10 Things Traditional Publishers DON’T
Want You to Know.
1) Your FIRST Book Needs to be a Breakout Success: You’ve likely read stories from the
big publishing houses stating that the publishing industry is as robust as ever.
It isn’t. Readership has consistently
dropped over the last decade due to the increased competition for the
entertainment dollar. Production costs have sky-rocketed, and Kindle, iPad,
nook & others versions make whatever books that are being made, inexpensive
and easy to access on line for considerably less. So your book needs to show
some real legs sales wise early on, or there won’t be a second.
2) Access is dwindling. There used to be a bookstore in every town and city.
No More. Amazon and the big box stores are mostly responsible for that. Why buy
a book at the suggested retail price at a bookstore when you can easily go
online to Amazon, get it for nearly half the price and have it delivered to
your door?
3) You have better odds at winning the lottery: Sure you read stories about some
unknown scoring a publishing contract but you’re only reading those stories
because that event is so rare. In today’s publishing business contracts are generally
only offered to those who already have a substantial readership or are celebrities
or whose subject is at the opening gate of some new book trend.
4) You’re book’s fate will likely be decided by some college
intern:
Because of the staggering amount of submissions, literary agents and
publishers don’t have the time to read each title. So college kids looking to
break into the industry are assigned that task. Since that are looking to
impress possible future employers, they are particularly strict about spelling
a proper grammar. Don’t know the difference between they’ve, their and there?
Or that you only use the word BETWEEN when comparing TWO topics? If that’s the
case expect a quick rejection letter.
5) You’re book’s title will likely be rejected: Ignore that old saw “You can’t judge
a book by its cover. That is EXACTLY how a book is chosen. That and by its
title. The title is especially important because when a person is looking to
buy a book, but doesn’t know exactly what he or she wants they go to both
Google’s and Amazon’s search boxes and type in a word that reflects their
interest. Take “spy books” for example. If you title your book something exotic
like The
Dark Letter Conundrum, your book won’t appear anywhere under a “spy
books” search. However, John le Carre title Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
would have generated thousands of results based on the “spy book” keyword. So
expect your book to be given a title that will result in the most Search ‘hits’.
6)
Advances are at an all-time low: Again you’ve likely read a story about some
new author being offered a six and sometimes a seven figure advance. Again the
odds of that and winning the lottery are exactly the same. Most advances, if
any, are usually in the low four figures. And should you receive any advance,
plow it into advertising your book. Remember, Your writing career lives and dies by the amount of books sold. NOT by the number of 5 Star reviews!
7)
Advertising money is also at an
all-time low. As
mentioned the industry has been forced to tighten its belt. And so advertising
dollars are funneled directly into the books that show the strongest likelihood
of being a success. Got a book coming out and have been promised a substantial advertising
budget? Just remember that if someone like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie writes a
book, and your publisher buys it, that advertising money you were promised will
quickly be transferred over to their advertising budget.
8)
Royalties are not what you think. Keep in mind you don’t see a dime
until the advance is covered and your agent gets his share. It is a fact that
MOST authors receive the majority of their income from speaking engagements,
not from royalties.
9)
Most successful novelists write 5 to 8 full length books before getting
published. Of course there are exceptions BUT if you read the biographies
of most of the top selling authors you will see that the majority had written 5
to 8 books before being offered a contract. And by writing all those books they
showed the publishers that they could provide consistent and timely product.
10)The First 5 Pages of your book will
decide whether will be published or not. Most professional agents and publishers can tell if
you’re good enough to be published after reading the first five pages. And to
get most book buyers to read past the first 5 pages your book had to have captured
their undivided attention. So put the best part of your book on the first five.
If the best part of your books starts on page 23, it will likely never be read.
If you’re serious about becoming a
published author and want to know more, pick up a copy or download How the Write, Publish and Market Your Novel
into a Best Seller Here’s the link: http://amzn.to/1hBQpJH
(originally posted at http://aripublishing.com )
(originally posted at http://aripublishing.com )
