Again
I’ve been lucky in my career. I began writing in the middle of the 1970's fantasy boom. I caught the tail end of the men’s action/adventure books. Then I saddled up for a long ride with Jake Logan and other series westerns. These were all done by traditional publishers selling mass market books in ways that have their roots in the Depression.
The first major change in the business came with the introduction of ebooks. I started putting titles up on Amazon and other indie venues about 15 years ago, with moderate (to no) success. But it was an education I needed in producing the book from the ground up. I coined a term VIPUB–Vertically Integrated Publishing. The author had to do it all. Writing, editing, cover, formatting, publishing and promoting. Along with messy business things like how to take money over the internet (and dealing with state taxes on those sales). The whole enchilada, as we say in New Mexico. That covers a lot of talents/skills and I am not all that good at many of them.
But the major book publishers still provided paying markets. For me, over the past 10 years I increasingly focused on the westerns. But the series began drying up. No more Jake Logans. No more Ralph Comptons.
Smart phones and audio books and Kindles all provided new and different markets, but the bedrock was still the mass market paperback.
Only now that is changing and we need to figure out what to do as authors, selling our own work. If you missed it, this is the Publishers Weekly article that details how the publishers and distributors intend to “winnow” mass market pbs by 2026.
What I read here is that the only print will be trade and hardcover. In 50 years of writing and over 350 titles published, I have had 3 books (2 westerns) that came out first as hardcovers. YMMV. But for me this looks like an asteroid heading for earth (mass markets).
Original anthologies don’t sell well. You know how well you do with original ebooks. Amazon (and others) lets you do Print on Demand. But sales are nowhere near what the major publishers can offer for mass market originals. And we have to do VIPUB. All that work when we could be writing new fiction.
I don’t have any answers how to survive in a world where mass market (and midlist) books disappear. So I am asking for discussion from the rest of the Western Fictioneers. What works best for you? Are your sales of ebooks and others strong? What did you do? Are small presses the answer? Ads, newsletters, giveaways, podcasts, Kickstarter? What formats and lengths and topics are most viable? Is there something you think is a wild idea that’d never work? Please share it. This may be the time for wild and crazy ideas.
We’re all in this writing corral together. Sharing ideas can be the way we all survive the changing markets. What can WF do?
Bob Vardeman
president WF
I wish I knew.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is certain, at least in the western historical romance field. SERIES BOOKS SELL BETTER THAN OTHERS, as a rule. I don't know if this is always true of other genres, but it really is with the WHR stories. I participated in a series 2 years ago, The Pink Pistol Sisterhood. Briefly, the connecting thread to all the books was a pink pistol that had been made as a gift for Annie Oakley that mysteriously wound up with one person or another on down through the years. Try writing that without using "magic" as many WHR readers are very opposed to these days. SIGH. Anyhow, the stories went from the 1800's all the way up to present day. There were so many great "takes" on how the heroine ended up with the pistol and so on, and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed writing those stories. It's still my best selling book now, two years later. I will say, advertising was a huge key in that success, and we had one member of our group who is a WHIZ at doing "all those advertising things" so she was a wonderful help to all of us and the entire success of that series.
ReplyDeleteI think the advent of COVID changed society in a lot of ways, but one of the most noticeable to ME is that reading fiction became more of a rarity among once-avid readers. I think that the worries that came with the pandemic forced people to be more aware of spending any disposable income (on books) but also, just the general uncertainty of what was going to happen made it impossible for some people to even CARE about getting a book and trying to get interested in it. I don't know if there's any coming back from that.
I read a long time ago that reading shorter articles on the internet is not the same as reading longer fiction, because the fiction that is longer and more involved requires a person to use more logic and reasoning and deduction to try to keep up with a plot. A shorter article (usually non--fiction) is more of a "telling" of something that happened that does not require imagination, really--it's stating facts. I thought that was interesting, too, and explains a lot when we think of all the younger generations who have read most everything off of a computer screen, so they don't have the will to sit still and read just for pleasure. Very sad.
As for what to do? As Vicky said, "I wish I knew."
Great question. Something to ponder, but one thing I do know, cross promotion and helping each other ups the odds of success.
ReplyDeleteSwim/row together lessens the chace of sinking, especially if you're just learning. Doris
Thanks everyone. I read every word each of you contributed.
ReplyDeleteMy belief is that people don't read. For most, education stops before it has really started. Tough times for writers. But it is the act of working on and creating a work of art, story, book, project that gives its own reward. And there is something to say about posterity and the fact that our books will be out there long after we are gone.
I do find that making presentations to an audience is the best way to sell ones work. People purchase, once you've made a connection---when they otherwise would not.
Charlie Steel
My (limited) experience is that Cheryl has an excellent point - series do seem to be selling. Writers who are serializing their work on platforms like Substack are making more money than some tradionally published writers. Audio books also seem to be becoming more popular than written works, as you don't have to "work" as hard (as Charlie has said) to read. Audio books are more like TV: you sit back and are spoon-fed the material by a voice actor (or actors). People just don't seem to want to take the time and effort to read for pleasure any more.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think it'd be the opposite - people should be more likely to want to "escape" by reading but instead, it's dystopian TV shows that are popular. This is why I hate marketing. Who can guess what will become the latest fad?
My experience is not extensive enough to make any suggestions. But thanks for all the comments. I'm still learning this crazy business.
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