Now I Understand…
I
was recently invited to a regional writers’ festival up here in Cairns,
Queensland. A nice lady rang up and asked me to join a romance writing panel.
She had stumbled across my website and been impressed with the number of books (and
their pretty covers).
I accepted, of course. My ego would not let
me do anything else. I drove the 330 km south to do my bit. In fact,
interacting with so many readers was fun. They tended to be ladies of a certain
age and looked very serious about their reading.
That was fun, and I would do it again. But
what interested me most was the chance to talk to the other authors. Two were
respectable contributors to well-known romance mills and the other was more
like me – a bit of a bottom feeder in the book world. I made friends with Helene
Young, ex-airline pilot and yachtie, who should be in Cooktown any day now. She
has had some books taken by (I think) Avon and explained to me how things go.
Firstly, any books need to conform to house
rules, and these are very restrictive. Once you have got a book past that
hurdle and it has been accepted, you are slotted into a production schedule.
The book is professionally edited and the cover taken care of – in fact, you
don’t have to worry about anything.
The fun starts when the book comes out. She
says she has 3 months of official promotion and sales from the publisher, and
that is it. End of story. The book now belongs in the archives. Unsold copies
are remaindered and pulped, never to be seen again. If any of the romance fans
remember her name amongst the thousands of similar authors, they can presumably
find her books online, but there are no more hard copy sales. Her only hope of
continuing to be an author is to write another book.
Thinking about it, this is completely
logical from a publisher’s point of view. They find a novel, publish it and
take the first flush of sales. Space on the bookshop shelves or the supermarket
racks is limited and has to be paid for, so the publisher constantly needs new
titles to fill them up. Old titles can’t pay their way and are dropped down a
hole.
I can’t believe I have been scratching
around for years and had not really taken on board that publishers work to a
project based business plan. They consume books (and their authors), and then
dump them. That’s business.
Not good for me and my writer friends. We
write books we want to live for more than 3 months, although we have no idea
how to keep them alive. I know my list includes good titles that hardly ever
move. How can I sell them?
At present I live in a world where I sell
perhaps one book a day – as an ebook or more profitable hard copy. Think about
it; a dollar or two per day. That won’t keep me in beer, although it might just
cover a coffee.
So – how do we go forward? First of all –
dump the publishers, although I suppose most of us have done that already.
Secondly… I don’t know. I have a web site that is so little known it may as
well be a CIA secret. Come to think about it, if it was a CIA secret perhaps
that nice Mr Snowden could give it more publicity than I can manage.
I really, really need a proper marketeer to
take hold of my website and turn it viral. Can you think of anyone? I’d happily
hand over 50% of the profits…
Jacqueline
lives in Far North Queensland, on the shore of the Coral Sea. She keeps herself
busy with her cats and garden, and by writing books - some of which are far too
naughty for her own good. You can find out more about Jacqueline and her books
at www.jacquelinegeorgewriter.com
