Dec 15 2009

Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing

7 responses so far

7 Responses to “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing”

1. # Steve Lewison 16 Dec 2009 at 12:58 am

   Can’t wait for this post, Dean. I do have an advantage over most since I’ve heard you and Kris talk about this, but still I don’t think this point can be emphasized enough.

   The coming post has made me think of a couple questions that you may want to address with this post or in future ones.

   1) We’ll start with the most confusing first:I’ve also heard a lot of writers say that because of ordering to the net it’s next to impossible to make a living anymore as a writer (the three book spiral of death as it were). And related to that, people often say that sell-through remains constant, i.e. you always sell the same percentage. For example: If a book seller buys 10 copies of Dean Wesley’s Smith’s new thriller novel and sells 8 copies, they’ll sell sixteen if they buy 20. Now, admittedly, I’ve never worked in a bookstore but I have worked retail and this just sounds wonky to me. BUT this kind of thing does get bandied around a lot.

   2) Why the heck do a lot of established writers support this myth? Is it because of a lack of the business side of things? I will admit to seeing a lot of writers, even some pros, who seem to take an ‘I’m an artist not a businessman’ stance and are therefore willfully ignorant. I’m also willing to admit that there are a lot of things that those on the outside looking in aren’t aware of, which brings me to my next question.

   3) It seems to me that the financial/business side of the publishing industry might not be as straight forward as some of us newbies would like to think (all you pros out there can stop laughing now. Kris probably fell out of her chair on that one).

   For example: There aren’t any audiobook releases of Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series and the last three or so books have been NYT bestsellers. I would think making the Times list alone would have people begging for the rights. I know you probably don’t know Lynn’s specific situation but maybe you could enlighten us rookies as to the realities a little bit.

   Thanks,

   Steve

2. # dwsmithon 16 Dec 2009 at 4:32 am

   Good questions, Steve, and I’ll try to get to them in my post.

   Of course, not all books are ordered to net. That was a nasty myth that actually started and lasted for about a year in the last distribution collapse in the mid-1990’s. Think it through, if that actually happened, there would be no books left, no series would ever continue, and every writer would soon be out of a job. Of course, if your series starts off, you have poor sales, and even poorer sales on book #2, New York will drop you quickly under that name. But you just switch names and start again, no big deal. Newer writers really confuse the issue of actually having books with declining sales with this myth. They are not the same.

   As for the business side being straight forward, you’re right, I snorted when you said that. I’ll explain cash streams and all the ways professional writers make money in the chapter, at least at a surface level. Stay tuned and have no fear of asking questions about stuff I don’t make clear.

   Thanks for the comments.
   Cheers
   Dean

3. # nathanon 16 Dec 2009 at 1:09 pm

   Looking forward to this a lot.

4. # Steve Lewison 17 Dec 2009 at 2:07 am

   Thanks for the clarification, Dean. Everything that you said makes sense and pretty much matches my own thinking on the whole matter. The main reason I asked was because it didn’t seem logical at all, but as I said, I do realize that logic doesn’t always apply to this industry.

   Definitely looking forward to this post. And every other one in this series. I think I speak for everyone when I say: Write faster!

   Steve

5. # G D Townshendeon 17 Dec 2009 at 3:25 pm

   I’ve a question that’s miles off topic.

   Back in ‘93 I lived in the SF Bay area and attended the WorldCon when it was there. At the WorldCon I found and bought several little volumes in the Writer’s Chapbook Series put out by Pulphouse. I’ve noticed that many in the series are also among the essays found in Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, by the Editors of Analog and Asimov’s. “How to Build a Future,” by John Barnes, “Authors vs. Editors,” by Stanley Schmidt, and “Living the Future: You are What you Eat,” by Gardner Dozois are just a couple of examples found in both. (This was back when I did more reading of books about writing than writing itself.)

   I’m wondering if any of these chapbooks are still available or not.

6. # dwsmithon 17 Dec 2009 at 3:59 pm

   Oh, heavens, no, unless you find them on e-bay or in a used store or something. We shut down Pulphouse Publishing on January 1st, 1995, going on 15 years now. And actually, except for me cleaning up the mess and putting out a few last books, the company was done in 1993. We published 253 different titles over our seven year run. Those chapbooks you mentioned were under our Writers Notebook Press imprint and about half of the 30 we did were reprints, others were original. I remember Ursula had a couple, Steve Barnes did one about building a planet, Kevin J. Anderson did one about writing fast, Kris did three on basics, and so on. I remember the one I was the most happy with getting was one from Reginald Brentner. We also did his last Feghoot book, but missed getting it out before his death by only a few weeks.

   I sold all the extra store inventory in 1995 to a bookstore in California, and then a year or so ago, when we started thinking about combining down to just one house from our compound of three buildings, I sold off the extra copies Kris and I had kept of the books, figuring we only needed one set of Pulphouse. Sold them on eBay, actually.

   Good luck finding those. I keep thinking of doing chapbooks like that of some of my articles and Kris’s articles, just never get around to it. Maybe Writers Notebook Press should make a return. (The sound you hear is my wife and friends screaming, and they don’t even know why. )

   Cheers, Dean

7. # G D Townshendeon 17 Dec 2009 at 6:39 pm

   LOL! Thanks, Dean. I figured that would be along shot, but didn’t think it would hurt to ask.

   My favorite place to find out-of-print books is AbeBooks.com. I found one of my favorite dictionaries, a big, black monster published in ‘71 in Chicago, at AbeBooks.

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