The Lady Or The Tiger (Part 2)

Picking up where I left off in Part 1....

The first door in my particular arena leads to traditional publishing. That term usually means the big publishing houses of New York City and related businesses, but for my purposes it by and large also encompasses smaller “independent” presses and any other entity whose primary job is to buy fiction from authors and turn it into printed, published books.

There are some strong reasons to consider traditional publishing, no question. The first is validation. If a publisher accepts and prints my book, that’s a professional saying that my fiction is good — good enough to justify the time, money, and effort required to publish a book. And that, my friends, isn’t something to sneeze at. Obviously the ultimate validation is readers actually buying and reading the book and enjoying it, and there are other ways to get that, but I can’t deny the pull of being told “you’re worthy to enter this club” by a publisher.

Second, there’s a certain amount of prestige in being able to say “I’m a published author.” Anyone can self-publish; the whole concept is often looked down upon, even in this day where the likes of Amanda Hocking (and many far less well known) can make very good money doing it. Not everyone can overcome the barriers to making it into print through a well-known publisher.

Similarly, everyone can understand “My novel’s been published; you can get it in the bookstore.” I’ve written over 150 roleplaying game books, but my family and many of my non-gaming friends have never quite grasped what it is I do. But everyone knows what I mean when I say “Tor Books has just published my novel,” and they comprehend what an achievement it is.

Admittedly, all those benefits are intangible. That doesn’t mean they’re not valuable, though.

But for all the Lady’s seductive attractiveness, there are some strong downsides to the traditional publishing route — quite a few of them, in fact. For example:

1. Getting traditional publishing to notice me and buy my book is next to impossible. Always has been, probably always will be. There are lots of people who want to be published and only limited publisher resources. Even if I had an agent (which I don’t), I think I have about as much chance of actually persuading a publisher to take me on as a “client” as I do winning the lottery.

Heck, just getting an agent to take me on as a client (if I wanted to have one) is difficult. While it’s true that the one guaranteed way to fail is to never try, the fact remains that the hurdles to getting into traditional publishing are so large and so numerous that I have to seriously question whether my time would be put to more productive (and potentially more profitable) use trying to self-publish.

Now, this factor goes away, or becomes less important, if I can use contacts I’ve made here and there in the literary world to leverage myself into the “consideration pile” in a relatively quick and easy manner. But even then I can’t overlook the fact that succeeding with traditional publishing is very, very, very difficult for a first-time author.

2. Total loss of control. Once a publisher agrees to publish my book (or “buys” my book, or however you want to put it), I’ve just lost all control over it. They can make me rewrite it in ways I don’t agree with. They determine what will be on the cover regardless of my opinions. They can delay the actual publication of the book indefinitely (not just months, but years). And yet, if the book doesn’t sell, or people hate it, I’m the one blamed.

This is a powerful, powerful negative for me. I hate giving up control over anything. That goes double for something I’ve created myself and which I value highly, like a novel or short story. Ten years ago I basically spent my life savings to buy the Hero Games assets and go into business for myself precisely because I was tired of other people overriding my judgment with their own, of editing my work in ways that made it worse, and presenting my work in ways I strongly disagreed with. (And I am, by the way, still right about all those things we argued over. Just so we’re clear. ;) ) If I go the traditional publishing route, it will unquestionably feel like stepping ten years backward in my writing career.

3. Loss of rights. I don’t have any publishers’ contracts in front of my right this moment, but from what I’ve read, what I know from my former career as an attorney, and plain common sense, I’m willing to be they’re pretty draconian. I expect that a publisher will basically insist on buying all rights from me — not just overall world publishing rights, but gaming rights, e-publishing rights, movie rights, wallpaper-design rights, you name it. That’s certainly par for the course, and is the way things work in business... but it still bugs the crap out of me. Furthermore, they are (I’m assuming) contracts of adhesion, meaning I have no real power to negotiate changes that would be beneficial to me (such as, for example, bonus payments if the book isn’t published within a specific timeframe).

4. Slow, and often meager, payment. I’m not sure what publishers are paying these days for first novels (and obviously there are a lot of factors that can affect that), but I doubt it’s very much. And as I understand it, payment often takes months or years to arrive. What’s worse, as one guy I have very little leverage to improve the situation or get a publisher to do what he promised to do.

Of course, it’s not that self-publishing is necessarily some road to instant riches. Payment may be pretty meager there too. But at least I get it about two months after I make a sale, rather than a year or more.

5.  Lack of promotion or assistance. One big attraction to going with a traditional publisher, in theory, is that “they do all the work.” I’m a writer. Writing is (as they say these days) my “core competency.” Any time I spend maintaining a website, handling business matters, or promoting myself is a less-than-optimal use of that time — the best way I can spend my time is by creating more written work. If I go with a traditional publisher, they handle the cover artist, the printer, the marketing, the logistics all that sort of stuff.

But that, as I say, is “in theory.” The truth of the matter these days, according to virtually everything I read, is that most authors are expected to do their own promotion. Traditional publishers offer little, if any, help in this regard unless you’re already a bestselling author or have something else special going for you. If I’m going to have to do so much of the distasteful work anyway, why shouldn’t I just bite the bullet, do all of it, and reap all the rewards myself?

So to sum up — there are some definite benefits to traditional publishing, but there are also a helluva lot of strong reasons to consider the alternative.

In tomorrow’s third and final installment of this pulse-pounding exposé, I’ll delve into the possibilities offered by the second door:  self-publishing.

Comments

[Lloyd Brown]

Steven, Steven--you undervalue yourself. Your writing and publishing credits absolutely give you a platform. Your extensive writing and publishing experience give you an edge over 99% of "first-time" authors. I think you undervalue your chance of success through traditional publishing tremendously.

Publishing isn't a lottery. It's not random. It's very much a meritocracy, and you have merit.

Also, contracts are more plastic than you're presenting here.

Traditional publishers do spend their advertising dollars on the big sellers. It makes sense for them to do so. If you increase a 3,000-book seller's sales by 20% with advertising, you haven't made much money. If you give Stephen King's books a 1% sales increase with some TV ads, you've earned back your money. However, they have one benefit that I'm sure you grok distribution.

Honestly, it sounds like a lot of the sour grapes stuff I've been reading online for years. I have more discussion, but I don't want to hog your page, and I need to run for a bit. E-mail me.

[Steven S. Long]

Thanx for the info, Lloyd!

Honestly, no sour grapes intended -- I'm sorry if it came off that way. Perhaps my innate tendency toward pessimism is showing through a bit. I'm just trying to evaluate the situation as bluntly as I can for myself -- no sense fooling myself with pie-in-the-sky dreams. ;)

Edit: Lloyd, I don't think I have your e-mail address and I'd definitely like to continue the conversation when you have time. Please ping me at steve (at) stevenslong.com at your convenience. Thanx!