the vast majority of those books lack the distribution access and marketing resources to gain significant readership. Of the nearly 400,000 annual titles put out by traditional book publishers, many of them cannibalize each other. It is simply tough to get discovered and heard.

So, why are many books not given a green light for publication, unchosen out of a pile of millions of queries? 

It is because the publisher is:

* Risk averse and all-too often only selects what is safe and familiar
* Biased on age, race, gender, and who should write such a book
* Seeing the author has little or no social media footprint and will not move forward if they think this is an indicator of an unmarketable author
* Wanting authors to commit to buying some books and you have not mentioned you will do this
* Not familiar with the market your book caters to
* Erring simply on a personal preference and limited level of exposure to such books as yours

Additionally, the publisher recognizes that it:

* Has a marketing budget that is low or non-existent
* Will have a short window of publicity activity upon publication
* Had staff overwhelmed with too many titles to market
* Competes in a market flooded by too many indistinguishable titles
* Sells into a marketplace of free books
* Does not represent its readership demographics well
* Makes few attempts to uniquely go where those readers are
* Does not set high goals nor does it make a feasible plan to soar high

Books struggle to get discovered because:

* Authors don’t invest enough time and money to market their books
* Writers often do not market their books correctly, even when they pour in the resources
* Traditional book-review media has shrunk in size and influence
* Social media posts flood our souls and make it hard to filter out who to listen to
* 25 percent of American adults didn’t read a single book last year
* Literacy issues still stifle 36 million Americans
* Competing content sources beyond books overwhelm us
* We live in an ADHD society
* Not as many people commute full-time on mass transit to offices, a time normally reserved for reading

The book ecosystem is, in some ways, broken, as great books go unpublished or unread, while inferior books get published and sometimes gain big readerships. We need more people to read books, for all readers to consume more books, and for publishers to find a way to give light to books they have wrongly ignored. And more authors need to get better at marketing their books.

Millions of books will get published this year. Over a billion copies will get sold. But there will be too many good books that never see the light of day.

Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum, the founder of this award-winning blog, with 3.6 million page views, can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors promote their story, sell their book, and grow their brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator!

 

About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.6 million pageviews. With 4,800+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler. He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.