Here We Go Again (or Don’t Quit Your Day Job)

Over the weekend I was again reminded of what misguided ideas most people have about the writing business. There is a guy who has written a book, so he tells me, about a personal tragedy he went through and how it changed his life. It’s guaranteed to be a bestseller --- he just needs someone to help him edit it and give him some constructive feedback. I don’t know how I got to be the lucky one he contacted.

He first emailed me a few months ago and I told him that I really don’t have time to read manuscripts from people I don’t know. In the last couple of years since starting this blog, publishing a some short stories and putting my own books out in the world I have developed tremendous sympathy for publishers and literary agents. It’s no darn wonder it is so difficult to get their attention. They have no doubt developed their elusiveness purely in self-defense.

What I have learned in the past few years is that a.) people have NO idea how difficult it is to sell books in the digital age, b.) people have NO idea how little money they can expect for their efforts as writers, and c.) people have NO idea how much work their manuscript is going to need before it is even presentable. All most people see are the success stories --- the million dollar book deals and the sale of movie rights. What they don’t realize is that the authors who clean up that ay are fewer than the people who clean up buying mega-bucks tickets.

Today with companies like Xlibris and iUniverse out there eager to sell authors their carefully designed publishing packages it is easier than ever to get into print. If you can come up with the dough for one of their packages, you can see your book in print. You can sell it on Amazon, you can sell it to your friends, it’s really cool. And if all you want to do is write a book about your family history and sell it to interested family members this is a good way to do it. If you have a business or give workshops and want something to sell to clients this is a good way to do it. But without heavy, constant and skillful marketing (and I mean “HEAVY, CONSTANT and SKILLFUL”) that’s about the sales level you can expect.

The cost of selling and producing books is still unbelievable. Bear in mind that retailers --- from Amazon to the bookstore down on your home town’s Main Street --- are going to ask for a 55% discount. That means your $15 trade paperback novel is going to sell to them for $6.75. Out of that $6.75 you have to pay your printer and your distributor and pay shipping costs. If you are working with one of the popular author houses that means you will probably pay them about $5 per book. That leaves you, the author, with a whopping $1.75 per book sold. And since most retailers are reluctant to take more than 3 or 4 books at a time that means you can count on the price of a Happy Meal at McDonald’s for your efforts from each retail source. Yes, over time, if you sell a high enough volume the profit goes up but please see the preceding paragraph about heavy, constant and skillful marketing.

Which brings us to sunny point number three (I swiped that line from one of my favorite movies The Usual Suspects --- authors do that): your writing and how clean it is before it ever sees print. I have read more manuscripts than I want to and I rarely see one that is anywhere near to being marketable. Now, I do not consider myself an authority (not at all, not one little bit --- so don’t send me your manuscript) but I am an avid reader and if I can’t get past the fifth page, I suspect few people will no matter how good your mother told you it was. And the hardest part of all that is that very few people are open to hearing how much work their book needs. Very few. And here too there are two ways of looking at this --- on the one hand, you have to trust your instincts about certain aspects of your own writing but on the other hand, if several people make the same criticism you have to listen to it. This, however, may be hard to understand because most friends and family are not fair judges, not because they don’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you the truth but because they know you and accept you for who you are and they are completely oblivious to the quirks and characteristics that come through in your writing that may seem quite bizarre to those who don’t know you.

I believe in peer groups. Find others at your own writing skill and experience level but who do not know you personally. Let them read your work and pay attention to their feedback. That’s only the first step but it is the most important one if you plan to go farther. And don’t quit your day job. And don’t send your manuscript to me. Good luck.

Thanks for reading.