Sophie Rochester, editor of The Literary Platform, looks at the impact of new technology on the delicate publishing ecosystem. Is the role of the publisher being squeezed out?
Despite an increasing amount of book business conducted via email, skype and conference calls, the value of the face-to-face publishing meeting is unparalleled.
This is clearly demonstrated at international book fairs where fervent face to face meetings are taking place almost everywhere the eye lands – cementing these invaluable publishing relationships around the world.
Relationship between author and publisher
Prior to this year’s London Book Fair, there was a lot of talk about ‘disintermediation’. This was fuelled by the recent news that Catherine Cookson’s huge backlist would be published onto Amazon’s Kindle following a direct deal with her agent Sonia Land.
When talking about disintermediation, it's important to explore the relationship between author and publisher. These are personal relationships, sometimes even friendships, nurtured over years of working together; built on a trust that the writer's work is understood and admired, steered and in some cases improved.
The importance of the affiliation between publisher and writer could not have been better illustrated by an event held this month to celebrate the life and work of Beryl Bainbridge in London. At The Union (Soho, London), old-school publishing types were crushed together with guests such as Alan Bennett, Joseph Connelly, A.N. Wilson and Ian Hislop, to name but a few.
The sense that this room represented the ‘good old days’ of publishing was overwhelming. We heard impassioned speeches about Beryl's 'mischievous' personality - the time she went into the red telephone box, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and exhibited at the V&A, for an urgent cigarette. How she brought her 15-year old along to the Booker dinner and instructed him to get drunk on the free booze.
It's not just the colourful personality of Beryl Bainbridge being celebrated here – it's also the dedication of her publishers – the publishers who nurtured her career as a writer and shared her triumphs and her disappointments.
Benefits of working with a publisher
So what is a contemporary writer supposed to do? Any writer can now publish direct to digital platforms, bypassing both agent and publisher. So why would a writer choose to stick to the traditional publishing model?
In the case of Amanda Hocking, the author who sold millions through self-publishing on Kindle, decided to strike a book deal with a publisher having tired of having to take on the role of publisher, agent and marketer of her own books.
Personal relationships, even friendships, are nurtured over years of working together. Built on a trust that the writer's work is understood, steered and improved.
Many writers admit that the discipline of writing is difficult enough without having to then think about editing and marketing their own work.
While the lure of a bigger cut from publishing directly must be tempting, the knowledge that a writer has a team of dedicated and experienced editors, marketeers and publicists to help your book get noticed might well be worth the lower royalty.
Debating the costs of ebook publishing
One of the key issues facing writers in the digital publishing arena is whether their publisher is paying them a fair royalty on ebooks. The common argument is that if publishing ebooks is so much cheaper, then some of those savings should be passed on to writers.
At the London Book Fair Digital Conference David Shelley (Little, Brown publisher), claimed that one of the key reasons that publishers could not increase digital royalty rates was because of the burgeoning cost of fighting piracy.
"Money spent on print and paper will be spent on specialists to fight piracy. The costs of this are only getting more expensive, and could spiral way out of control. There are also legal costs, when sites refuse to take down content."
In David's opinion these 'unknown costs' completely counter-act any savings made of digital thus justifying the royalty rates passed on to authors.
Lisa Gee, the only author appearing at the London Book Fair digital conference, made the point that piracy was not her major concern. What she wanted from her publisher was 'vision, collaboration and courage' in a digital age.
The debate over self-publishing
On the first day of the London Book Fair there was a heated debate on the relevance of publishers between Andrew Franklin (MD, Profile), Richard Charkin (Executive Director, Bloomsbury), Cory Doctorow (author) and James Bridle (author and writer/speaker on digital publishing).
Andrew Franklin was quite disparaging about self-publishing, “If you self-publish on the internet, you might as well not bother, you will be silent."
“If you self-publish on the internet, you might as well not bother, you will be silent."
"Free is far too much to pay for the overwhelming majority of books self-published‚ you can't even give them away."
The audience at this particular debate voted overwhelmingly that the publisher remained relevant.
Getting better deals for authors
As the major online retailers allegedly start hiring editorial teams, the question lingers: will publishers have to restructure their entire business models in order to survive the digital age?
Alongside the reshuffling of the legacy publisher we’re also seeing the emergence of a new kind of publisher – professing to offer a better deal for authors – more flexible rights agreements and more generous royalties.
One of the most interesting of these is Richard Nash’s Cursor (US), a portfolio of niche social publishing communities. Cursor “seeks to unite all the various existing revenues in the writing-reading ecosystem, from offering services to aspiring writers far more cheaply than most vendors to finding more ways to get more money to authors faster.”
“The best way to enable them to get the word about our books, about our community, about our writers published and unpublished, out to all the readers and writers they talk to is by participating
"By having our books sold into their stores, by having our books reviewed by their conventional media that helps librarians, booksellers, and yes, even readers, make purchasing decisions. By having the books visible in those places most highly trafficked by avid book readers and writers, by making books available to readers’ advisory librarians.”
It’s an interesting approach and certainly one which all publishers – both established and emerging – should examine closely.
While the noise of this writer-publisher debate continues after the London Book Fair, publishers continue to position themselves as the essential conduits between writers and readers, continuing to offer a service for writers which liberates writer to do what they do best – write.
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