Small Publishers: Three Laptops & a Mobile
The Fall of Ossard is published by a very small outfit. So small that no one who works for it is on a weekly payroll and the business has no physical footprint. That's right, Thought Stream Creative Services is little more than a mobile phone, three laptops, some official looking papers amongst another couple of contracts and other written agreements. People who work for it get payments based on their work as subcontractors. Most of the arrangements are made by email. For example, half the 'staff' I've never met face to face, and for that matter, half of them don't even live in the same state.
I guess that means there'll be no office Christmas Party this year (again).
What does that mean for me as an author? It means that I have a lot of freedom to do what I want. Perhaps too much.
No editorial committee is going to intervene and tell me that I shouldn't have killed so and so, or that the tone of my book is too sombre, or that the plot is drifiting. That also means (thankfully) no one is going to make me put in a fluffy puppy, soften up such and such a scene, or that my book is just not formula enough for the market.
Hot tip: The market has enough formula books gracing its shelves. Some people out there want something different.
In truth, while all that freedom is liberating, I also long for the editorial support that would come with giving that freedom up. Such support would also, inevitably, speed up the publishing process. Maybe one day I'll make the change. I'm always open to offers. In the meantime, the core of my work's direction comes from my own commonsense and the feedback from fellow subcontractors and test readers.
The publishing industry is changing, just as many others before it have had to adapt. The change is largely brought about by new technology, a digital revolution (and what an overused phrase that is), and changing tastes in the marketplace. There's a lot of noise being made about ebooks these days, or the damage online sales are doing to traditional bookshops. Some of that noise counts for something, much of it doesn't.
Simply, the statistics show people are still reading. People just want something worth reading. That doesn't mean another Twilight, or another Harry Potter, or another Dan Brown rip off, but something worthy of their cash and time.
While recent changes in the industry forced by technology have often been painted as negative in all kinds of media (particularly the industry media), the truth of it is that because of those changes, a previously unknown author (me) was able to burst into the top twenty of a national book chain in mid-October 2009 as a bestseller. Through other facets of those same technologies, I have also been able to offer my tale to readers around the world. Yet other computer wizardry allows me to update hundreds of readers instantly on my thoughts, drinking tastes, or my need for caffeine.
Change is coming - and what a relief!
The times we are living in are revolutionary, the opportunities huge, and if that happens to disrupt a few self interested and self absorbed prehistoric (publishing) corporations or cosy clubs of lit-fiends on the way, I will not shed a tear. This is the future, and people better get used to it.
I guess that means there'll be no office Christmas Party this year (again).
What does that mean for me as an author? It means that I have a lot of freedom to do what I want. Perhaps too much.
No editorial committee is going to intervene and tell me that I shouldn't have killed so and so, or that the tone of my book is too sombre, or that the plot is drifiting. That also means (thankfully) no one is going to make me put in a fluffy puppy, soften up such and such a scene, or that my book is just not formula enough for the market.
Hot tip: The market has enough formula books gracing its shelves. Some people out there want something different.
In truth, while all that freedom is liberating, I also long for the editorial support that would come with giving that freedom up. Such support would also, inevitably, speed up the publishing process. Maybe one day I'll make the change. I'm always open to offers. In the meantime, the core of my work's direction comes from my own commonsense and the feedback from fellow subcontractors and test readers.
The publishing industry is changing, just as many others before it have had to adapt. The change is largely brought about by new technology, a digital revolution (and what an overused phrase that is), and changing tastes in the marketplace. There's a lot of noise being made about ebooks these days, or the damage online sales are doing to traditional bookshops. Some of that noise counts for something, much of it doesn't.
Simply, the statistics show people are still reading. People just want something worth reading. That doesn't mean another Twilight, or another Harry Potter, or another Dan Brown rip off, but something worthy of their cash and time.
While recent changes in the industry forced by technology have often been painted as negative in all kinds of media (particularly the industry media), the truth of it is that because of those changes, a previously unknown author (me) was able to burst into the top twenty of a national book chain in mid-October 2009 as a bestseller. Through other facets of those same technologies, I have also been able to offer my tale to readers around the world. Yet other computer wizardry allows me to update hundreds of readers instantly on my thoughts, drinking tastes, or my need for caffeine.
Change is coming - and what a relief!
The times we are living in are revolutionary, the opportunities huge, and if that happens to disrupt a few self interested and self absorbed prehistoric (publishing) corporations or cosy clubs of lit-fiends on the way, I will not shed a tear. This is the future, and people better get used to it.
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