According to @The Bookseller, Ian Rankin, crime writer extraordinaire, at a posh event to celebrate 20 years of Orion, said “publishers were needed by authors to produce "well put together, well edited, displayed and marketed" stories to "fans of the written word in all its forms". "Publishers need authors but authors really need publishers, especially as more content flood the market of varying quality.”
It’s hard to argue with this if you are an already published author, with a good track record and have an agent who is constantly pressing the publisher.
The reality for the majority of mid-list or new authors is that while the book will be edited well (because editors by their very nature really do care about what they do), the retail visibility and marketing will be close to zero. It’s a simple equation. In many other industries (fashion, cars, furniture) the number of items being promoted is far lower, so the focus is far greater. Traditional publishers have a very difficult time doing anything other than provide sales material to their selling organisation and paying merchandising fees to retailers. And do you know how far ahead they have to sell to the main trade wholesalers? Nine months! So a traditional publisher has to plan a very long way ahead. You might have the best manuscript since the Highway Code but you always have to wait a long time to see publication.
50% of Penguin USA’s fiction sales are now digital. So why not find a good freelance proof reader, and an editor, perfect your book, then release it as an ebook, straightaway?
I’ll look at this in the next post.
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