Big Bad Publishing Myth 2: Your Publisher is all-powerful and all-knowing:

By Chris Maddock - Feb 27 , 2009

By Chris Maddock and Michael Drew

Not so much. There was a time a couple of decades ago when publishers had all the answers and know-how to make a book sell. But such is less the case now than at any other time. Selling a book takes more Author, and less Publisher, than ever.

Most would-be authors dream of the day they finish their manuscript. They dream of seeing their work coated in catchy, professional cover art. They imagine holding book signings at their local Barnes & Noble; of reading their reviews in the papers. Perhaps the dream most common to the aspiring authors I’ve come in contact with in my career is the simple act of seeing their own book on a bookstore bookshelf.

In the olden days of book publishing, most authors’ work was done when they tapped out the final words to their manuscript and sent it off to the publisher. An author writes a book, somebody publishes it, and a bookstore sells it. For an author, much of the responsibility for realizing their dream of a book sold in bookstores, past the penning of their work, rested with others.

Things were different then.

But as I’ve mentioned, the entire world of book publishing has shifted as of late – seismically: nearly five times as many books are published each year while roughly the same number continue to be sold. This glut of books has drastically changed the book business in two major ways. First, the responsibility for many of the post-writing aspects of selling books has shifted from that chiefly of publishers, to that mainly of authors. Much of the work, beyond editing and distribution, falls increasingly on authors.

But this responsibility trade has simultaneously shifted power in the publishing world. As authors are burdened with the responsibility of much of the work of actually selling books, they are granted more power than in the past.

The moral of the story? If you can build a devoted audience that you understand through extensive market research, you can likely write your own ticket.

And how does one do that? By blogging your book, thereby building and empirically testing your audience (much more on that in the weeks to come).

Please do comment on this blog – whether you agree with it or not, and pass it on to others if you do dig it. Thanks.