EJDeBrun
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2016
- Messages
- 370
Jumping back into this! (thanks for entertaining my n00bness folks!)
I completely understand the benefits of traditional houses for publishing (I guess they're saying the big 6 is actually the big 5 now the big 4 because RandomHouse just ate Penguin and isn't playing nice.) But at that same talk I referenced earlier, the authors said there's a huge amount of luck involved in actually getting into print after the luck of getting an agent and then the luck of selling. Sometimes your publisher could out and out forget to include your book in the catalogs! At which point the whole going with them in the first place seems m00t. And every single published author agreed publishers are incredibly disconnected from their readers. I don't know if that's always or just right now, but they all mentioned that the pros of the publishing world really don't know what'll hit or not. (this seems typical though.)
And there are so many other resources. Everyone is obviously trying to get onto book lists and there are more and more ways to do that. At least in California (where I am) you can put yourself in the library catalog for free. Someone from the library system will eventually read your book and if they like it, they'll highlight it and add you to the national catalog. And they say that 50% of readers who borrow books from the library will go ahead and buy the book. That's a huge amount of exposure and readership! Granted it depends on quality, but at least it's quality that's counting and not the whims of a bunch of people trying to make a buck off your work.
Playing devil's advocate, traditionals houses have resources it's almost impossible to equal on your own and they can at least get to book stores which is nigh impossible for independents.
I don't know. It's a gamble either way isn't it?
I completely understand the benefits of traditional houses for publishing (I guess they're saying the big 6 is actually the big 5 now the big 4 because RandomHouse just ate Penguin and isn't playing nice.) But at that same talk I referenced earlier, the authors said there's a huge amount of luck involved in actually getting into print after the luck of getting an agent and then the luck of selling. Sometimes your publisher could out and out forget to include your book in the catalogs! At which point the whole going with them in the first place seems m00t. And every single published author agreed publishers are incredibly disconnected from their readers. I don't know if that's always or just right now, but they all mentioned that the pros of the publishing world really don't know what'll hit or not. (this seems typical though.)
And there are so many other resources. Everyone is obviously trying to get onto book lists and there are more and more ways to do that. At least in California (where I am) you can put yourself in the library catalog for free. Someone from the library system will eventually read your book and if they like it, they'll highlight it and add you to the national catalog. And they say that 50% of readers who borrow books from the library will go ahead and buy the book. That's a huge amount of exposure and readership! Granted it depends on quality, but at least it's quality that's counting and not the whims of a bunch of people trying to make a buck off your work.
Playing devil's advocate, traditionals houses have resources it's almost impossible to equal on your own and they can at least get to book stores which is nigh impossible for independents.
I don't know. It's a gamble either way isn't it?