There’s an invisible war between traditional publishing and the modern publishing industry. You can’t see it, but if you are a writer you can feel it. And it is possible to suck years out of your life as a result of the confrontations.
You see, the values promoted by each side are quite different. One reflects the reality from decades ago when the publishing industry was guarded by few entities who made the rules, judged the writers and sentenced them to be published or not. There was no exception to the rules. The self-published writer was considered to have sinned and that was expressed in the naming of that endeavour—vanity press. Once self-published you were stigmatized forever.
That seems to have changed nowadays. The term vanity press has disappeared from the professional language and there have been steps taken to accommodate self-published writers in the literary world. But did it change? Really?
Household name book critics have expressed their position in venues like Washington Post: “No, I don’t want to read your self-published book”. Household name writers who have been on the literary market for decades tend to keep their distance from their self-published counterparts. And more importantly, there are still publishers who conduct business in the traditional way.
Those of us who have started writing during the golden age of traditional publishing may still cling to the dream of being published by one of the big three, or at least an important medium to small publisher. I am guilty of such desires. My first novel has been published by a prestigious small publisher. And then I was offered the opportunity to pitch my second novel to one of the big three. And they requested the entire manuscript. Oh, how close I got to the stars! They were the real traditional publisher and I was getting close to being published by a big one.
Little did I know the extent of the traditional practices. I mean, you hear about it and say I can do it. And then you’re asked to do it and you can do it… for a while. What is the length you would go to actually do it?
Exclusivity—while your manuscript is with us you cannot give it to other publishers. No problem. I mean you liked my pitch and you want to read it all so why not. There’s a fifty-fifty chance you’ll say yes, so yes, for sure, exclusivity.
For as long as we need it—well, this part is tricky. The publishers have some political interests. They will accept some manuscripts quicker than others based on what the market requests at the time. Are you as a persona or your book as a political manifest so hot that you’ll be fast-forwarded?
What writers have to realize is that 95% of them are not a hot persona (a dissident, or a political activist, or a representative of a disadvantaged minority, etc) and that their book while probably very good, is not something that the times request.
Well, now it’s a question of waiting and see how the winds turn. How long are you willing to wait? That’s a very subjective matter and it depends largely on the kind of people you are. The kind of writer you are.
I waited for five years and still not getting close to a decision. And that was the moment when I decided that five years it’s the limit for me. It was just maths—how many five-years do you have in you?
I’ve already have spent about three of the five-years on my debut novel. Now I had spent a fourth five-year on my second novel. Considering that I started selling my writing in my twenties, I did the math and the result was that I have a maximum of six five-years in my writing career. If you’ve reached your fifties and you’re still waiting for the big three to publish you, you’ve waited long enough. The wait is not worth it anymore.
And I just spent four five-years out of the six I have in total for my first two books. Do I want to spend another one on the second book? What about my next novel? What about the expectancy for my career? Would it go entirely in periods of waiting in between books?
When I talk to other writers about this, there are usually two reactions depending on their generation.
The first one is “Yeah, you’re waiting now for five to ten years, but once accepted by one of the big three your career would move on smoothly.” I agree that in an ideal world this makes sense. But what if? I am a speculative fiction writer so what-ifs are part of my daily life. What if they reject my novel after ten years of waiting? Ten years is a miniature lifetime. Am I willing to bet ten years of my life on a publisher’s decision? What if they accept my first novel, publish it and it doesn’t sell according to their expectations? We all know that for the first few books of a writer the publisher doesn’t invest a lot or at all in the marketing campaigns. The writer has to do it herself and prove the investment in her was worthy. Then, if it doesn’t sell properly, my career with them is done.
I know, a lot of negativity, but these are realities you need to observe. You would ignore them at your own peril.
The second reaction is “You’re already published traditionally. You proved you can do it. Why waste any more time on this bygone era ideals? You started your career with your debut novel. Now you have to continue it in a normal way, not take five to ten years breaks in-between books.”
I confess I was torn between the two ways of publishing. For half of the established literary market, (let’s call them traditionalists) self-publishing is still a stigma. For the other half (let’s call them progressivists) it is the future.
To make it clear, when I talk about self-publishing I don’t mean write and publish as-is. The quality requirements of books follow the same process in traditional or indie publishing with the same group of contributors: writer, editor, cover designer, beta readers, and so on.
And then I talked to a writer friend and he told me how he sees the whole thing and it was a wonder. In a way, it opened my eyes.
One can self-publish and if an established publisher picks her self-published book and offers a contract, that is a marketing stratagem—“although self-published we chose this book because of how brilliant it is.”
It’s a marketing strategy that happened before with huge success. See “Fifty Shades of Grey”, or “The Martian”, or any Hugh Howey book. They’re all self-published and then the book industry offered them contracts and the movie industry followed suit. Even earlier than them, John Scalzi self-published online his debut novel, “Agent to the Stars”, and seeing his success in cashing in, he was offered a contract. And now he is a household name of the traditional publishing industry.
I call it a marketing strategy because it requires a change in perspective. Submitting a book for a publisher’s consideration it’s not the goal anymore, but only part of your marketing strategy as an author that embraces self-publishing and traditional publishing as complementary methods to sell books.
So, next time, instead of agreeing to wait for years on a decision, you better tell the interested publisher: “You know what? I’m going to self-publish this book and if you decide to buy it, that’s going to work in your favour. People will be even more interested to read a book that’s so good that you picked it up after it’s been self-published already. It may be the next ‘The Martian’ ”.
Good luck in your writerly endeavours!