Future of Publishing

I've been looking into this a lot lately. eBooks are getting more popular, while it is getting harder to get published the traditional way. It is good that agents and publishers are picky on what manuscripts they take on. They are in the business to make money after all. It should also guarantee higher quality books on the shelves. Right?

In some ways it does, in other ways it insures more of the same. Just like the TV, music, and Movie industry, one book hits and every agent and every publisher is looking for a clone. You have a better chance of being published if you already have a hit and your next ms is a lot like your last. If you are a new author then your ms should fit a niche and fit the prescribed template of books that have already been good sellers.

Innovation, new and edgy ideas, are hard sells. Cookie cutter hits are what everyone is looking for. That makes business sense. Less risk, more potential profits. But how does the industry grow? Where do the new 'hits' come from. If no one takes a chance, nothing new develops and the industry is stagnant. People will only read the same book, with different characters, so many times.

The eBook market is the future of publishing. New authors, with fresh ideas, can easily publish electronically. There is little cost so little risk, and any return is a big return. That is where agents and publisher should be looking for the next big talent. A fresh, edgy, risky ms looks a lot more promising, from a business POV, when there is already measurable interest and yes sales.

Some people discount eBooks by saying they do not have the rigorous editing and professional care of a traditionally published book. That is perhaps true, but it doesn't need to be. Critique groups, writers groups, and even professional editors, can fix that. As the industry grows and matures, and publishers begin looking on the eBook sites for new authors, the quality level will increase by necessity.

I don't think eBooks will replace printed books any more than movies made books obsolete. But they will become the cutting edge of literature. The big publishing houses have gotten too conservative to be edgy, it's simple economics. It costs too much to just throw a book out there and see if it sales. POD helps that, but major book stores have been slow to accept POD books and they haven't found a way to cash in on eBooks yet.

If the industry - writers, publishers, and distributors - want to stay ahead of the curve and attract an ever more demanding readership, they must embrace eBooks. They need to be brought in, not marginalized, and made part of the process. The old way of cold queries is antiquated at best. Authors need to take the responsibility of editing their work and getting it out there. Agents and publishers need to give the best selling eBooks their props and think about putting them in print.

eBooks are the wave of the future. The technology just keeps getting better, more and more people are getting what they read online, the authors are taking control of what is out there and the readers like what they are reading. In my opinion, the publishing industry adapts or it may get marginalized.

max

Still looking for an agent

I'm still working on the arduous task of seeking an agent for my fiction manuscript. I had my first book published as an eBook on Mobipocket Books, with a special version for Amazon.com's Kindle Reader. I didn't use an agent, just worked directly with the publisher. The sales have been good. I made the Best Seller list on Mobipocket's website. Sales have been steady, but nothing stellar. The biggest difficulty is promotion. That's all on me.

As I work searching for an agent, I'm learning more and more about the industry. From what I am learning, a lot of the promotion will be on me anyway. With sales steady on my eBook, I'm starting to question the benefits of traditional publishing. From what I am told, once I find an agent willing to represent my manuscript it could be over a year before I get a publishing contract. Then it will be another year or two before I see my book in print.

I'm beginning to look at the sales of my eBook and think how much it could make in that length of time. The advance from the publisher doesn't look like much when you look at the time span. I currently have one book published, one manuscript ready for publication, another that can be ready in a couple of months. That would be three books on the market by fall. Otherwise I spend the next year looking for an agent, then wait a couple of years before the book hits the market.

There are no guarantees either. I could be sitting here two years from now still without a publisher. I know a lot of people who have been trying for years. Some have been through several agents. The prospects are not encouraging. I understand that publishing and marketing a printed book is a huge commitment on the part of the Publisher. They want to be sure that they will have a return on their investment. But from an authors point of view it is maddening.

Many of the Literary Agencies don't want authors to query more than one agency at a time, but most say their response time on the initial query is 4 – 6 weeks. Many do not respond unless they are interested, so an author is expected to sit on his hands for six weeks before querying the next agent on their list. That means you can only query ten or twelve agents a year. If you are lucky one of those will respond and want to see a couple of chapters. That will take another six weeks to a couple of months. If they decide they are not interested, you are back to square one. If they like it they will ask for the whole manuscript. Now it will be months before you hear back and it could still be a polite “No thank you.”

So you can see how years could be spent just looking for an agent. Then the agent can take months or years shopping the manuscript around. Then the time it takes to publish... I could be old and gray, with a back log of dozens of manuscripts, before I see my first book in the bookstores. Will there be book stores by then? Will there be books? Everything is going electronic. Paper products are getting more and more expensive. Many colleges are using electronic text books. Am I wasting my time?

I've said it before. I just want to hold that printed book in my hand, go to book stores and libraries for book signings. You just can't do that with an eBook. Not in their present state. But maybe that is just packaging. How about eBooks on flash cards. Something people can hold in their hands, get signed at the bookstore. Who knows. It could happen.

max

Best Seller

My e-book ArchAngelxx made the best seller list (coming in at number 5), in the suspense/thriller catagory, on the MobiPocket Books website. You better hurry and get your copy before they sell out. Actually that is one of the bonuses of e-books, they never sell out. But check it out anyway. Just click on the link HERE or visit my website, MaxwellCynn.com for more info on me and my writing.

Promotion

I continue to promote my e-book, ArchAngelxx. Sales have begun to pick up a little. Mobipocket Books featured it last month on their site and in their newsletter. Awesome. I have also took the Google plunge and set up an ad account for my main website MaxwellCynn.com. Hopefully that will get some more hits on the site.

I continue in my pursuit for a literary agent. I really want to get my latest manuscript published the old fashioned way. I would also like to see ArchAngelxx in print someday as well. I will continue to shop it around while I write my next manuscript. If I haven't found a publisher by then I may publish it as an e-book I'll see how Archangelxx sells.

I really like the ease of publishing as an e-book and the freedom e-books give creatively. I think they are the future of publishing. There is so much added content you can put in an electronic version than you can in a paper bound addition. But as I have said before, there is something about holding that bound edition in my hand...

I will keep sending out queries. There is an agent out there somewhere for me.