No, the publishers are probably not going away tomorrow

I personally adore reading on a screen—when my publisher shifted to an all electronic work flow for editorial I was delighted—and it's certainly very likely that e-books will become a large part of books sold sooner rather than later. At the same time, I don't think that books are going away any time soon and I'm not at all certain that the shift to CD and MP3 is a good comparison to a shift to e-readers.

For one thing, the formats killed off by digital music had much shorter histories and testing periods. The LP lasted what, a bit over 40 years as the primary delivery system for recorded music? Recorded music itself goes back to the 1850s and has had significant format improvements every 20-40 years. The book in codex form goes back to Republican Rome with only minor changes—that's 2,000+ years of optimization.

For another there's the delivery model. Publishers, in one form or another, go back further than the codex (Sosius and Co would be a Republican Roman example).. Record companies? Not so much. It's perfectly possible that digital is going to completely and utterly change all that in a year or five or ten, but everyone said the internet made recessions obsolete too, and look what happened there.

The codex (and many of the big publishers) have survived the advent of talkies, radio, television, the serious audiobook, and (so far) the e-book. The weight of history is currently on the side of publishers and physical books surviving for at least a while longer and e-books only becoming a part of the mix.

Is it possible that physical books will go away completely? Meh, we'll see. Become boutique items only? Probably, but it may well take a lot longer than the digital visionaries expect it to.

Are publishers going away? Almost certainly not. Despite what many people have been saying lately, they serve a lot of valuable purposes in the production of books. Will the current publishers be the publishers of tomorrow. Some of them probably will, some won't. Just as some of the publishers of yesterday are the publishers of today.

Smart Things & More Amazonfail

Jay Lake saying smart things About the life cycle of a manuscript going through publication and all the things a publisher does. This is related to the Amazon Macmillan mess, but would be a smart thing even without that. In the future I will direct my writing students to take a look at this post.

Agent Joshua Bilmes talking about e-book royalty structures.

Amazonfail links:

Snerched from Jay Lake, two posts on Apple's entry into ebooks both of which predate Amazonfail and both of which talk about the disruptive effects of the agency model. One, and Two.

Serious smackdown on ebook costs and publishing realities. Some very interesting stuff here.

New Macmillan author Blake Charlton freaking out about Amazonfail in a very way with a very funny post.

Cat Valente on why she doesn't see self-publishing replacing traditional publishing any time soon. Some very good thinking in here, though I'm not sure the cheese thing is the best analogy.

Sean Fodera with a very nice post on publisher overheads. Lots of good discussion in the thread too.

Friday Cat Blogging on Saturday Afternoon

Shade cat.



Sun cat



Is this my good side?



In another life I was a very large toad.

In the Absence of Kelly's Cats

Here is one of mine, Ms. All Ball, in her favorite spot on the radiator.

No, Really, Publishers Do A LOT For The Author

I wrote the note below in response to someone saying (for the 5,000th wrong time in this Amazon thing) that publishers are no longer necessary because of internet distribution of ebooks. It takes a lot of money to produce a book in terms of editing, copyediting, PR, and even gatekeeping (yes there's value to gatekeeping, it helps readers find books they have much better odds of enjoying). Now, this particular comment was a slightly more sophisticated version of the "you don't need publishers" argument in that it at least acknowledges that those things need to happen and suggests outsourcing. But that's still not a workable model because it ignores the economics of the situation. So let me address that:

Under the current model one of two things happens: 1) I write the book, my publisher buys (the rights), fronts all the other costs, and I get paid so that I can eat while I'm writing the next book—then, assuming I earn out—more money comes in on a regular basis starting between 6 months and several years after publication, allowing me to continue to eat. 2) My publisher buys the book on proposal and I get paid in advance to write it, then they front all the other costs and the rest follows.

If I want to become my own publisher I have to front all those costs myself and have to wait till the book earns out (maybe) to recoup those costs (again maybe) up to several years after I've fronted them. But, since I don't have a spare 5-20k* sitting around that I can bet on a possible return potentially several years down the line, what actually happens is I stop writing and find a new job and there are no more Kelly McCullough books. So, yes, ____ was pretty much all wrong.

And that's without accounting for things that my publisher does that don't go directly into the making and selling of the book, like my publisher's legal department—which I hope never to become any more familiar with than I am now. In a perfect world none of my books will ever get involved in a legal dispute of any kind, but if someone decides to sue me for any reason whatsoever in regards to my writing, the fact that I have a major publisher on my side significantly reduces the chance that a frivolous (or otherwise) lawsuit bankrupts me.

*Updated to add: I should probably also note that 5-20k is what a publisher pays for copyediting etc. and that the price they get based on their volume and reliability is much better than the price I would be likely to get for those same services.

Linky Bits

My friend Beth being wise about life once again.

Tim Powers annotated bibliography. Want!

Very interesting take on the Amazonfail (Macmillan edition) scuffle by a former music industry exec.

A legal perspective on the same issue by way of how it might impact the Google settlement from C.E. Petit.

Jeff Vandermeer talks about the issue from the point of view of a sense of entitlement.

Newbie Questions #11 & 12

11. How do I know which agent is best for me?

12. How much should I expect to pay an agent to represent my book?

Last one first: NOTHING.

Remember the rule that money always flows to the author. A literary agent works the same way a real estate agent does, which is to say that you should pay nothing until the book sells. Then, you can expect to pay a percentage of that sale. When I was agent hunting in the late Cretaceous that percentage was 15%, now-a-days it could be slightly more, but not significantly so. (The exception is foreign sales -- since your agent has to pay sub-agents – but that’s nothing to worry about until a foreign sale happens.)

If your perspective agent charges a reading fee, I say that agent isn’t for you. There may be legitimate reasons why an otherwise reputable agent might charge reading fees, but to me it’s a big red flag that says “run away, run away fast.”

Keep repeating the mantra: money always flows to the author.

As for finding a good agent that fits you, that will be a more personal decision. In the end, you should consider the fact that your agent is your face in the professional arena. After that, it becomes a matter of taste.

For myself, I don’t like agents that edit. Even though my first agent was also a consulting editor, he never asked me to do editorial changes before submitting my work to publishing houses. I like that. It’s my personal feeling that if someone wants me to significantly rewrite a novel, I want to be paid to do so (remember the mantra!)

I also don’t need my agent to be my friend. In fact, I prefer a shark. Someone who I know will go for the best deal possible, even if it means not being terribly nice.

On that note, I do want an agent who is excited about my work. When I was in the process of finding a second agent (the first changed career to be a full-time editor,) I talked to a lot of agents. I had one offer to represent me. It became clear, however, that this agent hadn’t really read my work. Even though it meant being agentless for longer than I would have liked, I told him I wasn’t comfortable having an agent who wasn’t 100% into me. Your agent has to be your go-to guy/gal, your advocate, your nag… someone who e-mails you to say, “what have you got!?” If you’re not on their radar, then it’s easy to be forgotten… and this is your career on the line. You need someone who is going to be with you through good times and bad… because there’s always some bad in this business, I’m sorry to say.

Speaking of being “on the radar,” I think a case can be made for having an agent in New York. I also think that a case can be made that it doesn’t matter one wit. Perhaps the bigger issue is the size of the agency. We all want to have the Big Name Agent (you know the one who wrote the book on writing a bestseller) represent us because just throwing around his name is impressive as hell. However, I’ve had friends get lost among the various cogs in that particular machine. My experience has been that it’s much better to be part of a smallish stable. Ideally, you can end up where I am, which is to have a big name agent in New York who has a relatively smallish, but impressive client list… or at least who never makes me feel less than an A-lister (even if I’m really a C- or D-list writer. And, no, that’s not false modesty. I have no delusions that I’m anything other than a solidly mid-list author.)

You should also find an agent with a track record. It might be great to be someone’s start up client (and I actually know people who have had that work out great for them,) but it’s a safer bet to go with someone established in the business. Because this is a business where it helps to know people who know people… and a completely new agent is less likely to have those connections.

But this is really a matter of taste. There’s nothing wrong with trying to land the biggest name agent (in fact, I always tell students to start at the top and work your way down.) There’s also nothing wrong with having an agent who edits all your work, holds your hand every step of the way, and has an office in Peoria. As long as you are comfortable with the relationship you have and your agent is finding you work, I say do what you will.

My last note is this: don’t hesitate to say no and be picky. It’s tempting to go with the first offer, but you’ve got to believe in yourself. Believe that what you’re doing is worth being paid for, and that this is an important job that not anyone can do. Don’t sell yourself short.

What Scalzi Said

John Scalzi is pointing out that in light of the Amazon mess, now would be an excellent time to go out and buy a Macmillan author's book from someplace other than Amazon, because this is going to hurt them. Let me note that is particularly true of authors debuting this week. As an Ace/Penguin author, this doesn't affect me directly, but what Amazon is doing is really bad for publishing in general and writers in specific. Also, a lot of my friends and colleagues are among the collateral damage here.

UPDATED to add: Speaking of which, my friend David Coe has a Macmillan release today, The Horseman's Gambit. He blogs about it here in case you're interested.

Smart Things

Kris Rusch on professional courtesy.

Kristin Nelson on the iPad and it's coming impact on books and book contracts.

Lilith Saintcrow on righting when you don'wanna!

Fun and funny for word nerds: HapiSofi at Absolute Write on hiring an independent copyeditor—via Teresa Nielsen Hayden Making Light .

Seanan McGuire on what authors do and don't control and in terms of the latest Amazon mess.

Newbie Question #10

10. How do I go about getting an agent? Where do I look for one?

The first piece of advice I want to give is this: finish your book first!

Now, assuming you've followed the above, finding an agent is an arduous process, but the single most important thing you're going to do as a writer (besides write the best book possible.) There are a few things you can be doing while you're writing your book, and they are --

1) read books you like and keep notes of any names listed in the acknowledgements;

2) subscribe to professional magazines (for science fiction writers, Locus Magazine/ for romance folks, Romantic Times) and check listings to see who is selling what/who. In Locus, you can easily see which agents are selling a lot and a lot of new authors -- make special note of those names; and

3) attend conventions.

In science ficiton, there are plenty of panels where you can go and listen at the feet of actual agents and ask questions about the sorts of books they're selling, etc. In SF/F, however, DO NOT harass any agents or attempt to give "elevator pitches" unless specifically asked. Romance writers have it a little easier. At the romance conventions, you can actually sign up to pitch prospective agents and there are workshops you can attend to teach you how to do so effectively. (Note: you can find a list of conventions in the professional magazines listed above. SF/F writers could attend a convention every weekend, if they had the money and the time. Romance writers, you get a couple of big ones a year -- RT Convention and RWA's convention. Probably there are others, but I have to admit knowing much less about the romance process for finding an agent.)

Once you've got your list of prospective people, I recommend checking out their web pages, if they have them, and see what Predators & Editors has to say about them. If they have a web site, be sure to take note of what kind of package they want sent, whether or not you can simultaneously submit, etc, and FOLLOW THE RULES.

I should say that I found my first agent the old fashioned way... I got a recommendation from a professional writer friend. These are hard to come by because you have to be the sort of person who can effectively schmooze (without oozing) professional authors and get them to lend their name to your cover letter.

The cover letter is probably worth a post of its own, though you can find lots of advice out there. A quick search produced this: writing tips: the cover letter/query. I'm sure there are dozens more out there.

The other piece of advice: come up with strategies to deal with rejection. It's a fact of writing life. Persistence is more important than talent.

More on the Amazon-MacMillan kerfuffle

So, no imagined dialog this time (sorry, I have other work to do). But for those of you interested in the latest in the Amazon-MacMillan skirmish, I give you the following:

Charles Stross with his break-down of what Amazon and MacMillan were trying to accomplish, respectively. I tend to lean in Charles's direction on this one, but opinions clearly vary if you check out the comments.

Tobias Buckell's many thoughts on what is happening, and why he will no longer be selling his books on Amazon. He gives a nice breakdown of the costs behind what it takes to produce a book, which helps debunk some of the "But the price-point on an e-book is Zero, so I should get them for dirt cheap!" camp's arguments.

Laura Ann Gilman has apparently culled Amazon's (testy?) response to MacMillan's letter and proposal. Love the snarky interspersed comments from her, btw. :)

Want to know more about what's at the root of all this? Fashionista gives an explanation of the agency model that is one of the key issues at the center of this disagreement. ETA: She also gives a nice summary of why, while it may look like Amazon is the good guy for trying to hold the $9.99 e-book line, in the long run a lot of people would lose on the e-book pricing front (except for Amazon, that is).

I have to say that while neither MacMillan nor Amazon are operating out of any sense of altruism here, I am more dubious of Amazon's actions. I worry about any one company that covers so much of the on-line sales and distribution pipe also being the one with proprietary control of the format of ebook distribution as well. Far happier for all of us, I think, if we prmote competition and, in a shiny future, see a common e-format to allow people to read their contents on the device of their choice. May not get there, but I am happier in this instance if the ball lands in MacMillan's court than I am with it in Amazon's.

Also, I just have to say: MacMillan at least put out a professional, adult letter on the matter; but Amazon? Jeez, someone get those kids a balloon and an ice cream before they really have a fit.