Day 1 into the odyssey of my publisher (Dorchester Publishing) switching from mass market to direct-to-digital/POD, and my response to the influx of emails and texts and tweets and so forth that I’ve received is that all I can process at the moment is the business side of this.
So, as a Dorchester author with a degree in business and 5 years as a published author, writing organization board membership, writing craft teacher, mentor and romance publishing advocate behind me, here’s what I see on Day 1:
1) Anyone who thinks this latest shift is just about a small New York publisher named Dorchester needs to research, as I have, the changes in our industry over the last two years. The current mass market business model has been broken for some time (long before the shrinking economy played its hand). It’s never going to work again on any sustainable level. It’s only a matter of time before even the largest publishing house must face the decisions Dorchester has had to. The only variable in this evolution is how long each house has before they have no choice but to act in some significant way.
2) Every publisher, printer, wholesaler, distributor, bookseller, and author has taken a significant financial and sales hit in an economy where everyone was carrying sizable debt when the credit market crashed, then proceeded to shrink even further from there.
When the accessibility of available funds to do business dries up, businesses do what businesses have to do to protect the bottom line–they cut back. Starting with stores ordering fewer books and returning more (putting less titles on the shelves and ordering fewer and fewer copies of all but the lead titles), shutting the doors to low-performing outlets, and banking on the guaranteed success of branded names instead of continuing to risk precious retail space on newer, un-proven authors.
Track the dwindling numbers back down the chain to the publisher, and orders/print runs have dropped to levels no one could have predicted. Tack on the ridiculous losses publishers absorb when books are stripped and returned, often in warehouses, then re-ordered (and reprinted at the publisher’s expense) to replace inventory that eventually does sell, and the proposition of making money in mass market publishing keeps becoming less and less viable.
3) Smaller publishers without the assets to fall back on of their bigger counterparts will of course feel the pinch sooner. They’ll be the first to show visible cracks. But don’t for a minute believe that the bigger publishers that might seem safer places to do business or pitch books aren’t in the same precarious place.
I currently write for another publisher that’s closed and restructured numerous lines in the last few years, adjusting to the shrinking market as needed to protect/grow their business, at times leaving authors and readers scrambling to find new places to write or read what they love. I know many a talented mid-list author in various houses who’s had his or her contract option dropped, has been asked to end a current series prematurely and begin a new one (possibly under a pseudonym, to capitalize on potential sales interest in a “new” author), or has been told that a new proposal is AMAZING, but it just isn’t viable in the current market.
4) Larger publishers may have the option to sit back and watch as others try alternative business models. Maybe they’ll even have the chance to see which trends will work in their favor before they, too, are compelled by their bottom lines to act. But I suspect the lag in their hand being forced is shrinking even as I type.
5) The reality of Borders having financial difficulty for years (and closing countless retail outlets), Barnes & Noble possibly being up for sale, and the prospect of places like WalMart and their ever-shrinking book sections choosing fewer and fewer titles to make available to the traditional mass market book reader makes you wonder if taking a strong position in the digital and POD publishing model sooner rather than later isn’t inevitable for anyone.
As I said above, this is just one author’s business take, from the perspective of watching and learning and talking to peers and my own mentors in this business over the last few years (some of whom remain professionals I admire greatly at Dorchester). What’s the best response as an author? I can’t say. Because, honestly, I don’t know what I think about any of it yet. And the first thing I learned in business school is that when you don’t know what to do, do nothing until you have more information.
But I’m hoping to know more on Monday. I’m sure there will be even more to learn on Tuesday. Just like everyone else, I’m a student in this quickly-changing classroom. Figuring out for myself how all this affects me is my job. In addition to writing the books I hope readers will love for a long time to come, my job as a commercial fiction writer is to partner with my publishers in their business, which means I can never stop being a student of the business models that make my career possible. Those authors out there that this particular dynamic hasn’t affected yet, my advice is to show up at class every day, too, and pay attention to your own situation. Now more than ever, you can’t afford not to. Change is coming for us all.
Listen, learn, analyze, process. These are the things we can all do as this plays out. You know, when we’re not listening to the WSJ telling us that the reason romance readers are a strong market for digital reading devices is that we need to hide our pornographic covers and we’re so old that we need the increased font size capability of the reader to be able to see our smutty stories.
Really, WSJ? I’m embarrassed to know you.
Still, other than that indulgent aside, I’m keeping it positive around here as always. And Day 1 for me is all about business. If you have any thoughts along those lines, feel free to chime in. I’d love the company in my thinking spot!
Tags: Anna DeStefano, digital publishing, Dorchester Publishing, ebooks, ePublishing, Legacy Series, writer, writer resource, writing, writing articles
Anna,
It’s like the wild west all over again. Things are changing fast and furious. I guess it’s only inevitable that more and more writers/authors will be affected by it, in more and more ways.
I’m sure you’ve got a lot of decisions to make, and I know you’ll make the best ones possible!!!
Wild West indeed, J ;o)
And thanks for your confidence!
Nice piece, Anna. The winds of change in publishing seem to be growing stronger every day. It’s nice to hear an author’s reaction to the Dorchester move and I’ll be popping back to see how it’s panning out for you.
I susect that one of the interesting side effects of publishing houses going this way is that there will be an increasing number of books published in ebook formats *only*. People who refuse to use an ebook reader will increasingly find their choices becoming restricted. Eventually, there will be a ebook-only blockbuster, and the tide will turn irrevocably away from print.
That WSJ comment on hiding the covers seems to be ‘received wisdom’ these days to explain why romance and erotica readers have embraced ebooks more readily than other genre fans. I hadn’t heard the one about poor eyesight before. Lol.
Anna,
This is an excellent article on what is happening to Dorochester and the industry as a whole. They are not the first publisher to have to change they way the think and do business and they won’t be the last. While it is a scary and difficult time for all of us in publishing, time will prove to be on our side.
Great blog post. I really look forward to reading what you have to say as you learn more! I’m very new to fiction writing (started this year after years of tech writing) and I have 2 books coming out e-book/POD this winter. I’ve not really considered trying for the trade paperback route, because as I see it, by the time I’m ready to go “there”, there won’t be a “there” anymore.
I totally agree with all your points accept one: I agree with WSJ about reading romance on e-readers because of the covers.
I don’t know that I ever would have started reading romance if not for having a Kindle, and now write Romance!
Oh me? I’m reading Tolstoy, and you?
Thanks again, and I can’t wait to read more!
LOL! I understand, Daisy. And some of the covers are over the top, even for me ;o) But for whoever did the research for that article to have stopped at smutty covers and failing eyesight, when romance is on the spine of like 70% of all mass market books sold each year is unforgivable. But not to worry. Mass market romance writers are laughing all the way to the bank, to cash their royalty checks!
The Wild West in digital publishing came and went years ago. We’re into the developing market now, the one where the big player (cough cough – Harlequin) will take center stage and the others will scramble for position around them.
Some players in the epublishing market have been planning for this for years, others – not so much. So it’s all change now.
I wrote about this last week. The way I described it was slightly different to yours, but as an ex market analyst, guess what – we’ve come to fundamentally the same conclusions.
Sympathies on the sudden change, Anna. It’s never easy. But you’re a bright woman and you’ll win through, I’m sure of it.
Wonderful post, Anna. Your class shines through and it’s what makes you a winner. Thanks for giving everyone some fantastic advice and insight from the author viewpost.
Thanks, Jadette.
I guess I think the authors’ viewpoint is the key here. The authors are the ones who have to keep writing through it and figure out what their next moves are. The industry seems to be stuck on what the publishers are doing and how the readers are reacting. When in fact, without writers, none of the other parties would have anything to have opinions about… You know?
Very interesting and thought-provoking perspective, thank you! And I just wanted to laugh about your WSJ aside–that’s pretty much all I took away from that article, my anger. LOL
Anna: Thanks for sharing your journey during this transition. It will be helpful to us all to hear your perspective as things shake out. As a business person/writer/reader, I have mixed emotions. One thing I learned in business? Any definitive prediction you make will be wrong.
Blythe
I know what you mean about the mixed emotions, Blythe ;o)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Anna. Changes are happening everywhere for this industry. The bookstore where I worked for 12 years closed this last January (along with some 200 others) which greatly affected the readers in our area. The closest bookstore now is either 30 + miles away OR a click of the button to access the internet. With fewer bookstores open, there are fewer opportunities for publishers to sell books. But online, the world is a different place.
It’s going to be a fascinating road ahead Anna. Thanks for sharing your journey. It will be interesting to hear about it from an author on the inside of the situation.
Rayna
Great post and very illuminating. I will watch these changes with great interest. I have an e-reader and to be honest, my eyes do appreciate the bigger fonts LOL. But I love both formats: print and e. And I feel for the readers out there who can’t afford e-readers, the women who go to Walmart and the grocery store and stop to grab one of the romances to bring home and take them away from all they are dealing with as mothers and wives during the trying times we are all facing economically.