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The Great Publisher's Paradox
How it has been counterproductive
to Publishers and Authors alike. |
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For the past 100 years, trade publishers
have vigorously competed to find the best-selling
books -- because one big-selling book can
be more profitable than 100 average books.
Yet it has also been established over the
past 100 years of book selling, that authors
who write a best seller, usually do so in
their first or second major work. The parallel
in cinema is that the sequels to a popular
hit movie almost never sell as well as did
the original hit show.
Therefore, the likelihood that
next year's
best seller will come from a
new or upcoming
author is very high -- so major
trade Publishers
need to remain open to works
from such new
or upcoming authors. Yet the
barriers they
have put up in the past 20 years,
prohibit
such authors from ever reaching
them, or
letting them know that a new
author's unique
work is worthy of attention.
This is what has come to be known
as "The
Great Publisher's Paradox".
On the one
hand, Publishers desperately
want new ideas,
original works, and most of all
best sellers,
but on the other hand, they surround
themselves
with an impenetrable blockade
that stops
new and upcoming authors, who
are most likely
to have such books, from reaching
them and
opening a dialog.
So evolved "Literary Agents",
intermediaries
forced on authors by Publishers
not willing
to talk directly to them. It
was supposed
to stop the "masses"
of writers
with poor quality works from
bothering Publishers
-- let agents weed out 90% of
the junk, so
Publishers don't have to bother.
They can
just sit in their ivory castles
and let Literary
Agents feed them all the the
best sellers.
A wonderful idea -- but it doesn't
work.
Some Publishers say they get
great submissions
from agents, but they'll never
talk about
the 10% of really choice, best-selling
books
they missed out on, because they
relied on
someone else to do their homework
-- as if
Agents know what is best for
them to publish!
Literary Agents not only can't
decide what
is best for a publisher, but
also can't step
outside their field of "familiarity",
and recognize exceptional works
that stand
out, because of their uniqueness
in not following familiar topics or ideas. Each
year, hundreds of unique, outstanding, or
unusual works are rejected by agents, because
they "can't handle them", or are
afraid to submit "radical" works
to Publishers, lest their "reputation"
be cast into doubt.
It is these new, "radical",
unique,
or exceptional works that are
the food of
next year's best sellers, and
more often
than not, they go unrecognized
by Agents
-- especially since Agents are
now hiring
inexperienced readers, just to
cope with
the volume of submissions they
receive. And
if an author is a new "unknown"
name, Agents will err on the
side of caution,
and reject any work from a new
name that
does not follow conventional
thinking. In
fact, 96% of Agencies today flatly
refuse
to take on new or upcoming authors.
So the model is broken -- it never really did work, and in the
last 20 years, hundreds of exceptional or
different ideas and inspirations from new
authors have never seen the light of day
-- because of the blockade which U.S. trade
Publishers have erected around themselves,
prohibiting all direct author input.
With the Internet as a viable
publishing
medium, authors are no longer
trapped in
the Agent-rejection blockade,
and have real
viable alternatives to air their
ideas and
thoughts. Publishers were so
exclusionary
and elitist to authors in the
past, that
many new and upcoming authors
resent them,
and are avoiding the conventional model of "big Publisher dominance".
They are flocking to the Internet, where
they can be heard, without discrimination,
hassle, or having their works demeaned by
readers who don't even understand them.
Publishers don't realize how
many options
authors now have -- and they
don't see how
they will lose even more best
sellers to
Internet publishing in the future
-- all
because they cling to the illogic
of the
Great Publisher's Paradox.
To see what is happening, and
how future
publishing will be completely
changed by
the Internet, read about the new publishing model evolving. Then, to see the significance
of this site in the context of the new and
old publishing models, and how it is designed
to help both Publisher and Author alike,
as we move toward the new model, read more
about the purpose of this site.
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RELATED
LINKS:
The new model of publishing -- how it will
ultimately benefit both authors and publishers.
Read it. |
The purpose
of this site --
how it helps Authors and Publishers
communicate
better.
Read it. |
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