Sunday, December 8, 2013

Please Don't Send My Book to The 99c Store

For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed rock ’n roll music. And for almost as long, I have admired the works of Billy Joel. He’s a poet with a piano, an everyman who celebrates (and laments) the ups and downs of daily life and the human condition as well as anyone.

In the few years that I’ve worked full-time in the publishing business, it has become increasingly obvious that the book trade is following the pattern of music: Technology, pricing, piracy, on and on. Truly, writers and musicians face many of the same struggles, as it becomes harder and harder to squeeze out a nickel while chasing a dream..

Billy’s song, The Entertainer, describes this pursuit quite nicely:
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Today I am your champion, and I may have won your hearts
But I know the game, and you’ll forget my name
And I won't be here in another year, if I don't stay on the charts.
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Yep. Most writers, at their best, will never manage to release more than one book in a year. No matter how good the story, or the marketing, you’ll go a long time in-between press releases. Which means that you’ll be out of the public eye for a while. And during that time, the book-buying public – with the attention span of a flea – just might move on to someone else.


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I am the entertainer, I've had to pay my price.
The things I did not know at first, I learned by doin' twice.
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Indeed, creatives of all types face a steep and unforgiving learning curve. Yet it continues to amaze me, day after day, that so many writers refuse to accept this reality. So they send off their first draft – sloppy and unedited – to agents and publishers, begging for rejection yet expecting success. They have no interest in learning, no initiative to seek out professional guidance. They pay a high price for this independence, and take years to accomplish what they could have learned in just a few days at a writers’ conference.
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It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life
It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long
If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit
So they cut it down to 3:05.
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They say that every young girl, from an early age, dreams of the day that she will meet the perfect man. And then marry him. And then change him. Millions of men fail to recognize this scheme, until they gaze into a full-length mirror after ten years of marriage. And they cringe at the sight of the outfit that wifey made them wear.

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It’s the same in the book biz: Every editor, everywhere, dreams of the day that he will meet the perfect author with the perfect book. And sign her to a contract. Then demand extensive rewrites, and edit her manuscript beyond all recognition. Millions of authors fail to recognize this scheme, until they get a box of books from UPS eighteen months later. And they cringe at the realization that it’s no longer their book.
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If I go cold, I won't get sold.
I'll get put in the back in the discount rack,
Like another can of beans.
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I used to enjoy walking into a store, and seeing a huge bin of cheap books. 75% OFF! THIS WEEK ONLY! As a shopper, I love to find a bargain. But as a writer and business owner I’ve grown to hate these insane markdowns, because it’s never a good sign for the publisher or the author. It means that both will take a hit in the pocketbook; the former with shrinking margins, and the latter with reduced royalties.
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Consider Bruce Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez, released in 2000 by Multnomah Publishing, the company’s first true blockbuster. Just as the 41st printing (two million copies!) rolled off the press, bookstores around the country began to return their unsold copies by the thousands. Which led to discounting, and more discounting. Which brought the company to the edge of bankruptcy, and its eventual sale to Random House in 2006.
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Yes, Virginia, there is a Grinch. When your book sits on a shelf for too long, your publisher will start marking it down. When their selling price falls, your royalty will as well. Until they get desperate and sell the book below cost, and it ends up in the 99¢ rack next to Billy’s overhyped new CD.
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Fight the power, dude. Don’t let this happen to you.
 

 Song lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, EMI Music Publishing

2 comments:

  1. Very few books have a long life time and it seems that most of them were written over 50 years ago (Lord of the Rings, Narnia, Jane Austin, etc.) and most of those books would NEVER be traditionally published nowadays because they break most of the literary rules.

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  2. This is the reason I shouldn't check Amazon ratings, but I do. Sometimes I even laugh at the chart that goes up and down for no discernible reason. Haven't found my novel in the discount bin yet. YET.

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