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Today’s writing and publishing world is shrugging off the old “exclusive-club” mentality, but it is, by any means, not a friendly place for an aspiring writer. As a matter of fact, the industry has turned into a shark tank. When I refer to “the industry” I mean, among other businesses, the traditional publishers, most of who are struggling these days, but they are not the actual problem. The “shark tank” is dominated by new startups in the industry, mostly vanity publishers, who produce significant profit without delivering the results they promise. It seems that scammers possess a much keener business sense than the traditional publishing businesses, and they are taking the better part of a multi-million Dollar business.
And How Corporate America Makes It A Billion Dollar Business
I have just finished a document that describes my view on the current writing and publishing industry (see bottom of this page for the download button). This document contains a series of entries from my blog at FrogenYozurt.com plus a few new ones. Please excuse that my comments sound a bit sarcastic at times, but I have been through the tiresome and frustrating process of writing, publishing, and promoting my first novel. I have learned the hard way that promoting a novel is one of the most difficult tasks in the business world. Add to this a great number of dubious businesses preying on the unsuspecting, aspiring writer.
Let me quote author TK Kenyon: “Writing, especially fiction writing, is a tough business to get into and a tougher one to stay in. Generally, neither authors nor publishers make a significant profit until an author’s fifth novel is published. Over 195,000 novels are published by traditional publishers in the U.S. every year. Of those, 70% sell fewer than 500 copies.”
Today’s writing and publishing world is shrugging off the old “exclusive-club” mentality, but it is, by any means, not a friendly place for an aspiring writer. As a matter of fact, the industry has turned into a shark tank. When I refer to “the industry” I mean, among other businesses, the traditional publishers, most of who are struggling these days, but they are not the actual problem. The “shark tank” is dominated by new startups in the industry, mostly vanity publishers, who produce significant profit without delivering the results they promise. It seems that scammers possess a much keener business sense than the traditional publishing businesses, and they are taking the better part of a multi-million Dollar business.
Unfortunately, too many writing sites and especially writers’ magazines (I exclude Poets & Writers specifically from this statement) are too busy spouting wonderful stories about the industry. They live from advertisement and a readership that is represented mostly by unsuccessful writers, the number one target for scammers. These days the best paying advertisers are primarily the previously mentioned vanity publishers, because – Duh! – they do have the means to purchase full page ad space.
In turn – to keep their advertisers happy – the magazines’ task is in motivating their readers to “hang on, because we are confident you will find success eventually.” They continue presenting the good in everything and everybody, and they give you the inspirational tour on a regular basis. My advice to everybody who believes in this motivational nonsense would be to start your own religious sect and call it… Writology. Go and worship yourselves. You’re good at that!
Yes, it is true; perseverance is imperative for the aspiring writer, but I question the reason to provide motivation. Their mission is not about helping writers, otherwise they would post warnings, which they – believe me – do not. It’s all about making profit. There is nothing wrong about making profit as long as you do it with professionalism and dignity, but today’s management is only about profit, profit, and profit without an iota of passion for their readership.
Everything you find in this document is based on my own experience with the writing and publishing world, and any statements made are based on my very personal opinion. I would like to emphasize that my writing is not based on anger, but keen observation of the industry. My narrow view is without a doubt not representative for the entire world of writing and publishing, but I am sure that many new writers had similar experiences.
Click the button to download the PDF file (Will open a new window).
In another entry on this blog I couldn’t find anything good about literary agents and their apparent lack of business sense. At the same time I was very impressed by the business model and the professional attitude of the Writers Literary Agency. Rather than dealing with a single, overworked and unorganized literary agent (agents always complain about the number of queries they receive), I found it refreshing to deal with a team of professionals where each member took on a certain aspect in the process of finding a publisher. However, with what I learned today, I am happy I didn’t sign the contract they had sent me. As it turns out the whole thing is a scam.
It is somewhat amazing how I still learn more and more about the bizarre world of writers and publishers, also known as the “shark tank.” And here we go again… yet another experience I would like to share.
In another entry on this blog I couldn’t find anything good about literary agents and their apparent lack of business sense. At the same time I was very impressed by the business model and the professional attitude of the Writers Literary Agency. Rather than dealing with a single, overworked and unorganized literary agent (agents always complain about the number of queries they receive), I found it refreshing to deal with a team of professionals where each member took on a certain aspect in the process of finding a publisher. However, with what I learned today, I am happy I didn’t sign the contract they had sent me. As it turns out the whole thing is a scam. Let me quote from another web site:
“Literary Agency has no verifiable record of book sales under any of its names. For this reason (among others) they’re on Writer Beware’s Thumbs Down Agents list.
There is currently an active investigation into their business in the state of Florida (the 275 Madison Avenue address is a mail-forwarding service). If you live in Florida and have had any interaction with any of these “agencies,” please contact the Florida attorney general.
The way their operation works:
They accept any and every manuscript that is sent to them. They require that the manuscript be given an “independent critique,” which they are willing to sell to you for $90, from another company that they secretly own. Based on this “critique” they will offer to represent you, but will request that you have the manuscript “professionally edited,” again by a company that they secretly own. After you pay whatever amount you’re willing to pay for the “edit,” you’ll be told that you need a web page to advertise your book to publishers, for which they’ll charge you $150. After that, they’ll offer you their “aggressive agent” program, for $90, to submit the work to publishers. Children’s book authors may be asked to pay for illustrations. Screenwriters may be asked to pay for “coverage.”
As I mentioned, they have no apparent record of sales to commercial publishers, despite having been in business for the better part of a decade (under one name or another).” – WritersNet.com
The scary thing is that the requests for critique and editing make sense. Getting a critique of your work is helpful. Having your work edited is absolutely mandatory for a new, and even the established writer. Again, all this makes sense, and for that reason it is so easy to fall for the scam.
Let me also fortify my statement on their professional approach. The Writers Literary Agency explained the whole process between accepting a manuscript and finding a publisher in minute detail. The information they provided was extremely helpful for me to understand the process, and I wish regular, honest literary agents would go through the same effort of attracting new clients. The entire interaction between a new client and the Writers Literary Agency took place per e-mail which I personally deem highly effective, and I still believe that regular literary agents could learn a lesson or two from them. In fact, a great number of literary agents have just started to discover the possibilities that are provided by the Internet.
Yes, the downside is that a fast Internet connection combined with a word-processor encouraged a vast number of people believing they can write, may it be poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. The harsh truth is that the vast majority of these writers will never publish a book, unless they spend thousands of Dollars through a vanity publisher. Nevertheless, it is time that literary agents discover the power of the Internet. The Writers Literary Agency actually demonstrated how it can work, if only they would actually look for a publisher…
