How authors can beat both Amazon and Hachette…
I was tempted to make this a humorous post too, a parody of “How Book Publishers Can Beat Amazon,” an op-ed column (two or three columns, in fact) written by lawyer Bob Kohn in last Saturday’s (May 31) NY Times. Last Wednesday (June 4), the lead editorial in the Times also attacked Amazon. Pretty clear where their sympathies lie. Moreover, they’re clearly not on the side of readers or writers! Of course, they claim they’re protecting them…bla-bla-bla. Back to that temptation: it occurred because I already said pretty much all I wanted to say about this storm-in-a-tea-cup in my “News and Notices” a week ago Friday. But I’ve been watching the debates on LinkedIn and elsewhere in my general internet lurking mode.
It’s amusing to watch people come down on either side. We’re talking about two behemoths here—Amazon, a rip-snorting, fire-breathing Yankee company in pitched battle against a greedy French member of the Big Five, conglomerate Hachette—you’re supposed to pronounce this name the same way you sneeze, by the way, but I like the pronunciation “hatchet” better because it’s a more appropriate description of their questionable business practices. In fact, it’s also fun to remind people that Hachette is the only company in this new dispute ever accused of unfair business practices—they settled with the government because they knew they’d not win the lawsuit involving them, other publishers, and that other behemoth and corporate bully, Apple (I hate to speak badly of the dead, but Jobs introduced that bullying philosophy into Apple management).
I’d turn Mr. Kohn’s question on its head, of course. Being his kind of lawyer, he only sees lawsuits as ways to make money. But what about those caught in the middle, the authors? How can authors beat both Amazon and Hachette? I’m not talking about James Patterson and other Big Five authors who have become one-percenters off their book royalties—they have it made and should just shut up, because they’ll do fine no matter how the new publishing paradigm shakes out. I’m talking about authors like me who haven’t won that big book lottery, either via self-publishing or legacy publishing. Are we going to be so squeezed by the behemoths in these battles that we can never win that lottery?
Let me state two rules I follow: (1) do what you’re comfortable with; and (2) don’t expect either side to give a rat’s ass about your book’s success! Both sides sell books; both sides publish books, in fact. But, just because they sell and publish books, don’t start thinking they care about yours. In other words, they only care about your book to the extent that you sell many copies. I’m not sure what that number is anymore, but it’s probably at least 10,000 in order to pique their interest. The only difference is that Amazon doesn’t care which books are successful, while Hachette only wants THEIR BOOKS to be successful. That’s because Hachette isn’t a retailer, and Amazon is. Hachette needs Amazon; Amazon doesn’t need Hachette.
So, what’s your leverage as an author? Both these behemoths need people who write books! If you have a juicy contract or contracts with Hachette, more power to you, but, if you’re indie (self-published), a midlist author of the Big Five, or an author working with a small publishing house, you’re still wanted, sort of, by Amazon. Neither one can get along without writers. Publishers and retailers don’t write books—authors do. You’d think we’d have more leverage, but publishers and retailers never respect writers. We’re considered their slaves. Moreover, readers are considered their gullible marks, the buyers of the commodities they sell. Publishers and retailers don’t worry about what’s in your book or who buys it—they just want to sell it, and lots of copies, if they can.
Of course, the real battle here is about that new publishing paradigm. That’s why James Patterson and other Big Five mouthpieces like him are so upset. They know ebooks and indie publishing have changed the publishing landscape and they’re running scared—God knows why, because Patterson could just retire, buy a Bahamas island, and bask in the sun (he might already own one for all I know). Writers aren’t indentured slaves any longer to the big New York publishing houses. The times are a-changin’, and those publishing houses and their anointed authors don’t like it, they’re frightened by it, and are so old and stodgy they can’t see themselves adjusting to it.
Moreover, the publishers know they’re losing control of authors. Today it’s acceptable to make the choice—maybe a juicy contract with a legacy publisher on one hand, with maybe a wee bit of editing help and even less PR and marketing aid, unless you’re an old horse in the stable like James Patterson; or, going it on your own because you can’t tolerate all the middleman parasites standing between you and your readers. There are more choices, of course. You can putter along as a midlist author or sign on with a small imprint that releases only a few books per year. Like I said, do what you’re comfortable with. Some authors are doing both. And smart authors realize there are no silver bullets guaranteeing their books’ success—in particular, no publisher or agent can.
I’ve made my choices and am comfortable with them. I’m sure there are nice agents out there—at least some of them sound nice in print—but they’re just gatekeepers. All the stodgy features of legacy publishing are like the huge dinosaurs whose days are numbered. Readers and writers are like the little mammals scurrying around, trying not to get stomped on. Guess who survives in that scenario—the mammals adapted to a changing environment; the dinosaurs didn’t.
Most bookstores are now like little dinosaurs. The big book barns are on the way out, and people like Patterson and his Big Five publishing friends know that the little dinosaurs aren’t big enough to keep them well fed. On the writer’s and reader’s side of things, your mom and pop bookstores aren’t very useful either. Either mom and pop are snooty old has-beens living in the last century, or they just muddle along, trying to appease the legacy mavens. There are exceptions, of course, but even the little dinosaurs had better learn that small presses, midlist authors, and indie presses and authors are selling lots of books they’ll never see under current policies.
I’m sure there are small publishing houses and agents out there who actually care about their authors and what they write. I know there are also a few mom and pop bookstores that put readers and writers on the proper pedestals, not just old warhorses like Patterson or publishers like Hachette. I just know I can’t handle all the logistics associated with trying to keep all of these groups living in the llast century happy. And I’ve been burned by some of their ilk too many times. So, I’m comfortable doing what I’m doing—just writing and hopefully entertaining a few readers. I don’t need to win that lottery either, via legacy publishing or indie publishing. I need to write. It’s addictive, and I’m hooked.
People say that there’s a book business out there an author has to learn about. Maybe. I say that an author first has to learn to write. I learn something every day about writing. And I certainly won’t learn much from either Amazon or Hachette. I also haven’t learned anything from any other publisher or agent! (I have learned things from other authors.) Of course, an author should be well enough informed about the tumultuous storms sweeping through the publishing kingdom, if only to make informed choices about how to release his book. Today there are so many ways to do that, and none of them really guarantee any success. Those choices aren’t mutually exclusive either, and many have multiple pros and cons to consider that complicate writers’ decisions. I can’t even say that a writer has to have a quality product to release—as a reviewer, I’ve seen a lot of crap; as a reader, I’ve seen even more. Sturgeon’s law is lurking around the corner. I haven’t hit Theodore’s percentage, but I’m selective about what I read, so my personal experience is biased.
Is this a healthy attitude? Dunno. Don’t care, either. It’s one I’m comfortable with. You have to find your own comfort level. You don’t want to get involved in a fight between two Goliaths. Don’t even try to use that sling, thinking you can play David, because either the Goliaths will beat the crap out of you for doing it if they don’t simply ignore you like a bug. David was lucky; 9 times out of 10, Goliath would stomp him down (sorry, Mr. Gladwell). So, bottom line, my advice is to sit on the sidelines and watch these publishing giants, or any other ones for that matter, duke it out like two Roman gladiators fighting to the death. Que será, será. (That song sums up Zen pretty well.) When all the dust settles, maybe the world will wake up and realize that what matters are readers and writers. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
In libris libertas….
