Posts
If you're looking for my entry for the QUERY BLOGFEST hosted by Jodi Henry :
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2010/12/query-letter-blogfestthe-legend-of.html
{Anne Gallagher of PIEDMONT WRITER has put up a link to a post everyone who plans to write a query MUST READ :
http://www.jmtohline.com/2010/12/biggest-mistakes-writers-make-when.html }
Does Publishing have a future? Do we as unknown writers?
http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2010/12/query-letter-blogfestthe-legend-of.html
{Anne Gallagher of PIEDMONT WRITER has put up a link to a post everyone who plans to write a query MUST READ :
http://www.jmtohline.com/2010/12/biggest-mistakes-writers-make-when.html }
Does Publishing have a future? Do we as unknown writers?
Why is this such a big topic?
Why do bloggers and twitterers go on about how publishing may be doomed?
Because it hits to the core of who we are as a society.
We live and die by the printed word.
Communities change because of what has been written, and if Aldous Huxley is to be believed, society will suffer tremendously without it.
Nearly every day I read of another magazine or newspaper that is folding,
closing its doors and giving up the ghost of publishing.
Is this signaling the chaos before the end?
I'm an optimist for the publishing industry.
A pessimist for what lies ahead for struggling writers
Let me explain. Consider how many books are printed every single year.
In 2005 (the most recent year data was collected for),
there were 206,000 new titles, while the US saw 172,000.
That’s titles, not the actual number of books.
Say there was an average of 10,000 books printed per each title. (Probably a conservative estimate.)
That would mean at least 3,780,000,000 physical, paper books were printed. This is only new titles that were introduced that year.
How many of those books hit the NYTimes bestseller list?
How many sold their entire first print run?
How many made back the money that was spent on their physical production?
Not all of them.
Nor even most of them.
It’s relatively few that ever make it big.
The publishers know not every book produced will succeed.
But now in these dark economic times for publishing, it is very likely
that they will ask themselves,
"Why not save money and precious resources for most (if not all) of the titles that don’t have as much chance for immediate success?"
Translation :
the purchasing agents will slam shut the gates on most of the books brought to them by agents.
Those agents, in turn, will reject nearly every query sent them by unknowns.
So, yes, publishing will have a future. We, as unknown authors, may very well not.
What do you think?
***
Why do bloggers and twitterers go on about how publishing may be doomed?
Because it hits to the core of who we are as a society.
We live and die by the printed word.
Communities change because of what has been written, and if Aldous Huxley is to be believed, society will suffer tremendously without it.
Nearly every day I read of another magazine or newspaper that is folding,
closing its doors and giving up the ghost of publishing.
Is this signaling the chaos before the end?
I'm an optimist for the publishing industry.
A pessimist for what lies ahead for struggling writers
Let me explain. Consider how many books are printed every single year.
In 2005 (the most recent year data was collected for),
there were 206,000 new titles, while the US saw 172,000.
That’s titles, not the actual number of books.
Say there was an average of 10,000 books printed per each title. (Probably a conservative estimate.)
That would mean at least 3,780,000,000 physical, paper books were printed. This is only new titles that were introduced that year.
How many of those books hit the NYTimes bestseller list?
How many sold their entire first print run?
How many made back the money that was spent on their physical production?
Not all of them.
Nor even most of them.
It’s relatively few that ever make it big.
The publishers know not every book produced will succeed.
But now in these dark economic times for publishing, it is very likely
that they will ask themselves,
"Why not save money and precious resources for most (if not all) of the titles that don’t have as much chance for immediate success?"
Translation :
the purchasing agents will slam shut the gates on most of the books brought to them by agents.
Those agents, in turn, will reject nearly every query sent them by unknowns.
So, yes, publishing will have a future. We, as unknown authors, may very well not.
What do you think?
***
