Each of these groups have dug trenches, and set up their defenses, each convinced the other is wrong in important, fundamental ways regarding being a writer. However, there is something that's important to remember... this isn't an either/or situation. If you actually want to succeed in this career, you're going to need both aspects of this discussion.
You should work on writing the best books you can... but writing a good book and believing that's all you have to do is like saying if you talk to the cops then nothing bad will happen to you. It's a nice sentiment, but historically, not true in the least.
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| There's no way around this. I wish there was, but there isn't. |
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Two Sides of The Coin (That Rarely Interact With Each Other)
I've said it before, but there is a truth that bears repeating. I want everyone here, if you take nothing else away from this article, to remember these words.
The success or failure of a book, commercially, has NOTHING to do with its quality artistically.
If you read those words, I want you to read them again. And then one more time just for good measure. Because we all have this assumption that good writing will be rewarded, and bad writing will fail, and there is no evidence to support this belief. We just think that's how it should be, because that's what seems fair.
And this industry laughs in the face of fairness.
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| Seriously, the Invisible Hand of The Market is just giving you the finger. Always. |
Publishing is a business. Pure and simple. The publishing industry does not care about art. It does not care about groundbreaking stories, or well-told narratives, or all those things that matter to most of us as writers. Publishing, on the whole, cares what moves copies, and what does numbers on the market.
That is it. Period.
This is why so much of what you see from the mainstream publishing industry is easily digestible, easily slots into genres, and hits the right bullet points for the largest number of people in the audience. Because publishers are, essentially, gambling on every title they put out. And they do not care if a book is barely-disguised vampire fan fiction with the serial numbers sanded off, or the next great American novel that will move readers to tears and give them a new view on life... if the numbers say the former book is a safe bet, that's what they will publish.
Now, are there publishers and editors who try to elevate books they believe have artistic value, or traditionally come from writers who aren't considered the safest of bets? Of course there are. However, in this case, these are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The publishing industry, like any other industry, runs on money. A company has to pay a salary to its editors, to its staffers, to its layout people, artists, and everyone else who turns manuscripts into books. Not only that, but there's the cost of printing books, the cost of shipping books, and the cost of all the marketing that's done to help that book move copies. For a book to be a success, it has to not just cover its costs, but make extra profit for the company so that it can take on new titles, and keep doing what its doing. Books that it doesn't think will sell don't get picked up, and that may not be because they aren't good. It may be that they're niche, or that the author isn't well-known enough, or that they're from a genre or style that has, historically, not turned a profit.
At the same time, factors that have nothing to do with the quality of a story or the skill of the author may be deciding factors for getting it published. For example, is the book written by a celebrity or a public figure? If so, then it will likely be greenlit rapidly, because it comes with a built-in audience. Is the book about a hot button issue, or a major historical event that happened recently that people are engaged with? Is this book from an author who has been successful in the past, regardless of the quality of their work? If so, then it gets published.
Art is Just a Product To Money
Consider, for a moment, the world of gallery art. The idea is that if your art is good enough to show in a gallery, and to be purchased for such obscene prices, then clearly your art must be good quality, yes?
It's the same fallacy at work in a different way.
As Adam Conover points out here, the world of fine art is just a grift for the wealthy. They do not care about the integrity or skill of the artist, or the message or quality of the art. They will, quite literally, sell canvases with hot dog smears on them. Why? Not because, "modern art is stupid and ridiculous," but because it makes them money. The art gallery, the rich patrons, and art appraisers work together to jack up the supposed value of this art, and then that art is used as donations, or other ways to avoid rich people paying taxes.
It's a bait-and-switch, and they'll do it with a blank canvas titled Take The Money and Run as surely as they'll do it with a Rembrandt.
Capital doesn't care about artistic integrity. It doesn't care about skill, or pain, or the years it took to tell a tale, or the emotional impact it will have on the audience. Capital cares about profits generated. This is why so many companies were throwing together A.I. slop and trying to get people to buy it; because pushing a button to generate a novel costs them nothing, and can only make profits. Doesn't matter if the product is bunk if it made them money. And if they could do it dozens, hundreds, or thousands of times, even if these books were unreadable, nonsensical drek (or, worse, contained inaccurate, harmful information), at the end of the day, if it made money, it was considered a "good" decision.
Do people prefer well-written stories that touch them? Do readers like characters that stay with them long after they close the covers? Absolutely. However, getting your book into the hands of actual people can be hard as hell when you have to ride the roller coaster of figuring out what obscure factors the all-knowing publishing oracle thinks will or won't make your project a horse they should back.
So What Does This Have To Do With All Of You?
Why am I telling you all this? After all, if you've been around here for any length of time, chances are you already knew most of this. And if this is new information to you, well, you may be wondering what you can do to change it. You probably don't work in the publishing industry, and all you can really do is vote with your wallet, right?
Remember how I said that publishers make decisions based on numbers? You are one of those numbers, and all the things you do, and all the activity you generate, is what makes those numbers go up for the authors whose work you love, and whom you want to support.
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| As an example, take this novel of mine. |
Take my novel Marked Territory, a gritty, gangland noir mystery where the entire cast are street beasts from NYC. This book currently has 19 ratings and reviews on Amazon, and it sells a handful of copies every quarter since it's re-release. Its sequel, Painted Cats only has 12 ratings and reviews, and moves about the same volume.
Now, if I were to write more books about Leo, I'm sure my publisher would take them, and publish them. However, if both of the existing books started getting a lot of ratings and reviews, and moving big numbers (hundreds to thousands of copies a quarter, rather than a few dozen), I daresay that my publisher would be calling me up. Firstly to congratulate me, and secondly, to ask me how long it would take me to get another book into their hands so they could ride this train a little further. It's even possible that, if these books developed a large following, that projects like putting out an audio book, or even going into discussions for film adaptation rights might happen.
And you know something? With the money those sales would generate, I could actually focus on writing those books as the main part of my workday, rather than trying to fit in a few hundred words here and a few hundred words there at the end of the work day.
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| Money talks. Everything else walks. |
I happen to think these books are well-written, fun, told with a wry sense of humor, and that they generally leave readers satisfied. However, even if these books weren't good, that wouldn't matter if they were still doing the numbers I mentioned. If the product makes a profit, it gets published, and gets all the bells and whistles. If it doesn't move those numbers, no matter how much care, love, and art went into it, it sits in the bottom of the bin waiting for someone to dig down deep enough to find it.
And that is where a majority of us are, as creators. We don't have baskets of money to buy advertising for the stuff we make. We don't have legions of followers, or huge controversies getting our names in the news. We just have the books we wrote, and a sincere belief in our work.
But that doesn't move copies, or pay the bills.
So remember this. Because if you want that author you like to succeed, you can't trust that the invisible hand of the market is going to recognize their talent. Be the change you want to see. Be the number on their spreadsheet. Buy copies, leave ratings and reviews, follow thier social media, share their stories so other people can see them. Be an active participant in their career. Because the more people that stand around and cheer, the more people are going to wander over, wondering what it is that's gotten you so excited.
And that is what it takes to make us successful in business.
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That's all for this week's Business of Writing! For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my sci-fi dystopian thriller Old Soldiers, the Hardboiled Cat series about a mystery solving Maine Coon in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, or my most recent short story collection The Rejects!
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