Esteemed copywriter Bob Bly, who is also someone I consider a friend, recently penned a message to his Direct Response Letter subscribers regarding the traditional book publishing process.
Reacting to an email from hybrid publisher Amplify Publishing Group letting aspiring authors know that they should expect to pay for the publication of their book, Bly reflected on his own publishing journey.
“As an author back in the golden days of book publishing, I didn’t spend ANY money on the publication of my books,” he explained. “…the money flowed from publisher to writer…NOT the other way around. The publishers paid ME and other authors both a book advance and royalties,” he said.
And he’s right. Back in 1982 when McGraw-Hill published his first book, the only way to become an author was to pitch an idea for a book to a major publisher and demonstrate that you had the smarts to deliver on your concept in a timely manner. (I’ve written and published many books the same way.) Traditional publishers were gatekeepers and if they didn’t think they could sell enough of your book to make it profitable, they declined to produce it.
That is still true today, though the dynamics of book publishing have dramatically changed. It is nearly impossible to land a traditional deal that does not involve investing some amount on publishing.
New publishing opportunities
As new technologies such as print-on-demand (POD) entered the marketplace in the last 20 years, eliminating the need to print large quantities of books, almost anyone can now publish a book.
No longer do you have to get the buy-in of an acquisitions editor to release a book – you could pay to produce it yourself. This then led to the establishment of new publishing firms, including independent presses and hybrid publishers like Amplify, Greenleaf, and Jenkins Group.
The democratization of publishing has resulted in millions more books being published by people who might never have had a chance in the “golden days,” when mere thousands of new titles were published each year.
That’s the good news for experts, thought leaders, founders, and executives – more opportunity, although Bly suggests that paying to produce your book indicates your book is less worthy, less prestigious.
I disagree with him there.
Follower size matters
What he doesn’t mention is that the traditional publishing world has changed as well, including the requirements for landing a publishing contract. Where a great idea or strong storyteller might have had a decent chance of enticing an editor to buy their book idea in the 1980s and 1990s, today you need much more than just a great idea. You either need a track record of sizeable sales of a previous book, a massive social media following, or future public speaking commitments that have a great likelihood of leading to book sales.
Not many people have the numbers, even if their book topic is important or just plain interesting. And if the expert can’t demonstrate they have a large audience waiting eagerly to buy their book, the publisher may request a buy-back, where the author is required to commit to purchasing thousands of copies of their own books to make the publisher’s numbers work.
Does publisher prestige matter today?
The bar to secure a traditional publishing package is much, much higher today.
Which is why visionaries, business owners, memoirists, novelists, children’s book authors, and thought leaders are increasingly turning to hybrid publishers and independent presses to produce their books. They want to spread their message, share their story, or educate the masses, and they care much less about the prestige that Bly says traditional publishers offer. (The only exception here may be academicians and scholars who need a traditional publisher to be considered for tenure.)
After all, do most readers pay attention to publisher names? I suspect not. Does prestige even really matter to today’s book buyer? Again, I suspect not.
A reader buys a book because of the promise of what’s on its pages, whether it’s a business memoir that will entertain them, a self-help title with professional development hacks, or a how-to that will instruct and inform. As long as they trust the name of the author on the cover, the name of the publisher becomes almost irrelevant.
Shifting publishing priorities
Historically, the singular goal for a book was to sell as many copies as possible. That’s what traditional publishers certainly want, but for many business leaders that goal is secondary to packaging their expertise and raising their visibility, which can be done without selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
And that’s why so few traditional publishers are willing to publish books by industry leaders – not because the idea is bad, the writing poor, or the market too small. They decline to publish it because their purpose for releasing the book may not be aligned with the author’s goal of creating new opportunities for themselves and their organization.
Where a traditional publisher’s goal, first and foremost, is always to earn a profit through book sales, that is not necessarily the top goal for business leaders, because they can earn profits through their business in myriad other ways beyond selling copies of their books.
Which is why hybrid publishers and independent presses are thriving today, along with ghostwriters, author services companies, editors, proofreaders — you name it. These companies exist to help leaders write, publish, and distribute books that may or may not become New York Times or Wall Street Journal bestsellers, and the authors are okay with that.
But does that mean the book isn’t worth writing? Hardly. There are so many benefits to an author that extend beyond a semi-annual royalty check that may never come.
Bly is a high profile copywriter and very well respected in his niche, but to suggest that anyone who isn’t at that level of prominence can’t benefit from writing and publishing their own book is at best misguided and at worst just plain wrong.
Want to hear my assessment of the pros and cons of your various publishing options? Email me at marcia at marcialaytonturner.com.
Contact Us
Recommended articles