When You Assume …

You know how the rest of that saying goes, right?

Some friends have asked me to sit in on their writing group to give some insights about why I think self-publishing is the way to go. While I’m not making a formal presentation, I have been thinking this topic over. There are all the obvious answers you’ll see quite a bit: keeping up to 70 per cent of the sales of each book, publishing on your own schedule, having control over cover and design decisions, etc.

But there’s a bigger one, too. One that took me a while to realize, because I had always assumed things were one way, when they’re not. Or not always.

I had always assumed a publisher would have the primary aim of selling books. I’ve even said this to people before (or something along these lines) “Well, we both want the same thing; to sell more books.” Of course we do – right? I’ve invested time and effort and hair-pulling in writing a book, and they’ve invested an advance, and payment of various people to do editing, design, etc., as well as printing costs – obviously we would both want to sell as many books as possible.

I’m starting to realize this is a pretty big assumption.

There are other things your publisher might want, than to sell your book, and these are some of them:

(1) To be nominated for / win awards. To be placed on lists. For some publishers this is a huge motivation. This explains why some quite small publishers punch well above their weight on awards lists. If there’s an internal focus on signing, and editing works that will be award-worthy, over time the awards come in. But, guess what – I hate to tell you this – awards and lists don’t always sell books. I’m not talking about the Giller here. I don’t expect to ever write a book that even qualifies for the Giller. The Giller may very well spike sales, but there are many industry-respected, coveted, honours that will not impact sales one whit. Real life example: Objects in Mirror was named a Best Book for Kids and Teens by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre a year ago. While I’ve heard many people get excited about being on this list, I actually didn’t even know my book was on it until several months later. I found out via a Google search. And sales? Well, traditional publishers send out twice-yearly sales reports to authors, so it’s basically impossible to tell if any one thing has impacted sales, but from the information I had, and some backward-figuring math, I’d say the effect on sales was zero.

(2) To get grants. I can only speak to Canada here, but the Canada Council for the Arts provides grants to Canadian publishers to support the production of Canadian literature. If you’re a Canadian, and you’re being published by a Canadian press, you’ll be asked to sign a little form stating that, which, in my understanding, makes your book eligible for Canada Council funding (provided all other criteria are met). I don’t know exactly how much grants offset the cost of producing Canadian books, but my understanding / belief is that many Canadian publishers would be sunk without these grants. You can look at this in a nice, warm, fuzzy way – and I support arts funding – but also realize that it takes at least some of the pressure off publishers to actually, you know, sell books to make money. It’s like if you crowdfund your book. Your main commitment is to get the book done, and to get copies to your initial funders – you may feel less impetus to kill yourself selling it on to third parties after the fact.

(3) Other. The first two are specific. This one is not. I don’t have any personal experience of a publisher creating a book which they then intend NOT to sell, however, there are many stories out there of writers who have found themselves in just this position. Their book exists, but their publisher changes ownership and, suddenly it’s not available. Or, more generally, lots of authors have been in the position of retailers telling them “I tried to order your book in, but I couldn’t get copies.” It happens. I’m not even talking about actively trying not to sell books, but of book sales just not being a priority.

I think it’s really important to mention this to prospective writers, because I don’t think it’s something you’d realize ahead of time.

I didn’t, and now I’m sorry. I really, really want to see Objects earn out its advance – that would benefit me and my publisher. My eyes are opened every day to the amazing digital marketplace out there that already appreciates Appaloosa Summer, and which, I’m sure would embrace Objects. I’ve written to my publisher and offered to work with them – share what I’ve learned – to get Objects selling as an eBook. Or, if they’re not interested in working with me, I’ve offered to buy back the erights so they get something back on their investment and I can sell the book.

Silence.

It baffles me. It really does. I can’t figure out – when you’ve taken the time and effort to make a beautiful thing – why you wouldn’t want to sell that thing. I know I do!

But there’s no point being baffled. I have to realize that I’ve been operating on an assumption that isn’t founded in reality. I may never have the opportunity to help my own first book be a digital success, but at least I can help other writers think hard about their writing goals before signing any contracts.

I’m not telling you what to do. I’m just saying, ask yourself what you really want from your writing experience, and then figure out if you’re completely positive the people you’re partnering with also want the same thing?

It’s an important question.