Here we go again. See H&F I and H&F II for more context.
Overpublishing. One of the big things that a writer who has a big back catalog of books and/or is a fast writer has to think about after making that first break is overpublishing. Or, at least I've been warned about it, and it seems worth a mention here. There is a belief in the industry that any author publishing much more than one book every six months runs the risk of cannibalizing their own sales. The idea is that readers have a finite amount of money they're willing to spend on your books, and you can end up with a situation where people are buying one of the three books you have out and not the other two because they've released so close together that the money to buy all three simply isn't there, and that if they had been released further apart all three would have been bought.
Since this doesn't fit my own readership patterns at all, I'm not entirely sure I buy it. I think it's probably a function of a mindset built around the idea that most writers aren't going to produce more than one or at most two novels a year. Whatever the reason, it seems to be a dominant idea within the industry, so it's something that affects how books are released whether it's true or not. And, I will freely admit, they may be right. They have access to book sales data that spans years and I don't. This leads to the advice I've gotten from multiple writing and editing pros.
If you're in a position to release more than two books a year, especially early in your career, you should either write in multiple genres or write under multiple pen names or both. I'm currently working on the multiple genres model, and I'm actively trying to crack the YA markets as well as Fantasy as well as having several mysteries in various stages of plotting and execution. I will probably try the pen names route as well at sometime in the future if I can get my production up to where I'd like it to be. I'll get to that in my next post. In the meantime, I'd like to ask this:
If readers have a finite book budget for books like yours, why does competing with yourself for that market under a different name make more sense than doing it under your own name?
If someone could explain that one to me it would an enormous relief. And that brings us to the end of another exciting episode of hopes and fears. Tune in next time when Kelly will babble incessantly about the pros and cons of Pen Names.
In the meantime, any thoughts you have on overpublishing, market gluts, or the state of the market for widgets would be much appreciated.
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9 comments:
I have a thought about this... and that is that I think readers have been conditioned to expect only a book a year from authors -- at least in the SF/F/H genre. I've overheard readers who are surprised to find a second book in a series out before year end... which means they missed buying the book when it first came out, and that may or may not affect how your publisher thinks about sales (those first weeks being so critical, or so I've been told.)
Plus, there's another, more subtle issue. Elizabeth Bear had three books come out in one year the year I was on Philip K. Dick award committee and I know that we discussed whether or not to judge the book as a single work or as three seperate... in the end she didn't make the short list, partly, I think because we never could decide.
At Uncle Hugo's I had a discussion with one of the staffers who had two of her books up on the recommended by staff end cap and I said, "What, you didn't like WORLDWIRED?" and I got a roll of the eyes and a "She gets ENOUGH shelf space, don't you think?"
Something to consider... though, of course, none of this is really in the author's power.
I'm just guessing here, but it might have something to do with the psychological aspect of the irrational/emotional relationships that readers have with authors, which I'd suppose would be a substantive part of what drives their buying choices. I mean, there will always be those who love your work and buy everything you publish, but my theory is that the people who actually support you financially are a broad range of folks who aren't necessarily in love with you, but rather enjoy having the occasional casual fling with you.
In other words, it might be less about your target market having "a finite book budget for books like yours" and more about them having a finite book budget for your books, even though the money spent works out the same. So you could sell those folks 2 Kelly McCullough books per year, but not 4, but you could probably get them to buy 2 KM books as well as a Pen Name title or two. Does that make sense?
That actually makes a lot of sense to me, Jen. Thank you.
Lyda, Sean, good stuff as well.
I'm still not entirely sure I buy it. Some of the most successful authors out there are also highly proliffic, Lackey, Webber, Flint, Bear, etc. But hey, it's a start.
First things first: if you publish under a Pen Name, Mr. Kelly Y, you'd better tell the inner circle what it is. Moreover, I'd better be in the inner circle. Got it? ;)
Anyway, my thoughts on pen names are mixed. As a fan, I find Pen names annoying, because when I find an author I like I tend to read multiple books from that author. I might not buy all the books on the shelf at one go, but odds are good that I'll buy two or three others, especially if they're in a series. If an author is using more than one name, and those names aren't common knowledge (and let's face it, they usually aren't, because what would be the point if they were), how am I supposed to find the books to read them? I'd almost pay money to find out Robert Jordan's pen names. (Okay, okay, Robert Jordan is a pen name, I know, but he has others, too.)
As a writer, though, I can see the benefits of writing under a Pen name. This past summer I attended a Q&A with R.A. Salvatore. He's an enormously successful author whose fan base is largely gamers. I asked him if he had ever or would he ever publish under another name. He looked happy to be asked a real writer question instead of a "Who would win a fight between D'rizzt and Jaraxel?" question, and he said one was in the works and would be published next year. Dead silence in the room. Once the talk started up again, it became evident that a)no one believed the secret could be kept and b)that no one believed they wouldn't like a non-gamer-genre-fantasy book written by Salvatore. I told you that to tell you this: I would think that a wildly successful author would find some comfort in modest sales of a Pen Name book. While the numbers sold might be low when compared to his "real name", those books sold because of the content within the covers, not the name on the front. And there's a certain release from expectations that goes with that, as well.
Also, non-fantasy readers tend not to read fantasy books. Once I told my thriller-genre reading friend that James Rollins writes high fantasy under the name James Clemens and that neither of these names were his real one, she was a little deflated. She couldn't believe that an author she liked would write fantasy.
aaaahhh! My wildly long comment got posted twice. Blast these blog gods. Sorry!
X, no worries, it's fixed.
Interesting stuff, particularly on the non-fantasy reader's deflation. I always find the various forms of lit-snobbery fascinating, especially since there are folks who feel that way about every single genre including lit-fic. People are fascinating. oh, and yeah, I'll let you know if I start up a pen name.
This may be a bit late for you, but if you look for new comments maybe you'll see it.
I work in publishing, and one thing you might want to keep in mind is that your publisher, and their sales reps have to convince the bookstore to give shelf space to your books. If you start having several books under the same name, unless they really like you and know your books move, their going to pick the one that looks best, and see how it goes.
Which often leads the sales reps, who don't have all that much time to talk up the books to the buyers to maybe highlight the books they think will sell best, and sort of gloss over the others.
On another note, it can take a while for publicity and word of mouth to get out about a book. Having lots of books in one year can make a pr person throw up their hands, because they can't hit the same people over and over again for the same author without making the media look at the multiple books askance.
Noelle, I do indeed check back. Thanks for the insight. That is perhaps the most sensible explanation I've heard to date. Thank you.
Okay, so taking this collectively, I'm now convinced. I still think it's an enormous pain in the behind, but at least it makes sense. This is good, I know publishing is a strange place and there are many rules that would drive me crazy if I didn't just role with what is, but it's always nice to get a handle on the weirdness.
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