If you will forgive me my indulgences, I want to talk to you about the complications I have had in my brief career of writing books. Every writer great and small has dreams of making the NYT best-sellers list. Those dreams are fainting dreams that become a realistic dream of making a few bucks. I just wanted enough to buy my wife and I the occasional treat. As it turns out, the treat has been the money going out of my pocket to the publisher or other sources.
So, I have decided to go the self-publishing route this time. I have some hooks in the water and almost caught a pretty good fish, but it looks like I'm going to have to go to the fish store like everyone else. I ran into former Houston Astro Norm Miller at one of my SABR meetings. He told me that only 4% of the public buys books. This makes sense as we are moving into a blogger world. Why take the time to read a whole book when you can read an article in a few minutes?
Now, every bookseller is offering their own form of easy-reading technology. Amazon.com has theirs. Barnes and Noble has their's and I saw one in Border's as well. I think you can even comparison shop at Bestbuy. All of this is designed to make life easier on all of us. Even my wife has been salivating over those and the new Ipad. Unfortunately, the whole process is threatening to make life for those of on the fringe extinct.
Even though I have been flirting of the idea of writing a novel, I think my fourth book may end up being my last. It will be my opus so to speak. Yet, we are seeing the trend everywhere. Instead of buying albums (I look forward to hearing my daughter ask what CDs are) we buy songs on Itunes. Instead of taking a printed newspaper, we can read only what we choose online from the local rag. Is it really that far-fetched that most citizens only get their news and ideas from selected sources? Ergo, are we really surprised when people come to political discussions with a narrow view?
Voice has a terrific piece about listening to the tea parties and how sad it has become. It's not just them folks. Just in the last year or two we have seen well-thought out treatises on this and that boiled down to 140 characters. Gee, I long for the days of 30 second commercials for their depth of information. Which leads me back to the subject of books and why life has been so difficult for me.
Since, I have been a non-fiction writer for the most part, I have a not so unique challenge of taking a snapshot in time and competing with a world where everything is instanteous. My book is on the baseball Hall of Fame. It uses statistics complex and not, but all statistics are somewhat time sensitive. Even players that have retired are compared with players from today and those comparisons are constantly changing as time moves on. I could (and have) say I will wait until this stops or that stops, but it never stops. The same is true in any area of speciality you look at.
As everything moves online, the printed world is gone. Gone are the days of going to the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Now, we just go to wikipedia. Of course, how accurate are things in the online world. With instanteous changes comes an infinite possibility of error. The printed page offers some comfort in the editing process, but traditional publishers are finding it more and more difficult to market the printed page. Sure, they gave Sarah Palin $7 million, but how many books did they sell to legitimate readers? Remember, we're not counting the ones bought in bulk to throw her NYT ranking up.
At the end of the day, while I may dream of living the life of J.D. Salinger or any other famous bygone author, all I really wanted to do was throw some ideas out on the marketplace and hope some people clung to them. Baseball is not important to most people, but there are a few people out there that might appreciate it. Then again, most of them are just satisfied reading my blog. Oh well......
Yeah we had a long talk about the process. I went a slightly different way than he did but his info was very helpful.
I heard Norm Miller on a morning sports talk show and ended up buying three copies of "Norm Who?" from his web site as Christmas presents (I have a lot of friends who are die-hard Colt .45-Astros fans). He even autographed them. It looks like self-publishing/self-distribution is becoming the norm for authors who can't get that big book deal. At least there's a way to get the product out there.
Scott,
I got a little further into your book. Some interesting scenarios...Ms Schwarz is a bonehead. Can you imagine being a 'freak' in her class. That would be a most unfortunate situation.
And just as a thank you very much, I now have a publisher.
"...Kind of like, “I can’t get my book published because most people don’t buy books anymore” instead of “I can’t get my book published because it a useless bunch of drivel that no one wants to read.”
Like your blog."
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And yet, here you are.
And posting as anonymous even. How very BRAVE.
And Anon gets the very, very, very, "special" bodily orifice masquerading as a human rate.
Good luck Scott!
Call it the TDH discount and the same discount goes to anyone that wants a copy. Of course, non-TDH readers get the full price.
I self-published about 6 months ago. We're not making money on the book, An American Theocracy, (notice how I cleverly managed to slip the name in there?)but it has been a real education in marketing. I'd do it again for the experience.
We're starting on a book about my wife's forty years in medicine and this one will sell. We're going to use an agent and compare the results. Her book deals with sex (human sexual response cycle) and mine with church/state seperation; sex sells.
Scott,
Are you trying to make me feel bad about taking that cut rate deal... :O) Incidentally, my daughter's name is the same as yours but is anna. Now Jack, I just started the book, but I'm already wondering about Jack. Seems like a pretty cool guy.
I was talking up your book today at my daughter's school. I might manage to scare up a few buyers for you...
I forgot to mention that among my small circle of friends, there 3 who would love your book. They love baseball.
Anyone that has spent anytime getting a book out knows that is impossible. Now, I am constantly writing stuff, but this book has been written and rewritten three or four times. I am in the process of writing it for the fourth time. Of course, I have to have the most up to date data and methodology (which has also changed several times). It is literally a life's work almost.
Scott, good luck on your book. Reading is my passion and I spend more money on books than on other entertainment, if you don't count eating out. I would never waste my time reading books by writers who spew out two or three a year, but love a well researched book and am sad when I've finished a good one.
Many people are crazy about baseball, so I think you may have more of a market than you think.
Petty much, "Anon"?
Dunno about you, but I know someone who had to resort once to a "self-publishing" place to get a textbook he'd written published. Not very impressive, eh? But he persevered and now, less than 10 years later, he's an internationally renowned expert in the field.
The world of publishing is a difficult and rapidly changing place. Manners, on the other hand, retain greater constancy. Yours are pretty atrocious.
Thanks anyway Anon. If you read my blog you would see that I will get my book published and I never used the word blame. I think you will find that most writers are having a harder time publishing books. Yet, everyone and their brother has a blog. Thank you for stopping by and reading my drivel.
Does this sound familiar?
“Secondly, when we don't have that success we must have someone to blame it on. It couldn't possibly be our own shortcomings.”
Kind of like, “I can’t get my book published because most people don’t buy books anymore” instead of “I can’t get my book published because it a useless bunch of drivel that no one wants to read.”
Like your blog.
I co-wrote a book that was New York published -- but never on the NYT best-sellers' list -- a kazillion years ago.
It was an interesting process that involved getting an agent, a small advance, meeting with an editor, and an opportunity to review the printer's proofs. That all sounds so old-fashioned, now.
Recently my writer sister began publishing a book she wrote two years ago on a blog, gradually, chapter by chapter. I don't know how it has been received, but I think she may feel her work is more shared now and that that's a good thing in its own right.
There are. Fortunately I have found that I should break even at 100 books. A lot of things change but they stay the same in others. I have sold more books face to face than through any other medium. I just have to maximize those opportunities.
I think a lot of people would read a book on baseball. The question is just "how" to market it.
I think there are both good things and bad things happening to the written word. Self publishing is now VERY possible. But traditional book publishers and real books still seem to be popular with people who actually read books. I wish you good luck. You know I am a fan.
Aren't there already avenues to "buy" books on-line and download them???