Dueling Publishing Processes: The Many Ways They Say No

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. – Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear (from Dune by Frank Herbert).

I thought it might be interesting to share how many ways the old publishing process had of saying “no” to an author versus the new route of self-publishing (by which I mean ebook publishing, not vanity). There have been a host of articles and blog posts about the “fear” some authors are experiencing with the changes going on in publishing today. In addition, see Robert Mayer’s excellent Fear is the downfall of Publishing post which talks about the fear many current authors have about moving to self-publishing simply because they have no idea how to do it. There is so much misinformation being thrown around by publishing companies, agents, PR firms, distributors, booksellers, and others as they try to justify their existence and revenue streams.

To that end I’ve created a graph showing the process flow differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing.

Traditional publishing versus self-publishingI’ll pick on Robert Mayer some more, note the differences in the reaction of the establishment interests in the US and Australia. Here he details in Notes from Thrillerfest (parts 1, 2, 3) how that conference had no, nada, zero, talks on self-publishing. Any talk about it went on between attendees in the halls. Contrast that to when he went to Australia where panels were all over the topic, as covered in Reactions from the Australian & New Zealand RWA Writers Conferences: The Future Is Now.

Let me state that fear is a normal reaction for people. Change is hard, but fear can prepares our mind and body for change, its how we direct that fear that’s important. Authors already fear rejection of their work. They fear failure if their work isn’t good enough. But they should not fear self-publishing. For those that have embraced the future, it has turned many into believers and agents of change for the entire industry. For the first time, authors control their work, not leaving it in the hands of giant oftentimes indifferent corporations that have neither the time, energy, or willpower to do anything but monitor their bottom line. If you weren’t making them money, they weren’t interested.

Some caveats before we go much farther.

In terms of the situation, the author has already published one or more books with the publisher, has an agent, and has a new book they want to sell to their waiting fans. It could be a standalone book, or part of series.

What I tried to do in this illustration was highlight the many steps a novel goes through where someone in the process says no, and the readers never get to see the material, at least not from that publisher. It makes no claims as to why the decision was made nor does it pretend to be all inclusive. Every publisher has their own ways of doing things (author Charles Stross describes the process his manuscripts travel in his How Books are Made post), but in general the same questions are asked and answered at some step in the process. All of the questions listed in this illustration have been gathered from a variety of resources, books, articles, and blogs by authors, agents, lawyers, and other people documenting the rapidly changing state of publishing as it struggles to make the transition to digital distribution.

Finally, at this time in my life, I am not a “published” author in the strictest meaning of the words. That means I have not gone through this process myself. What I have done is written and self-published two books on computer programming over a decade ago, near the start of my writing career. Since then I’ve been employed by some of the largest companies in the world writing technical manuals on a variety of software and programming topics. I am currently writing a fantasy trilogy that I intend to self-publish again using the knowledge I’ve gained from those same resources.

I chose to self-publish my previous books because they were relevant to a very small niche of readers, one not large enough to justify a traditional publisher’s interest or costs. However, it was large enough for me to take a chance on and with 3000+ sales of my first book, Learning FutureBASIC: Macintosh BASIC Power, for a couple of years I was very happy with the results.

With that out of the way, let’s look at all the obstacles a writers faces in getting their new work into the hands of readers eager to read anything the author writes.

Traditional Publishing Process

On the traditional publishing side, look at how many places an authors work can be stopped from reaching the buying public. Remember, these are my representational sample of rejections that occur everyday, it does not include all of them.

Let’s look at each one briefly to see where they can say no.

  • Agents – Agents are normally the first person an author receives feedback from on whether their new manuscript is saleable or not. If the agent thinks they can’t make any money off it, then its back on the author to convince them otherwise, change it so it is saleable, or scrap the whole thing and start again on a new project.
  • Publishers – Publishers are the next hurdle a manuscript has to overcome. Does an editor think they can sell it? Does it fit the sales plans for future releases? Can they make money on it? Forget all the costs of editing, copy editing, cover, wrap around and blurb creation, and all the other details involved in turning it into a presentable book.
  • Distributors – I had never thought of these guys before, but it seems they also play a role in getting your book out there. You would think it was simple, give them boxes of books and ship them to bookstores. But it isn’t that simple at all.
  • Bookstores – The final decision on whether the book is found by readers is the bookstore itself. Chains normally followed corporate policies and if a book came in it went out. They may not receive enough copies to handle sales, but that wasn’t their decision.But for local mom & pop bookstores it comes down to whether the manager/owner thinks they can sell the book? Is it right for their store or customers? That racy bodice-ripper cover, huh-oh, not my store, and back it goes.

Did the publisher even print enough books? Publishers are extremely risk adverse it seems. It is not uncommon for them to claim a print run of 20,000, but actually print only half that many. Then they find themselves going back to print within a couple of weeks of a release to respond to healthy sales, but the readers have already moved onto the “next event book” and the healthy chunk of the new print run is returned. Result, sales never meet expectations (1st print run + 2nd print run – book returns), and the next book the author releases will probably have an even lower print run based on their previous books disappointing sales. A vicious circle of diminishing returns.

All this simply shows is that many people have a hand in getting your book to readers, and if their motivations don’t match your own, they tell you no and your entire effort fails. It’s no wonder many authors are fearful of upsetting traditional publishers, they have worked so long under these odorous conditions that its second nature by now.

Self-Publishing Process

The self-publishing side of the process is so much simpler to deal with. Who is there to say no? Basically, the author, that’s who. If the author decides to self-publish, no matter the reason, there are simply two basic steps that need to happen. They are:

  • Create eBook– Create the ebook in one or more formats in order to place them in the ebookstores of choice, be it for Amazon, iBookstore, Nook, Kobo, or any others. The decision on which ones to distribute through are left to the author. There is no one to tell you no before you can create an ebook for distribution. Their is software available to convert your manuscripts into any ereader format quickly and easily. Note this conveniently glosses over all those details a traditional publisher handles including editing, getting and designing the right cover, getting an ISBN, writing blurbs and descriptions, and basically all those other little chores that needs to happen for the manuscript to become a final book product.
  • eBookstores – None of the ebookstores I’m aware of prevent self-publishers from uploading anything to their virtual shelves. They may filter it for content later, but most are currently looking for products that increase their market coverage and gain them additional revenue.

In contrast, the self-publisher has no one to tell him no. Depending on the author this could be good or bad. Ideally, an author will listen and respect the opinions of his trusted readers and if they say something is not ready to release, the author doesn’t release it. But note there are no agents, marketing people, distributors, or bookstores in the process to block a book from getting to their readers.

If you’re still fearful of the changes you see in the publishing industry, the best thing you can do is educate yourself on those changes. Don’t listen exclusively to your agent or your publisher, both have a vested interest in keeping you on the same path you’re on now, which may or may not be in your best interests. Read blogs and self-publishing websites to learn the other side of the issue. Highly recommended sites (in no particular order) include:

Then make your own decision on what is right for you.

About lfrank

Now suffering in the hinterlands of Michigan while trying to transform myself into a fiction author. Don't wait up.
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