Deal with the digital /print pricing mess-I know the industry is going through a much-needed growing period there, but if I could figure out a way to hurry things along?
Were I the publishing poobah, I would be hauling ass trying to tie-in books to multimedia. Not from an ad perspective, more from an enhanced media perspective. And not extras, but fundamental elements intertwined. Embrace technology! Death to the Paperback! (under the cloak of Save the Trees!)
I would get rid of bookseller returns, and instead of pulping books, I'd send them to Africa, or India, or North Korea – somewhere poor or where ideas would be useful.
I would embrace the digital age even more. I would expand my stable of writers from the traditional small group of power writers to a much larger group that would include unknown writers. Playing the odds that I could stumble upon someone in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere would entice me, especially if I stuck to digital publishing for the lesser known writers until they prove themselves to be worth of a large run in traditional print.
Every HS and college student would receive an eReader as part of their tuition and textbooks would only be available electronically. I understand my son's middle school has all their text books online and kids never bring those stupid, heavy books home.
Industry-wide caps on advances. No one gets more than the mid six figures. The money saved by not paying rich celebrities millions of dollars should be shunted into publishing more new authors.
Every one million dollars *not* paid to a celebrity could be 200 new authors signed up at $5k each. The current state of advances is shortsighted. If you want your industry to have a future, you need to invest in people who may become your future golden geese.
I'd start a blog or some other effort to educate people about the ins and outs of the industry.
Maybe I'm missing out – but it seems like most of the current info out there from publishers is focused solely on new releases and promotion (all good things, mind you) instead of sharing insights about how it actually works. It'd be great to demystify the publishing side like bloggers have started to do with the agent side.
What a great chance to connect with authors and readers, and build loyalty during the ever-changing publishing landscape!
Then again, I'm a writer, so I might be showing a slight bias 🙂
My gut response to this is very different from my practical response. My initial reaction was "only publish quality work". When I put more thought into that concept, I come up with "start giving readers more credit". Find the line between markatable and intelligent and walk it carefully, weeding out more fluff and letting the readers know the publishing industry recognizes their intelligence.
Which means, in short, doing away with most stories that are pitched by "it's like *movie/bookname* but set in the *different location than original*"
People (especially young people) in publishing are jumping on the ebook bandwagon without really considering the consequences. I remember working for a major publisher and leaving before there were massive layoffs. People were just blthely going about their business and not seeing the big picture, and yet I sensed it was coming.
I feel the same about the rush to change everything to ebooks. Once you write off mass market paperbacks, close most of the bookstores, change books into weird book-enhanced video objects etc etc., the industry will collapse. And no, that won't benefit authors, except for a few whose self-published ebooks go viral.
I feel this in my gut after working in publishing for 30 years. So if I were Queen of Publishing, I'd make sure that keeping bookstores around was a high priority.
I'm torn between wiping out vannity publishers and making agents all have the same submission guidelines. 😉 But I would totally settle for a fancy hat, and someone to type my longhand manuscripts.
Would you mind telling me what you used to make this site (html, dreamweaver, wordpress, etc.)? I'm making a website for my business next summer and I really like the clean, yet professional look of your blog. I'm wondering if I could make one similar.
Thanks, John
p.s. Keep up the great work! I've been reading your blog for the past 6 months and I really love your stuff.
Honest question (I'm not trying to be sarcastic): What does everyone have against bookseller returns? Wouldn't booksellers buy a lot less books if they knew they'd be stuck with all the inventory they couldn't move? Seems like breakout bestsellers would come along a lot less often…
Krista asks a good question. Bookstore returns can be onerous on publishers collectively, but take them away and you might find a lot less risk-taking on unproven authors on the bookshelves.
why does everybody think that eliminating bookseller returns would be a good idea? returns allow booksellers to take a risk on new and/or currently unpopular authors and give them a chance. if there were no returns, i can guarantee you that there wouldn't be any authors in there who weren't guaranteed bestsellers (patterson, grisham, butcher, etc.)
same deal with royalties. an author's royalty is pretty standard (check out royalties from the music industry, for instance). the publishing industry's margins are already famously slim, and raising the royalty rates would just make them only carry the bestsellers. they're businesses, not charities.
and for decentralizing, of course that could work in theory, but nobody wants to be the first one to leave and isolate themselves from the scene. it'd be like the country music industry boycotting nashville.
For starters the celebrity bandwagon would get tipped and contents rendered to toilet tissue.
Jaded best-selling authors given lower advances = quality control!
More new voices brought into the frame. After all, a fruit stall relies on fresh produce topping the stale to attract customers.
All submission electronic to save on carbon footprint = postmen/delivery companies, planes, trains etc., in humping hardcopy mss across states, countries, oceans.
More minions reading subs and faster turnaround on replies. One boss rather than levels of top-brass sitting on butts swigging coffee and deciding on commissions by committee.
More media alliance via the www, every novel available on electronic devices whatever the format beside hardcopy.
Move HQ's to rural based locations = save money on city property taxes re per building per country location.
Be more amenable to public and treat all authors with respect regardless of whether choco reading or crap came your way.
That's pretty much it, and BTW: verification word "hesse", and no I'm not wearing jackboots! best F
I'd rather be Queen of the world: I have so many more ideas for fixing the world. I feel like I don't know enough to offer any useful or innovative ideas, but I would like to see less big stuff be in either NY or CA. So I'll side with Doug P. How about Cleveland? Or Minneapolis? Des Moines? Doesn't Des Moines need more love? I think so.
I would quickly renounce my position for someone better qualified. That failing I would start learning a whole lot because so far I only know one side of the business. However, I think I would up the quality. It amazes me some of the stuff out there. But that's me.
I would be the Simon Cowell of the art world, staging auditions every evening in every B&N bookstore in every city. A renaissance of cultural followers would tune in to watch and see who was to become a finalist on the hit reality show American Novelist
I'd look closely at my system for getting reader feedback. Is my publishing company providing what readers want? Do I have a way to get that feedback in a timely manner? I'm a part research-geek so I'm always wondering if the research methodology is sound.
Oh that's easy…cut the industry's unbelievably wasteful overhead. (That is, wasteful from my perspective…not necessarily wasteful in an absolute sense). Which is precisely why I plan to open a publishing company: Given a thriving e-book market and the marketing leverage of the internet, two people can effectively run a publishing company…or so I'm betting.
–form a Big 6 subsidiary e-retailing corporation that would go head-to-head with Amazon (call it, perhaps, DeNile.com) that provided their own e-books with a 2-4 week lead-time over Amazon, iBookstore and others
–consider verticals by convincing my brethren to acquire Barnes & Nobles
–Take a hard look at our catalogues and decide NOW rather than later which authors will be published solely as mass market paperbacks, hardcovers, trade paperbacks, or e-books (because I think that's coming anyway, so why wait to be forced into the issue)
–offer competitive e-book royalty rates lest you lose most authors to self-publishing at the 70% royalty rate on Amazon's Kindle
–start a marketing campaign explaining to authors what possible advantages you offer to them over self-publishing e-books at a 70% royalty rate and be specific, like:
–will have transparent accounting in terms of marketing expenses and advertising campaigns –will provide amount of money to be spent on marketing and stick to it –indicate to whom and when ARCs are provided
I think you *could* get rid of the bookseller return policy with some wise marketing strategy.
For example, let's say you offer a bookseller all your titles a la carte — they can pick and choose the titles they want, at a higher price — or offer a package deal. The package costs less per book, but they have to take all the books in the package, which contains both bestsellers and new authors, and no returns. With a little fiddling with multi-title packaging, I think that you could wean the booksellers off of the current system.
The problem is that the publishers are not the ones with the power in the publisher/bookseller arrangement. It would take an industry cartel to make the booksellers change their ways. Or one merciless dictator.
In my world as reigning queen, we would quickly move away from antiquated systems of pitching to the media as our primary method of promotion. We'd re-create publishing companies to reflect the technological developments allowing authors to promote their books in a whole bunch of creative ways by establishing new departments and systems for book promotion. These departments would be a tough sell to the head execs that don't want to spend money on them or are struggling to adjust to changing times, but as queen, I would lay down the law. 🙂
Publishers would create social media departments, or use social media companies like FSB Associates regularly that can help us create impact online. Publishers would be required to staff publicity departments with enough people to do the job, encourage proactive ways of pitching, and set up systems where publicists have more license for creativity. I would immediately make sure that every editor has the support they need to do their job well, and not edit every night and weekend as so many dedicated editors do.
In a nutshell, as publishing queen I would make publisher-backed book promotion a big focus, so that authors have greater promotional support in exchange for the profits and rights they give to their publishers.
And if I was overthrown, I would pray from my jail cell that if publishers continue going in the direction of doing less promotion rather than more, that in return, authors receive more profit and control of their intellectual properties.
Abdicate in favor of a subsidiarity confederation model separately but equally administrated by a tripartite generaly assembly founded on parlimentary practices. Writers, publishers, and readers individual assemblies. There'd have to be lawyers involved and lobbyists and accountants and printers and truckdrivers and booksellers and agents and editors of all kinds.
The industry already is a transnational corporate monarchy with greater resources and properties larger than many emerging economy nation states, might as well catch up to the republican democracy model.
I ess you not, word verificate: blithest. An actual dictionary word. Huh.
I'd institute a system of lower advances for authors, in exchange for more comprehensive marketing initiatives from the publishers on a broader spectrum, instead of for just a handful of titles each year.
To sound off on the 'no returns' issue. Ordering items that are non-returnable to the bookstore damages the profit margin for everyone. Would you rather have publishers hold back pary of the author's advance money for possible returns, or would you rather the bookstores just not pay as much outright for the copies. Because whatever they don't sell takes up the limited space on their shelves (yes they keep detailed measurements of linear feet)–and they're not gonna pay that much for books that will wind up in the remainder/clearance bins. If they pay for them at all.
(So you can say good-bye to new, untried authors–which has been brought up a couple times now.)
So, publishers won't make as much per book, meaning they can't pay the authors as big an advance, and the bookstores will be stuck with a limited inventory that, after everyone has bought out Dan Brown, will not be able to serve the buying public and will therefore make no money, meaning that they can purchase even fewer books from the publisher…and it cycles from there.
But as Queen of Publishing I'm a fan of the universal ebook format, and a non-fan of exclusivity rights to individual selling intermediaries/stores.
I'd give editors more control over publishing the books they're passionate about, but that would take the business side out of the industry. No business would equal no money and no money would equal a failing industry.
Authors, agents, and editors etc. with pitchforks would be at my door setting the castle on fire.
I'll stick to being a peasant, thank you very much.
Doug Pardee says
Move it out of Manhattan to someplace affordable.
Shiloh Walker says
Deal with the digital /print pricing mess-I know the industry is going through a much-needed growing period there, but if I could figure out a way to hurry things along?
That would be my choice.
Bane of Anubis says
Were I the publishing poobah, I would be hauling ass trying to tie-in books to multimedia. Not from an ad perspective, more from an enhanced media perspective. And not extras, but fundamental elements intertwined. Embrace technology! Death to the Paperback! (under the cloak of Save the Trees!)
Kathryn says
Oh man, I wouldn't even know where to begin.
Linda Godfrey says
I would ban all projects that have no merit other than being written or ghost-written by a celebrity — especially children's picture books.
Crystal says
Donuts for everyone.
Miriellia says
I would get rid of bookseller returns, and instead of pulping books, I'd send them to Africa, or India, or North Korea – somewhere poor or where ideas would be useful.
Christine Macdonald says
Develop a system to weed out scam artists in all areas of publishing from agents to editors.
BuffySquirrel says
I'd bring back editing.
Anonymous says
1) Cap on advances. No offer–even for multiple books–can go higher than 50K.
2) De-centralize (get some houses out of New York).
3) Eliminate bookseller returns.
4) More equitable royalty splits that allow publishers to recoup their costs and make money while simultaneously giving their author their due.
Dara Young says
Pick one ebook format and make it the industry standard.
Dick Margulis says
First let's kill all the MBAs and go back to an industry run by people who are more interested in the books they publish than in the books they cook.
All the other problems will then take care of themselves.
Anonymous says
no more returns…no other industry has them!
Shane B says
I would embrace the digital age even more. I would expand my stable of writers from the traditional small group of power writers to a much larger group that would include unknown writers. Playing the odds that I could stumble upon someone in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere would entice me, especially if I stuck to digital publishing for the lesser known writers until they prove themselves to be worth of a large run in traditional print.
sex scenes at starbucks, says
Every HS and college student would receive an eReader as part of their tuition and textbooks would only be available electronically. I understand my son's middle school has all their text books online and kids never bring those stupid, heavy books home.
(Loving my kindle app on my new iPad)
Giles Hash says
I would ensure better covers for sci-fi and fantasy books. No more 80's hairstyles for books released in the 2000's!
sex scenes at starbucks, says
Actually, Anon 12:39, the interior decorating industry has retail to distributor returns with a restocking fee.
Remus Shepherd says
Industry-wide caps on advances. No one gets more than the mid six figures. The money saved by not paying rich celebrities millions of dollars should be shunted into publishing more new authors.
Every one million dollars *not* paid to a celebrity could be 200 new authors signed up at $5k each. The current state of advances is shortsighted. If you want your industry to have a future, you need to invest in people who may become your future golden geese.
Nicole says
I'd start a blog or some other effort to educate people about the ins and outs of the industry.
Maybe I'm missing out – but it seems like most of the current info out there from publishers is focused solely on new releases and promotion (all good things, mind you) instead of sharing insights about how it actually works. It'd be great to demystify the publishing side like bloggers have started to do with the agent side.
What a great chance to connect with authors and readers, and build loyalty during the ever-changing publishing landscape!
Then again, I'm a writer, so I might be showing a slight bias 🙂
Ariana Richards says
My gut response to this is very different from my practical response. My initial reaction was "only publish quality work". When I put more thought into that concept, I come up with "start giving readers more credit". Find the line between markatable and intelligent and walk it carefully, weeding out more fluff and letting the readers know the publishing industry recognizes their intelligence.
Which means, in short, doing away with most stories that are pitched by "it's like *movie/bookname* but set in the *different location than original*"
Jack F. Erikson says
Have every author wanna-be work through a slush pile. It ease the editors' time and give them some healthy insight into mistakes to avoid.
Anonymous says
People (especially young people) in publishing are jumping on the ebook bandwagon without really considering the consequences. I remember working for a major publisher and leaving before there were massive layoffs. People were just blthely going about their business and not seeing the big picture, and yet I sensed it was coming.
I feel the same about the rush to change everything to ebooks. Once you write off mass market paperbacks, close most of the bookstores, change books into weird book-enhanced video objects etc etc., the industry will collapse. And no, that won't benefit authors, except for a few whose self-published ebooks go viral.
I feel this in my gut after working in publishing for 30 years. So if I were Queen of Publishing, I'd make sure that keeping bookstores around was a high priority.
Anonymous says
Speed up the querying/publishing proccess.
Nathan Bransford says
anon@12:52-
I don't know, I feel like readers are jumping on the e-book bandwagon faster than the industry is.
ajkulig says
I'm torn between wiping out vannity publishers and making agents all have the same submission guidelines. 😉 But I would totally settle for a fancy hat, and someone to type my longhand manuscripts.
Susan Kaye Quinn says
I'd put Bane in charge and eat bonbons. 🙂
John Burford says
Hey Nathan,
Would you mind telling me what you used to make this site (html, dreamweaver, wordpress, etc.)? I'm making a website for my business next summer and I really like the clean, yet professional look of your blog. I'm wondering if I could make one similar.
Thanks,
John
p.s. Keep up the great work! I've been reading your blog for the past 6 months and I really love your stuff.
Nathan Bransford says
John-
Thanks! I'm actually on Blogger, with a custom-designed template by my talented friend Sean Slinsky.
Krista V. says
Honest question (I'm not trying to be sarcastic): What does everyone have against bookseller returns? Wouldn't booksellers buy a lot less books if they knew they'd be stuck with all the inventory they couldn't move? Seems like breakout bestsellers would come along a lot less often…
Nathan Bransford says
Krista asks a good question. Bookstore returns can be onerous on publishers collectively, but take them away and you might find a lot less risk-taking on unproven authors on the bookshelves.
Joe Schmo says
why does everybody think that eliminating bookseller returns would be a good idea? returns allow booksellers to take a risk on new and/or currently unpopular authors and give them a chance. if there were no returns, i can guarantee you that there wouldn't be any authors in there who weren't guaranteed bestsellers (patterson, grisham, butcher, etc.)
same deal with royalties. an author's royalty is pretty standard (check out royalties from the music industry, for instance). the publishing industry's margins are already famously slim, and raising the royalty rates would just make them only carry the bestsellers. they're businesses, not charities.
and for decentralizing, of course that could work in theory, but nobody wants to be the first one to leave and isolate themselves from the scene. it'd be like the country music industry boycotting nashville.
corkers says
Make celebrities who want to write a book go through the same submission process as everyone else.
Francine says
Hi,
For starters the celebrity bandwagon would get tipped and contents rendered to toilet tissue.
Jaded best-selling authors given lower advances = quality control!
More new voices brought into the frame. After all, a fruit stall relies on fresh produce topping the stale to attract customers.
All submission electronic to save on carbon footprint = postmen/delivery companies, planes, trains etc., in humping hardcopy mss across states, countries, oceans.
More minions reading subs and faster turnaround on replies. One boss rather than levels of top-brass sitting on butts swigging coffee and deciding on commissions by committee.
More media alliance via the www, every novel available on electronic devices whatever the format beside hardcopy.
Move HQ's to rural based locations = save money on city property taxes re per building per country location.
Be more amenable to public and treat all authors with respect regardless of whether choco reading or crap came your way.
That's pretty much it, and BTW: verification word "hesse", and no I'm not wearing jackboots!
best
F
Ian Tuttle says
-Universal eBook formatting.
-Encourage small presses rather than huge houses.
-Sponsor "one city one book" campaigns all across the country!
abc says
I'd rather be Queen of the world: I have so many more ideas for fixing the world. I feel like I don't know enough to offer any useful or innovative ideas, but I would like to see less big stuff be in either NY or CA. So I'll side with Doug P. How about Cleveland? Or Minneapolis? Des Moines? Doesn't Des Moines need more love? I think so.
K.L. Brady says
Stop fighting e-books and lower the price.
Sponsor group author tours featuring both bestsellers and midlist authors to give a boost to my midlisters.
Change author contracts so that the more self-promotion they do, the bigger cut of the royalties they get.
Sign myself to a 7-figure deal. (okay, not really)
Put a shirtless Mark Sanchez (Jets) on every book cover. (okay, not really but it's a nice thought for me)
Anonymous says
I would quickly renounce my position for someone better qualified.
That failing I would start learning a whole lot because so far I only know one side of the business.
However, I think I would up the quality. It amazes me some of the stuff out there. But that's me.
John Milner says
I would be the Simon Cowell of the art world, staging auditions every evening in every B&N bookstore in every city. A renaissance of cultural followers would tune in to watch and see who was to become a finalist on the hit reality show American Novelist
Kim Batchelor says
I'd look closely at my system for getting reader feedback. Is my publishing company providing what readers want? Do I have a way to get that feedback in a timely manner? I'm a part research-geek so I'm always wondering if the research methodology is sound.
Anonymous says
Oh that's easy…cut the industry's unbelievably wasteful overhead. (That is, wasteful from my perspective…not necessarily wasteful in an absolute sense).
Which is precisely why I plan to open a publishing company: Given a thriving e-book market and the marketing leverage of the internet, two people can effectively run a publishing company…or so I'm betting.
Mark Terry says
–form a Big 6 subsidiary e-retailing corporation that would go head-to-head with Amazon (call it, perhaps, DeNile.com) that provided their own e-books with a 2-4 week lead-time over Amazon, iBookstore and others
–consider verticals by convincing my brethren to acquire Barnes & Nobles
–Take a hard look at our catalogues and decide NOW rather than later which authors will be published solely as mass market paperbacks, hardcovers, trade paperbacks, or e-books (because I think that's coming anyway, so why wait to be forced into the issue)
–offer competitive e-book royalty rates lest you lose most authors to self-publishing at the 70% royalty rate on Amazon's Kindle
–start a marketing campaign explaining to authors what possible advantages you offer to them over self-publishing e-books at a 70% royalty rate and be specific, like:
–will have transparent accounting in terms of marketing expenses and advertising campaigns
–will provide amount of money to be spent on marketing and stick to it
–indicate to whom and when ARCs are provided
Remus Shepherd says
I think you *could* get rid of the bookseller return policy with some wise marketing strategy.
For example, let's say you offer a bookseller all your titles a la carte — they can pick and choose the titles they want, at a higher price — or offer a package deal. The package costs less per book, but they have to take all the books in the package, which contains both bestsellers and new authors, and no returns. With a little fiddling with multi-title packaging, I think that you could wean the booksellers off of the current system.
The problem is that the publishers are not the ones with the power in the publisher/bookseller arrangement. It would take an industry cartel to make the booksellers change their ways. Or one merciless dictator.
Julia Rachel Barrett says
Loaded question, Mr. Bransford.
Kristina Holmes says
Loving this question!
Given that it's the theme of my day, er, year:
In my world as reigning queen, we would quickly move away from antiquated systems of pitching to the media as our primary method of promotion. We'd re-create publishing companies to reflect the technological developments allowing authors to promote their books in a whole bunch of creative ways by establishing new departments and systems for book promotion. These departments would be a tough sell to the head execs that don't want to spend money on them or are struggling to adjust to changing times, but as queen, I would lay down the law. 🙂
Publishers would create social media departments, or use social media companies like FSB Associates regularly that can help us create impact online. Publishers would be required to staff publicity departments with enough people to do the job, encourage proactive ways of pitching, and set up systems where publicists have more license for creativity. I would immediately make sure that every editor has the support they need to do their job well, and not edit every night and weekend as so many dedicated editors do.
In a nutshell, as publishing queen I would make publisher-backed book promotion a big focus, so that authors have greater promotional support in exchange for the profits and rights they give to their publishers.
And if I was overthrown, I would pray from my jail cell that if publishers continue going in the direction of doing less promotion rather than more, that in return, authors receive more profit and control of their intellectual properties.
karenranney says
I'd squarely face the fact that piracy is a real, financially draining problem for both authors and publishers.
This inability to see the forest for the pirates in the trees just boggles the mind.
Just because you want it to go away doesn't mean it will.
John Jack says
Abdicate in favor of a subsidiarity confederation model separately but equally administrated by a tripartite generaly assembly founded on parlimentary practices. Writers, publishers, and readers individual assemblies. There'd have to be lawyers involved and lobbyists and accountants and printers and truckdrivers and booksellers and agents and editors of all kinds.
The industry already is a transnational corporate monarchy with greater resources and properties larger than many emerging economy nation states, might as well catch up to the republican democracy model.
I ess you not, word verificate: blithest. An actual dictionary word. Huh.
Ishta Mercurio says
I'd institute a system of lower advances for authors, in exchange for more comprehensive marketing initiatives from the publishers on a broader spectrum, instead of for just a handful of titles each year.
swampfox says
I'd name my new publishing house after my Word Verification: readia. Honest! Now I forgot what I was really going to say.
Jenny says
To sound off on the 'no returns' issue. Ordering items that are non-returnable to the bookstore damages the profit margin for everyone. Would you rather have publishers hold back pary of the author's advance money for possible returns, or would you rather the bookstores just not pay as much outright for the copies. Because whatever they don't sell takes up the limited space on their shelves (yes they keep detailed measurements of linear feet)–and they're not gonna pay that much for books that will wind up in the remainder/clearance bins. If they pay for them at all.
(So you can say good-bye to new, untried authors–which has been brought up a couple times now.)
So, publishers won't make as much per book, meaning they can't pay the authors as big an advance, and the bookstores will be stuck with a limited inventory that, after everyone has bought out Dan Brown, will not be able to serve the buying public and will therefore make no money, meaning that they can purchase even fewer books from the publisher…and it cycles from there.
But as Queen of Publishing I'm a fan of the universal ebook format, and a non-fan of exclusivity rights to individual selling intermediaries/stores.
Michelle Kollar says
I'd give editors more control over publishing the books they're passionate about, but that would take the business side out of the industry. No business would equal no money and no money would equal a failing industry.
Authors, agents, and editors etc. with pitchforks would be at my door setting the castle on fire.
I'll stick to being a peasant, thank you very much.