Ranting at Publishers
By Michael Drew - Jun 26 , 2009
Book industry insiders refer to December 3, 2008 as ‘Black Wednesday’. On that day—–
- Random House announced an expense-driven reorganization that included the resignation of their Bantam Dell and Doubleday Publishing Group heads. In addition, Rick Richter, President of the Children’s Publishing Division, resigned to “explore other opportunities in publishing”.
- Simon and Schuster let go of 35 people while stating it represented “an unavoidable acknowledgement of the current bookselling marketplace.”
- Thomas Nelson cut staff by 10%.
- Houghton Mifflin announced more layoffs.
- HarperCollins’ delayed planned pay increases.
- The Penguin Group initiated a ‘raise freeze.’
Read the full NY Times article: Publishers Announce Staff Cuts.
You know what? I don’t feel sorry for you. Maybe the pain you are feeling is payback for the pain your authors have been experiencing for the last 30 years. Once upon a time, you were able to not only lay out, edit, print and distribute books, but also market them. Then in 1977, Apple released the Apple II and the world had its first personal computer. Book publishing implications were not immediately obvious, but as the adoption of the PC became mainstream, new authors started springing up by the thousands. What had been a 100-year average of 40,000 published books started steadily climbing, culminating with an all-out explosion in recent years——-
Year 1976 1987 1996 2002 2008
Books
Published *35,141 *56,057 *68,175 *147,127 **275,232
*Swivel.com, Data Summary table; **Bowker.com, May 19, 2009 article
As more and more books have flooded the marketplace, you have been forced to meet increased publishing and distribution demands while leaving authors responsible for their own marketing. That is understandable. But what is not is your blatant neglect for educating these authors about the realities of the book industry. Instead, you continued to perpetuate the mystique and romance of the publishing process, and in doing so, sold them a dream you knew had the real potential to turn into a nightmare.
I have interacted with hundreds, if not thousands, of published authors over the years and their biggest complaint is that they did not understand the world they were walking into. Most of them were never told their time and money investment would be far greater than the money generated through book sales. The truth is, with the exception of a select few, there has never been a lot of money to be made on books. And you knew this. So why didn’t you explain these realities to your authors? Is it because you are really media conglomerates posing as publishers. Is it Simon and Schuster or CBS Corporation? Is it Random House or Bertelsmann? HarperCollins or News Corporation? Because I know venture capitalists don’t care about authors. They are too focused on revenues.
Had you been astute enough to invest in your authors all along — educating them, helping them build their ‘businesses’, providing infrastructure along the way — you might not be bleeding like you are today. See, authors are flexible. They can interact and communicate with consumers across many platforms – online and off. Books sitting on shelves can’t do that.
Are you finally ready to trash your archaic publishing model and replace it with a new and improved model of communication? Because communication is easier today than it ever has been. Can you say the same about selling your beloved books? How many more ‘Black Wednesdays’ can you withstand?
Questions about how to prepare for the changes pervading the book industry may be directed to Michael R. Drew at the Austin, Texas, headquarters of Promote A Book: 512-858-0040. You can also contact Michael via email at michael@promoteabook.com.
