Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

recent posts

about

Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

Think about it . . .

 

You know the controversy about the evolution of publishing. E-books could phase out “real” books. And so on . . .

 

Think about these factors in CBA publishing:

 

The publishing industry insists it’s not viable to print smaller runs for niche novels even with the advancement of Print on Demand.

 

The publishing industry insists readers don’t want sagas or long novels.

 

The publishing industry regrets their return policy on unsold novels which was a bogus idea from the outset.

 

The publishing industry expects the author to do the majority of marketing even though they have “professionals” on staff to do that and no one has come up with a surefire way to sell novels (except God).

 

When the clear majority of published novels don’t earn back their advances, the publishers refuse to implicate their selection process might be at fault.

 

At least that’s how it appears from this neck of the woods. Yeah, it’s a cliché. Get over it. I’ve seen a lot of them in the published novels I’ve read recently.

 

E-books, schmee-books. What’s the difference if publishers continue to follow their own parameters without recognizing maybe some change is needed at the core?

 

Father, you are always asking us to grow, prompting and prodding us to move deeper into who you are in us. Help us all. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

Posted in

5 responses to “Think about it . . .”

  1. Normandie Avatar
    Normandie

    My favorite is the Platform. I understand platform for nonfiction: If you’re trying to tell the world how to fix itself, you might want the credentials and the visibility to get the word out.
    But Jane Austen lived in a small town and wrote her stories. Beatrix Potter didn’t go hawking her own wares, except to the publisher. And so on.

    Like

    Reply
  2. Brenda Avatar
    Brenda

    So another way of saying this post is that everyone has to be flexible in this age of technology change—except the publishing industry.

    Like

    Reply
  3. Brenda Avatar
    Brenda

    One of the things that is difficult to understand is the notion that it is too costly to print epic size books. But if printing books on paper costs so much, why are e-books not all that cheap? (yes, I know, we have the money, money, money thing going on).
    Even though I don’t even have ebook reader technology yet, I had hoped ebooks would make it more affordable to buy books. But from what I’ve seen, they are not that much cheaper.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Yeah, mine too, N. I mean, c’mon. Either you can write or you can’t. Alright? Geez. Like you need a doctorate to write a good story. You know what? Being published doesn’t even really reveal that you’re a good writer–in fact, sometimes it does the opposite.
    Brenda, excellent points. Once you get the E-books formatted, it’s just a matter of reproducing/streaming them. Same with POD. Once the book is typeset, you just print the number of copies you need. So the excuses for over-printing begin to pale. Shouldn’t both of these methods bring down the costs of both types of books so as one doesn’t outsell another? The profit margins apparently are greater for the authors in e-books.
    And why can’t the POD method be used to print long sagas or epics. The high “costs” hinge on editing, etc.

    Like

    Reply
  5. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Let me add this to my platform comment. In fiction having a platform translates to . . . nothing. The ability to reach a large number of people initially does not guarantee lasting or “real” sales. It’s simply unpredictable and shouldn’t matter in terms of the story and writing itself.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Brenda Cancel reply