DO PUBLISHERS HAVE A FUTURE?

PANIC IN THE MAJORS

Last year (2010), Anne Rice created a thread on the Kindle discussion board on Amazon. She asked whether a major author should 'go Kindle first,' and mentioned that, in her opinion, the advent of digital books was creating cataclysmic change in the publishing business, and that major publishers were panicking.

When I came up with the idea for Shelfstealers, I believed that a publisher that focused on ebooks and audiobooks, with new ideas, and the determination to help good books find their markets, could survive in this changing environment.

Then came along Barry Eisler who turned down a $500,000 two-book deal from a major publisher; he'll be self-publishing.

SHOULD MINOR PUBLISHERS PANIC, TOO?

Although Shelfstealers believes that luck plays a huge role in an author's success, we also believe we'll be able to help our authors find success through hard work and creative marketing. I've always believed you have to be good to be lucky, and you have to work hard to be good, whether you're an author or a publisher. (Forget, for the moment, that luck shines on us sometimes whether we're good or not.)

Let's say Lady Luck shines on one (or more) of our authors and their books go viral. Should you be loyal and stay with Shelfstealers or the publisher who helped you to get your start, especially if your first publisher fulfilled its promises to you?

I'd bet you're expecting me to list a host of reasons why you should, but the fact is that most publishing contracts are for one book only--the author is free to find a different publisher for, or to self-publish, subsequent books. In other words, the risk of losing a successful author has always been a fact of the business.

And even if that were not so, an 'earned' loyalty can be bought. I've  worn those shoes, or at least, my ex-husband did when he received a cash offer to 'cross the street' to another brokerage house, and the deal was too good to pass up. When you can see the probability of paying off your mortgage, sending your kids to college, and being set for life, of course, you'll leave your publisher.

YES, PUBLISHERS HAVE A FUTURE--DIGITAL BOOK PUBLISHERS, THAT IS 

In any business, the risk of competition is a constant, and you worry about, and try to stay ahead of, the competition. The only two things that have changed about book publishing are digital books and self-publishing, and self-publishing is simply another competitor.

Perhaps the new role for publishers is primarily to foster debut authors, to help them to find their audiences, and then to let them fly away. Much the same as raising a child, although authors aren't usually children. If that's true, you can understand why the major publishers are less willing to 'stake' debut authors; their business model is a costly one.

A secondary role is supporting good authors whose books never go viral, and this role is also costly for traditional publishers, which is why they so often abandon their mid-list authors.

The more I scan the publishing environment, the more I am convinced that digital books are the only way to go, with print books playing an increasingly smaller role in an author's success, although print books won't disappear in our lifetime. Well, I'm probably definitely older than most of you, so let me say that they won't disappear in my lifetime, but they might be insignificant in your child's lifetime and virtually non-existent in your grandchild's lifetime.

In the meantime, the principals of Shelfstealers are doing what we love. We need to make enough money to survive, to carry on helping authors to find their audiences, but we don't need to be rich.

Sheryl J. Dunn, Founder and CEO for Shelfstealers, wrote this post, and takes full responsibility for its content, typos, lack of clarity, tone, boredom-quotient, and lack of originality.