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5 Things I Learned About the Publishing Business This Year
Contributor
Written by
Kamy Wicoff
January 2010
Brainstorming
Contributor
Written by
Kamy Wicoff
January 2010
Brainstorming

For me, 2009 was less about writing and more about She Writes. The idea for this community came to me in part because, in the winter of 2009, I couldn't write. I tried. But I was in too much emotional pain then, having just moved out of the home I shared with my now ex-husband and our two young sons, and the focus and solitary self-discipline I needed simply weren't in me. I was lost, lethargic, depressed. Then a trusted friend suggested I try turning my energies outward, rather than inward, for a bit. And when I looked at my life and at the possibilities for doing this, I saw, right in front of me, the answer: the salon of women writers I'd been co-hosting for years with Nancy K. Miller in New York.

One of the best, most sustaining things in my life, the salon, inspired me to ask -- how can I be of more help to this community of women? What do they need most? Thus began the journey that is She Writes. Community is one of the things writers need, greatly. But in this rapidly changing publishing landscape, where no one seems to know which end is up and the roles of writers, publishers, agents and editors seem less certain and more challenging than ever, what the women writers I loved needed more than anything was help and support in publishing their work, and in selling it, too. She Writes is my attempt to make the lives of women writers easier. But I knew I wouldn't be any good at doing that until I taught myself everything there was to know about how publishing works (and doesn't work) right now.

The list below is just the tip of the iceberg, and I am still learning. (With help from Wilson Sherwin, our community manager, we've shared a lot of the articles our She Writes team has found here.) Read it and weep -- or read it and be inspired, as I have been, to begin finding smarter, more visionary, and more effective ways to help and support to one another's efforts in this New Year and beyond.

1) E-BOOK OR PRINT? UNLESS YOU MANUFACTURE KINDLES, IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER.. In the past few years, publishing has been almost totally dominated by obsessive, distraught hand-wringing over the question of format. Will ereaders and ebooks bring about the demise of the printed page? Will mobile phones and blogging destroy or devalue the art of longer-form work? What I learned this year was that this debate is (mostly) a red herring, especially for writers. Yes, there will be a much larger range of choices for readers in terms of format. Some will choose hardcovers, some will choose paperbacks, some will choose ereaders, and some will read online. Does it matter to us, the producers of content? Not really. As long as writers are paid for their work (more on that in a minute), the mechanisms readers use to consume it are irrelevant. If anything, the expansion of formats presents exciting possibilities.

2) “FULL-LENGTH” BOOKS ARE ONLY ONE OF THE MANY WAYS WE CAN, AND SHOULD, PUBLISH OUR WORK. Reading -- not books -- is my great love. And the best writing comes in as many lengths and forms as the best writers. The pressure on writers to produce a "book," however, meaning, apparently, a work of 200 pages or more (though writers like Vivian Gornick and Anne Carson, to name a handful of my favorites, have published more slender volumes, just the right length for their subjects), has produced too many works that are longer than they should be, and not enough of a length that, like Baby Bear's bed, is just right. Take nonfiction, for example. How many times have you read a nonfiction book that felt like a painful attempt to pad, extend and exhaust a topic that didn't merit the hundreds of pages mandated for it to be a book, but needed more room (and more permanence) than a magazine publication could give it? Like those near-perfect Saturday Night Live skits that get turned into nearly-unbearable full-length films, these books do a disservice to their writers and to their readers. Why not write a one-hundred page nonfiction "novella" instead? Or for that matter, a novella, period, which any fiction writer will tell you is one of the most difficult-to-place things there is, print it and sell it more cheaply, or distribute it online for a fee, or both? The possibilities afforded to writers in every genre by thinking outside the "book box" are exciting and numerous, and large publishers have been much too slow to explore them.

3) LIVE TOGETHER, DIE ALONE: COMMUNITY IS THE KEY TO THE FUTURE OF PUBLISHING. A large part of my research this year has involved talking to writers. Again and again I heard stories of writers arduously reinventing the wheel each time they published anew, each book requiring the attention, effort and financial commitment of a start-up, draining their resources in unprecedented ways. I remember doing that when I published I Do But I Don't in 2006. I spent a year of my life trying to promote a book that took years to write, compiling list after list of wedding bloggers and feminist bloggers, media contacts and radio shows. You know what I wish? I wish my publisher had said, "Hey, you're doing a book about weddings. We have five other authors who have published books like yours. Why don't we connect you with each other so you can all share what you know?" I am absolutely certain that none of us would have lost anything by sharing our knowledge, and I am absolutely certain that each of us would have gained something we could never have achieved alone. The marketplace has become so enormous, so diffuse, and so niche-driven that community based, organized knowledge-sharing is not just a nice thing to do, it's the ONLY way writers will become as efficient and effective as they need to be.

4) THE PULL-THE-LEVER, PRAY-FOR-A-BESTSELLER MODEL DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE. Since the 1980s, when publishing went from an industry dominated by small players expecting modest returns to an industry dominated by huge corporations in need of much higher profits, bestselling books have been the backbone of the industry. This resulted in what has become a terribly inefficient system: publishers compete over titles they pray will be bestsellers, bestowing huge advances (like placing bets) on a select few, these authors then face the awful prospect of not earning out those advances if their publishers bet "wrong" (like, it-wasn't-a-bestseller wrong), and the rest of us, meaning ninety-nine-point-nine-percent of authors, are left with increasingly insufficient advances, insufficient support when we are published (six weeks to see if things are trending in the bestseller direction, and if not, best of luck to you, you're on your own), and, frankly, a bloated marketplace, struggling to survive in a system dependent on a tiny list of BIG books rather than a long list of good ones.

5) IT’S HARD TO MAKE A LIVING AS A WRITER -- AND IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN. One of the things I entered 2009 believing was that things are much harder for writers now than they used to be, particularly as book advances have dwindled or dried up, and writers are being asked to work so hard to promote their own books. What I’ve come to realize, however, was that the huge advance or the big bestseller, is, has been, and will always be a fantasy for most of us, and writing, like so many other kinds of art, usually has to be done in conjunction with other kinds of work to make ends meet. I do believe, of course, that writers should be paid for their work – but in the future, I also believe that compensation will have to come in forms other than, or in addition to, the old system of dollars-per-word or royalties from book sales.

Identifying some of those creative, alternate forms is one of the missions I have planned for myself this year. I’ll keep you posted on what I find out.

Thank you to for Deborah Siegel for asking us all to share what we learned in 2009 with one another! She has been with me since the very beginning, when we sketched She Writes in a notebook in a cafe above Fairway. And thank you, and much love, to our small but brilliant team at She Writes -- Kathryn Gordon, Sarah Saffian, and BK Loren -- who have been my teachers this year, too.

If you read a terrific article (or write one) about publishing or any other issue important to this community, please don't hesitate to share it with us at She Writes. Here's to a wonderful, productive, and satisfying 2010. Love to all.

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Comments
  • Julie Maloney

    Kamy, thank you for writing this. I am adamant in my belief that community serves us ALL. This past Saturday, I hosted an annual writing day for WOMEN READING ALOUD. It included yoga, meditation and writing...and yes, chocolate truffles with lunch. After 7hrs. of being together, reading aloud what we wrote, and talking about what "worked" in the piece, it was hard to end the day to go home! Sharing resources is something we all must do. You made a wonderful point in the article about this. I interpret this as the SHEWRITES mission. Bravo!
    Love to you, Julie (Director: WRA)

  • Dominique Millette

    One thing holds true for self-publishing - and is now becoming a necessity with traditional publishing also. The more of a network you have, especially if it's stacked with people who are rooting for you and encouraging you, and can pass the word to others, the more you will succeed.

  • Courtney E. Martin

    What a brilliant summary Kamy. I so appreciate the way that you combine sober pragmatism with big picture optimism.

  • Renate Stendhal

    Such impressive learning, Kamy, and what a poignant story, your point 3 with your own book I Do But I Don't. It's such a frequent experience to be let down and not helped by a publisher that one could weep.
    But walking through She Writes and reading the fascinating blogs and stories and discussions, it's incredible how many of us have published and are being published, in spite of all. I remember hearing about a Berkeley reading where Doris Lessing scolded her audience because they wouldn't leave her alone and let her write in peace. Instead, she had to do such nonsense as bookstore readings! What would she say today?!

  • Dominique Millette

    You are so right about writing in many formats. Some of the pieces I'm most proud of were published online. Unfortunately I wasn't paid for them, though.

  • Cathy Day

    Here's an article that speaks to many of the ideas in Kamy's blog post. All about Cursor, Richard Nash's new idea about the future of publishing. http://www.toccon.com/toc2010/public/schedule/detail/10590

  • CL Coons

    What a brilliant article! Yes, yes ,yes! This is what I have been preaching for a year now. The stigma of self-publishing is a crap stigma. I, personally, would rather be in charge of my own career instead of waiting around for someone else to make the decisions for me. While readers are using a wide variety of mediums to read, you're right -- writers need to focus on QUALITY of their product first, then being business-owners second. The biggest thing missing, IMHO, is the fact that that writers are being treated (or have the mentality that) they are simply manufacturers of words and ideas. There's so much more to publishing and being successful than that.
    Ditching the traditional route, and turning yourself into a business owner is the only way to succeed in the future. And if self-publishing isn't the right avenue for you, then finding the right pub house that shares the ideals and empowers their writers at every stage of the production process will be key.
    This is why my colleagues and I launched our boutique publishing house. Focusing on ebooks and POD, we work with writers (and are writers) who believe in being business owners and not just artists.

  • barbara de vries

    what is the consensus on self publishing versus traditional channels? Agent-submissions-sale-advance-editor-publish-find out if book sells, all taking at least one year if not more (just waited 2 months for my agent to read the correction she suggested in my ms). It seems to me that self, via Amazon?, is faster and with most of the promotion being done by self anyway ....???? I'm starting to wonder... do we feel acknowledged and taken "seriously" if a big publisher buys our ms, rather than going alone in a process that is already so solitary....?

  • Cathy Day

    A really astute assessment of the State of Publishing. And why all the writers I know are so tired. :-)

  • Deborah Ludwig

    Thanks for sharing your insights. As a writer who has finally taken my writing to the next level this past year, this is helpful and inspiring. I am also an actress and you are right, most artists never achieve the level of success they dream of but that doesn't mean they shouldn't keep working on their craft and enjoying the work. I like to believe that if I keep putting quality work out there that perhaps someone will take notice. And even if they don't the few people that my writing (or acting) touches in a positive way makes it all worthwhile. I have definitely learned that the author, like an actor, is her own business person, and it behooves us to know how to market ourselves and our work. Thanks again for starting SheWrites!

  • Lindsay Price

    This is very nicely done. I think what's most interesting is the notion of success. Sure the vast majority will never see huge success, there is certainly (especially in this day and age of social media, and more immediate contact to customers) many possibilities for making a living. The top of the mountain isn't big enough for everyone but the mountain sure is.

    I think what's happening now as well, is that writers can't wash their hands of their work once it's done. In order to succeed the writer has to be in charge of what happens afterward...

  • Karen Burns

    Interesting, reassuring, and oh-so-true. Writing isn't just bestsellers anymore (not that it ever was).

  • Tracey H. Kitts

    I couldn't agree more with how hard it is to make a living as a writer. But being able to do what I love certainly goes a long way, even if the money doesn't:)

  • Esri Rose

    Thank you for She Writes.

  • Holli Castillo

    I agree that it doesn't matter whether a book is published as an ebook or in print. One thing to consider with e-formats such as Kindle is that people who might ordinarily not splurge on unfamiliar books may be more inclined to purchase with the lower price of ebooks. While some writers may see it as a way of losing money, as a reader, I will purchase a book I ordinarily wouldn't have bought because I, like everyone else, have only a certain amount of my budget I can spend on books, and that budget, with the economy being what it is, is going only to my faves and must-haves. But with the low cost of books on Kindle, which I got for Christmas from my mother, I have bought books I normally would not have, and expanded my reading.

    As a writer, I don't complain when people choose Kindle over the hard copy. If someone buys my book, regardless of the form, they will likely read it, and hopefully tell others about it.

  • Martha McPhee

    Thanks for writing this up and thanks for starting She Writes. It is a fantastic resource and community and so welcome, needed, helpful, hopeful. Happy New Year.