I put together a little blog the other day on the future of books – well, hardback and paperback books anyway – and how they are likely to fare in the future against the continuing advance of the e-book. 
I’ve touched on the subject more than once before and I’ve sounded out publishers, booksellers, fellow writers, critics and a wide cross-section of my book-reading friends. Here are the findings of my little survey – which I imagine will come as no great surprise to anyone discerning enough to be reading this blog. (Apologies for that blatant piece of self-aggrandisement)
I don’t want to cover old ground, but the publishers are worried, even the so-called Big Six, and even the most cursory look reveals why. Anyone who pays full whack for a hardback book by any author under the sun is quite frankly away with the fairies, as we say in Ireland. Continuing in the vehicular, the bookseller either saw them coming or else they need their head looked! In plain English they were sold a pup.
I haven’t bought too many hardback books in recent years, but when I did I forked out no more than half price for them and frequently considerably less. The last hardback I bought, just over a month ago, was supposed to retail for £19.99. I picked it up in my favourite store for a knockdown £2.99. Need I say more?
HOW TO SAVE £16
The same store will sell you three new well-printed paperbacks, normally priced at £6.99 each, for a knockdown fiver – a saving of £15.97. Great news for readers, in the short-term at least, but where will that ultimately leave publishers and ordinary bookstores?
Think further ahead and ask yourself what will this state of affairs do to writers in the future? And by writers I mean every scribbler from the top five per cent who make a tidy sum by releasing one or two books a year, irrespective of what the retail price may be, right down through the serried ranks of hopefuls, wannabes and no hopers. I make no bones about it, I’m buried somewhere in that latter group myself.
One author I spoke to isn’t in the least worried about the number of free or cheap books currently flooding the market. “Think about it,” he said. “If you buy a book by an established author – one whose books you enjoy and have read before – you’re likely to keep on reading his stuff. You’ve got to know him, you like his style and you know what to expect. Read something by somebody you’ve not heard of and, even if it costs you nothing, the chances are you’re going to be disappointed. Now and again you may stumble on a little gem but, believe me; they are few and far between.”
THE BIG BREAKTHROUGH
We know all too well there are thousands of wannabe writers out there, struggling with varying degrees of success or failure for the big breakthrough. Few will ever achieve it; many will never get their book off the ground. Some will go down the self-publishing route. It’s easy enough to start down that road – but it isn’t a road paved with gold.
If all you seek is to see your book out there, with your name on the cover and maybe to have it read by your family and friends, then that will probably be reward enough. You can lean back and smile and say “I’ve written a story. It was bloody hard graft, but I’ve done it. It may never make the best-seller list – or any other sort of list, but it is still an achievement. It won’t make me any money – in fact it will probably cost me money; not to mention all the hours of blood, sweat and tears.”
Fair enough and good luck to you. You have earned your moment of glory. You aren’t going to make the Clive Cussler’s and James Patterson’s of this world tremble in their boots, but you have achieved something the vast majority of amateur and part-time writers never will. You’ve written a book and had it published. It might not be a million seller, but someone, somewhere, will read it.
4 comments
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Hermine Strand
July 16, 2012 at 11:24 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
You write very authoritatively and seem to know what you’re talking about–when it comes to traditional publishing. When you talk about self-publishing, you appear to confuse self-publishing with vanity publishing, which is a misconception. Many self-publishing outfits do not charge money to publish a book the way vanity presses do. In fact, ebook-only publishers can not only charge nothing, but offer non-exclusivity, wide distribution and 85% royalties. I personally know a self-published author who has, with careful marketing, managed to sell about 200 copies of her ebook per month, and is ranked 13K on Amazon in her genres. Perhaps you could put some of your significant investigative talents and industry knowledge toward evaluating whether the stigma on self-publshing really is valid, or is just a self-protective device by traditional publishers. Regards. Even if you don’t choose to approve this comment, I invite you to send me a personal response.
Brad Fleming
July 16, 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks Hermine for your sort of back-handed compliment. In fact, I have nothing other than a reader and writer’s understanding of the publishing business – whether it be traditional, self-publishing or vanity publishing. True, I was once an investigative journalist and perhaps I tend to look at the book world from that perspective. If you glance back at some of my earlier blogs you’ll find that, as a reader, I’d delighted that all kinds of books are cheaper to come by these days. I’m also concerned that good writers continue to make a decent living from their work. I have no quarrel with what you refer to as vanity publishing, as long as I’m not expected to read it. I can well understand the thrill of seeing the words one strings together on the printed page or the Kindle screen. I simple raise the question of where all this is heading. Publishing is changing, the way we write books is changing and – most pertinently of all – the way we read them is changing. Anyone with half an eye can see that. No one writes on tablets of stone any more. Just as the chisel was superceded by the quill, and the fountain pen by the ballpoint, and the typewriter by the computer, so the methods we use to read now will eventually by overtaken by something we can only dream about.
Candy
July 16, 2012 at 7:55 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hiya Brad
Books surely are high profile ‘victims’ of the e-revolution. There are them as says they will never be weaned off the ‘real thing’, but that ain’t gonna sustain the bookshop. But I digress. What I have always found interesting is just why so many people want to pen a story. There are a few who want to sprint the 100, several who would love an Oscar and probably a goodly number who would love to give Damien Hirst a run for his money – of which there is quite a lot, I’ll be bound. But those numbers pale into nothingness when compared with those who wish to write.
I wonder why? Any thoughts?
Candy
Brad Fleming
July 23, 2012 at 6:54 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Good question Candy. I used to think it was because most of us, deep down, think we have a good story to tell. Perhaps we do. One thing is certain though, most of our stories wouldn’t interest other folk. Then again, not too many of us have the ability to write it in a way that would appeal to others. Stories like that, if indeed they should be written at all, should probably be hidden away in diaries or personal journals. Not many of us have the speed of a Eugene Bolt, or the acting ability to win an Oscar, or the skill of Damien Hirst. We can, however, wield a pen, or pound a keyboard. and its a simple matter to string a few words together – simple, that is, until we try to do it.