Everybody watched Johnny on late night, largely because there wasn’t much else to watch. Yes, he was a talented entertainer, but there weren’t nearly as many channels then. Johnny had market share. Now all information and entertainment markets are fragmented. There’s lots to do. I listened to a Joe Rogan podcast while I browsed for books today (and bought a Writer’s Digest and got meta with a book of clever Twitter quotes.) I wrote 2,000 words so far today (while listening to a brainwave app to stim my creative juices.) I updated my website while listening to Defcon Radio and Stephanie Miller. Later I’ll have lunch while watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I’ll get to reading two books I’m into now, but with all the options, I can’t really say I’m concentrating on those books, can I? I’ll read fewer books this year because I have more options and demands on my time.
Ebooks and the rampant development of self-publishing is democratizing publishing, destroying publishing or reinvigorating publishing, depending on who you listened to last. All that choice. All that stimulation. We are living in an age of wonders…if getting everything for free doesn’t screw it all up. We’re seeing it most clearly with newspapers and magazines. How will we monetize to sustain the publishing industry?
The publishing industry is on the brink of the chasm the music industry fell into. Unfortunately, it’s clear an awful lot of publishers haven’t learned a darn thing from the mistakes made by others. Part of the reason is that the lessons are not transferable. Unless you’re David Sedaris, you aren’t going out on a whirlwind concert tour to read to the masses. Musicians are earning less than before from CDs (what’s a CD again?) so they tour and sell merchandise. ZZ Top made millions from selling key chains at their concerts. Musicians have made more from selling their songs as ringtones than from selling them as songs!
Some publishers are resisting guerrilla marketing tactics, like serializing books on the web. Authors are twittering more and Facebooking, using social media themselves because some pub’s publicists aren’t helpful in regard to new technology. Many publicists are doing what they always did (and as a former publicist, I can tell you press releases and review copies are not hard. Still, many authors are neglected or bumph goes out late to the media.) Increasingly, authors are expected to have their own platform first. There’s a lot more DIY involved than ever before and publishers expect you, the author, to do it all. Fine.
It’s the author’s business and they should be more involved in promotion and publicity. No writer can afford to hope publicists who work for publishers (and all their books, not just you) are going to be much help. With all your social media options, authors have to take responsibility to make sure that gets done. Yes, it will be at your expense.
Don’t think your advance on your first book is going to pay for a new dryer. Buy a clothesline and put the rest of the advance back into promotion. And DIY! At least you’ll know the publicity chores get done.
BONUS:
Hire your own publicist, one who works just for you. The publisher’s in-house publicist can coordinate with your publicist (not the other way around.)
MORE ON EBOOKS and SELF-PUBLISHING TOMORROW
Filed under: publishing, ebooks, monetizing publishing
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