Mr. or Ms. Greene: There really is are solid reasons for the way things are done in this business, and they have nothing to do with envy, fear, or stodginess. It has to do with reducing the load on the “gatekeepers” to manageable levels.

There were roughly 500,000 new titles produced in the US alone in 2008. A superstore might stock 1 in every 10. The all-important PW reviews might cover 1 in 100, and similar numbers will apply to LJ, SLJ and Kirkus. Of course places like the NYT are far smaller, but they’re also usually less crucial for trade books (for those who aren’t into the jargon, that’s more or less the kind of books that you find in a bookstore).

These gatekeepers can’t possibly screen EVERY one of those titles, so they look for filters to help them.

The Pay to Play companies generally don’t screen their product. So, the gatekeepers say “no POD, and no self-publishers.”

NB: What they mean is: don’t waste your time if you’re from a Pay to Play, or if you’re not ready to play in prime time. If your book is done well enough to go toe to toe with anything from the Big Boys (and Girls), if you do your research and learn the rules of the game, and if you have your marketing and your distribution ducks in a row, then you have a fair shot.

It seems to me when I go to a bookstore that there is an increasing hope by publishers that the reading public will take a chance on a $20 large book, and that small paperbacks for a small price are vanishing. Are they all going onto ebooks? If anything, from a reader’s perspective I’d almost prefer that the carpal-tunnel books go onto a lightweight eformat and the little books stay in paper, and I’d rather buy four little books by unknown authors than one big one for the same money, but it looks like I’m the odd one out.

I have to agree with you, though, that sorting the business models of companies by the initial author payout does seem somewhat beyond strange. We don’t sort manufacturers of anything else by how they pay the engineers, but by what the final product of the company is, whether the company profits by it, and whether the workers are satisfied. Is the ebook publisher staying afloat? Is it putting out good books? Is it on any writers’ watchlists? Yes, yes, no? Well, then, it’s a good business. Advances are nice. For certain markets, though, they don’t appear to exist.

Thanks again!

Thank you very much for response and I apologize if I went after you too harshly. I appreciate your explanation of your viewpoints in your last post. I don’t think many would argue against you, myself included, that going the way of a traditional publisher is the preferred route; however, that just isn’t always a possibility for some. If you have ideas or suggestions on how to get noticed or published by any of the smaller publishing houses, I’m all ears (we could discuss it via email if you like). Like many writers who dream of being published, I have enough rejection letters to wallpaper my entire house. I noted the POD option here as an alternative for those who can’t break into writing world in the traditional way. At least POD gives anyone a chance to publish his or her work.

I’m very sorry that my comment came off as arrogant. When I said “our world” I meant the world of books, including you. I may come from a mainstream background, but I have no bias against self-publishing. After all, I moderate 2 of the 4 largest listservs for small and micro publishers, and more than half of our members have published one of their own manuscripts along the way. And many of my clients publish, or started by publishing, their own books.

As for profitability: it is possible with the so-called POD publishers, it’s just harder than it would be with the alternatives. I’m sure you know, for example, that using a POD printer to do true self-publishing has much better margins for any reasonable sales volume.

Which brings us to exposure: again, it’s possible, just harder than with the alternatives.

This business is complicated, and getting more so. Why wouldn’t shortcuts be seductive? All publishers, big and small, look for them. And all of us have taken paths that turned out to be problematic. You don’t have to be a naive newbie to miss the ways that they’re less than optimum.

I hope, whether it seems obnoxious or not, that you’ll take my advice here: look more deeply into the rewards and costs possible in other paths. Consider the objective market potential of your future works and then crunch your numbers. You might be surprised.

I see where you are coming from with your opinion, but I just don’t see the facts to support them. You state that POD is a “hard way to go” to gain “exposure or profit” as it really is not and quite a number of my friends have used this process successfully (earned a generous profit) and have had reviews in “influential publications” such as “The New York Times”, which has reviewed books published by BOTH of the companies I noted earlier. How much more “exposure” does one need? Admittedly, it’s not as exciting or glamourous as landing a deal with a big publishing house and the attention that garners, but for many struggling writers that want to be heard in some way, this is a fine alternative. Not every writer need to or expects to be the next John Grisham or Stephen King or Nora Roberts, but they are satisfied to know that their work is being read.

In addition, I’m not sure what your “our world” comment means, but it certainly sounds exclusionary (as if those who go the self-publishing route are not part of the “real world” of writing). You sound rather condescending with your comment that POD is some sort of “new seductive shortcut” that only a fool would use (not knowing any better), and your categorizing of this method of publishing as a “seductive shortcut” implies that it is used by writers to somehow cheat the system and dismisses their hard work. BTW: POD isn’t “new” and has been around now for over a dozen years. It is doing very well in regards to profits to authors and the companies. It’s not some “flash in the pan.”

Not everyone is blessed with connections in the publishing industry or is so gifted enough to get an agent and publisher right away, but that doesn’t mean that a given writer should forever put off getting published. Not everyone is a Hemingway, Steinbeck, or Dr. Phil, but that doesn’t mean their work isn’t good just because it hasn’t gotten noticed by an agent or major publishing house. It sounds awfully elitist to dismiss POD as something only the uninformed use or people who couldn’t get published any other way. Again, not every writer wants to rule the universe, make a zillion dollars, or appear on Oprah.

I offered up this third method of publishing since Jane posted about the other two, the traditional print and digital publishing options. You can dismiss the POD method if you wish, but it is not the awful option you seem to present it as being and some recognition to those who have used this method and have done so successfully after much hard work would be appreciated. I would hate to think the work of my friends, or me for that matter, were dismissed as writer-wannabe’s who couldn’t make it in the “real world” of publishing and resorted to a cheesy shortcut.

Even self-publishing (as in founding your own company, buying an ISBN block, hiring pros to do the parts of the process you don’t know how to do, and getting a printer to print and bind your book) is a hard way to go.

If you use a known pay-to-play house, as the above presses are, you make getting onto bookstore shelves, and getting reviewed in influential publications, much, much, much harder.

In our world, if you think you see a new and seductive shortcut you should take another look. You’re missing something and you’ll regret it.

1) roughly 25% in royalties,
2) the same or similar conditions noted here for digital printing,
3) editorial and marketing services are available (at reasonable rates),
4) the author keeps the copyright (usually it’s awarded to the publishing house in normal book deals),
5) and, lastly, authors are given discounts on their books for promotional purposes like book signings (often they are given 300-500 FREE copies of their book followed by discounted copies later).

I have researched quite a number of the self-publishing companies and the two best ones that I located are: Authorhouse and <a http://www.iuniverse.com/

I have personally spoken with Susan Driscoll, the owner of Iuniverse, and both she and her company are extraordinary. She published a book that I highly recommend to anyone looking to self-publish titled “Get Published” which is available at Amazon.

http://www.cherryh.com/WaveWithoutAShore/?p=406

Incidentally, C J Cherryh’s ‘The Paladin’ is one of my top ten all-time great romances; I have never seen it reviewed as a romance, but it is one.

It’s written from the hero’s perspective, and it’s amazing…

I mean McIntyre, LeGuin, Zettel – in a few weeks Judith Tarr – , Gilman, Golden, Kimbriel, Lange, Radford and even Madeleine Robins… – it’s like my reading list from the 80s and 90s ^^ – and I’m sure the others are very interesting, too. Their blog posts are really interesting, too.

Judith Tarr has offered to answer horse questions from other authors as one of her regular blog entries on there and Bonhoff is giving insider info on what it’s like to write canon Star Wars novels and McIntyre wrote a bit about how she got to write the first Star Trek Movie novelization (and how she gave Hikaru Sulu his first name).

AND if you’re happy to read online they also offer LOTS of free content, whether short stories or entire novels (of course you can also buy the novels as pdfs – they still have to work some on offering more formats, I think).