How the World of Publishing has changed

My own personal writing process has changed almost beyond recognition over the past six years. To begin with I wrote longhand, in pencil. The first draft of Cut Short was written with no plans for the future. I had no idea anyone else would ever read it, let alone publish it. Certainly it certainly never occurred to me that it would become the first in a long running bestselling series, nominated for major awards and reaching number 1 on kindle. At that stage I was writing just for myself. Nine books on, I have abandoned handwriting in favour of typing my manuscripts. It's much faster, which is just as well as I'm now delivering two manuscripts a year to my publisher. The other big change is that I now write for my readers, not for myself. 

The world of publishing has also undergone huge changes, which are ongoing. When my debut, Cut Short, first came out in paperback, in 2009  fellow author suggested I ask my publisher to bring it out as an ebook as well. At that time, I had heard of ebooks but wasn't quite sure what they were... The ebook duly came out about six months after the paperback and that happened again in 2010 with Road Closed. By the time Dead End was published in 2011, the ebook and print book were published at the same time. Sales of my books are huge on kindle, with all of them reaching the Top 10, and one even hitting the coveted number 1 spot. Sales figures of my print books are not quite so high, and that seems to be a trend throughout the publishing industry. I do wonder where books sales will go next. 

Another change that has come about due to the internet is that it is now possible for readers to contact authors directly. A day never passes now without my receiving an email via my website, or a DM on facebook or twitter, from a fan of Geraldine Steel or Ian Peterson. It's lovely to hear from readers all around the world, and I always respond as promptly as I can. This is a bonus that simply didn't exist for authors just a few years ago. 

My life as an author has changed so much since Cut Short came out in 2009. Who knows what further changes are in store for us? 

Links to all my books, and facebook and twitter accounts, on http://leighrussell.co.uk, together with news, reviews, events and interviews

This post was first published in The Reading Thing blog

RACE TO DEATH is out now in paperback, and getting great reviews

Buy RACE TO DEATH here

Blog Tour Day One

For the first stop of my October Blog Tour I was invited to comment on how the world of publishing has changed.

I hope you find it interesting! I'll post the text of it here tomorrow or you can read it now on 

http://www.thereadingthing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/leigh-russell-race-to-death-blog-tour.html

Thanks to The Reading Thing for hosting. 

Buy RACE TO DEATH here

"The Publishing Wars"

In a recent post in publishingperspectives.com, Porter Anderson wades into the debate currently raging over traditionally published versus self published books. What made me read to the end of Anderson's post is his balanced approach. He hopes that "we will all agree at some point that self-publishing is “just another valuable” way to get a book out, when conditions and resources suggest it as the best course."

Anderson's post may not be as entertaining as Chuck Wendig's hilarious satire on "The publishing wars of 2014", in his blog terribleminds.com, but Anderson's accommodating attitude has to be the way forward. As writers we should support each other in our endeavours. We are not really in competition with each other, although it sometimes feels that way. It's not as if we are all chasing one reader, who is only ever going to buy one book. If someone reads my books and enjoys them, they may go on to buy one of yours.

When Stephen Zacharius speaks out on behalf of publishers, claiming that "Publishers are gatekeepers as are agents. We are filters as to what gets published," even he has to add "in most cases." As it happens, he's right in his general claim. Most self-published authors have been rejected by mainstream publishers, however much they like to shout about "choosing" the self-publishing route because it is financially more viable. Well, "in most cases" again, that isn't true. How can it be, when we read that 98% of self-published authors fail to even cover their costs. And I suspect that 98% doesn't take into account the time self-published authors spend on activities other than actual writing.

Of course there are exceptions. Self-publishing worked for EL James who made millions - after being picked up by a mainstream publisher. There are self-published authors who succeed in making decent amounts of money without support from publishers just as there are people who have survived being struck by lightning. One self-published author has achieved genuine bestseller status by working 80 hours a week together with her husband and two assistants.

Sadly every success story sparks a following of wannabes, seduced by the dream of replicating that success. Call me cynical if you like, but where there are hosts of wannabes, the legions of parasites are never slow to leap in, ready to exploit other people's dreams. I remember the first self-published author I met telling me how proud she was to be published. She had spent nearly as much as I had received as an advance for my first book. The sums didn't reach five figures for either of us. The difference did. Someone was making money out of her creative endeavour, and it wasn't her.

But this isn't really about money. People have argued back and forth about the figures, only proving the truth of the adage that you can prove anything with statistics. The facts are shrouded in obfuscation and mirrors - lots of mirrors - and no one really knows.

Porterson concludes that "we do seem to hear self-published authors extol their approach more frequently than we hear traditionally published authors do the same for theirs. Mind you, we don’t know what that means. But it does seem to be the case."

So I want to wave the flag for publishers. I'm often asked, "What's your publisher like?" My response is unequivocal. I love my publisher. He pays me to make up stories. He publishes my books. That means he does everything for me, apart from writing the books. That's my job. Because I'm am author. Not an editor, or a proof reader, not a jacket designer or a distributor, not a typesetter or a bookseller. An author. I don't have to worry about uploads, downloads, or truck loads. I worry about character development and plot structure. And the luxury of earning a decent living doing just that is priceless.

Print books and ebooks

The first Geraldine Steel murder mystery, Cut Short, came out in print in the UK in 2009. A fellow author suggested my publisher bring it out as a digital book. It seems strange to recall that five years ago I wasn't really sure what that meant. Nevertheless I sent a polite request to my publisher to bring my debut out as an ebook. No one thought it was important, but six months later the digital version duly came out. 'Of course your books don't sell on kindle,' someone in the know told me. As for me, I still had only a vague notion what a kindle was.

Exactly the same happened with Road Closed in 2010.

But reading habits were changing. When Dead End came out in 2011, the digital and print books were published on the same day.

By the time Death Bed appeared in print in 2012, the digital book had already  been available for six months.

This pattern has been repeated in 2013 and 2014 with digital versions of Stop Dead, Fatal Act and Cold Sacrifice available for download six months in advance of  print books.

Nowadays, no one says my titles 'don't sell on kindle'. Not only have the print books reached bestseller lists in the UK bookstore chains and on amazon, but the ebooks have reached Number 1 on both kindle and iTunes.

What has been your experience of ebooks, as a reader or an author? Do you own a kindle or a tablet? And where do you see the future of print books, and with them physical bookstores and libraries?

Links to all my books can be found on my website http://leighrussell.co.uk

978-1842433546

Once I shared an embarrassing ‘secret’ with a group of friends. I was a tad tipsy at the time. ‘Don’t you find that always happens?’ My question was greeted by blank faces and a chorus of ‘No’s. So I’m not going to stick my neck out here in public and suggest that every published author reacts like me on seeing their first ISBN number.

I danced round the room (only my devoted husband would acknowledge my clumsy gyrations as dancing, but still….) I learned my ISBN number off by heart, wrote it in my diary, displayed it on my desk – I was as silly with it as I had been with the name of my first boyfriend, which I scribbled in the back of my school books and inside my pencil case. (In case you’re wondering, I can’t remember that particular ISBN number any more. Or the name of my first boyfriend.)

The idea for an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was dreamed up in Britain in the mid 1960s. It rapidly caught on as an international system for identifying individual books, to avoid the confusion of books being allocated different codes by each distributor. 150 agencies now issue the codes worldwide, one per country. With so many books uploaded daily, a uniform means of identification would seem more necessary than ever. Yet paradoxically, with the phenomenal growth in digital self-publishing, there is discussion about whether ISBN numbers are necessary or relevant today. Publishers buy blocks of ISBN numbers, but for an individual writer self-publishing their own book, it is an additional cost they might not wish to incur for a title that is unlikely to enter large distribution chains.

A further threat to the uniform system was introduced when Amazon established the Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). Other suppliers followed suit. A brief scout online revealed four separate codes on UK sites alone for one of my novels in ebook form. That’s just the ebook. Including different editions of the paperback, audio books, large print, and the rest, worldwide, I can’t imagine how many codes must exist for just one book. As the system fragments, the notion of an ISBN number does begin to seem a little outdated.

Seeing my first ISBN number was genuinely thrilling. It signalled the transformation of my words into a real book with an independent existence. With so many books published, it is likely there will be another book with the same title, maybe even written by an author sharing your name. But an ISBN number was once a unique tag, ensuring an individual book could be correctly identified anywhere in the world without risk of confusion with another title.

It is true that if we abandon ISBN numbers it will make no difference to books per se. Perhaps the system is becoming unworkable with so many outlets globally for so many more books. Maybe I’m being sentimental over the memory of my excitement at seeing my first, special, ISBN number. Yet for me as an author ISBN codes represent more than a practical function, facilitating communication along the distribution chain. I can’t help feeling that something significant will be lost if we abandon the ISBN number. It’s nothing tangible. But like cloned life forms, books will lose a touch of magic in relinquishing their unique DNA.

PS
Ironically, the ISBN number in the title of this post is sadly not the original ISBN number of the first edition of Cut Short which is now out of print. The cheap initial edition has been replaced by a glossy B format edition.