It’s Alive
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the death of publishing with the profit declines at Harper Collins and the layoffs at Doubleday. So yes, things aren’t that great right now in the publishing industry, but I also don’t think it’s anywhere near being dead. Just like everything else in the economy right now, it’s struggling.
I read a great post by Moonrat, the editor, yesterday talking about this subject. What’s the best thing we can do for the industry we love right now? Go out and buy just one book this weekend. Start buying holiday gifts, and choose novels for the 2008 gift-of-choice. If enough people do that, the industry will bounce back pretty quickly. As a reader, I’m not worried.
As a writer trying to break into this business, I am worried. I would expect that right now would be a very hard time for unpublished writers to get a publishing contract, but I would be wrong! Just this past week, there have been three fantastic deals for unpublished writers that I know of, all of which I’m looking forward to reading.
So, a big shout out of congrats to Kasey, Nicole and Jackson!
“Kasey Mackenzie’s RED HOT FURY, to Jessica Wade at Berkley, in a good deal, at auction, in a three-book deal, by Ginger Clark at Curtis Brown (NA).”
“Orbit is thrilled to announce that we have pre-empted an urban fantasy series by debut author Nicole Peeler in a three-book deal with agent Rebecca Strauss of McIntosh and Otis Inc. The first volume TEMPEST RISING will be published in Fall/Winter 2009.”
“Jackson Pearce’s second novel, SISTERS RED, a modernization of Little Red Riding Hood meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to Jill Dembowski and Andrea Spooner at Little, Brown, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Jenoyne Adams at Bliss Literary Agency (world).”
This is actually Jackson Pearce’s second novel, however, her first novel will be in stores next year so she still got this deal as an unpublished writer. The point of this is to say that while things may be difficult right now, all hope is not lost! Deals are still being made with unpublished writers. Really good deals at that.
So, on that note, I’m off to tighten up my synopsis for TG2 and review my plot for Clash which I will resume writing on Monday!
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Comments
Actually, we were talking about this at work the other day. Consensus seems to be that publishing isn’t a bad business to be in right now, at least from a production standpoint.
Sure, the price of books might go up, but the initial printing costs will actually go down (although, I’m not sure if this only applies to our company). So, in the long run we end up breaking even.
But, what do I know…I work in the marketing department, not production or accounting.
Hey Jen,
I think most of this is relative. Like you, I’m hearing of lots of sales. While they might not get ultra-high money, the advances are still there — and in a way, even makes it better for the author. Lower advance, more sales, better advance next time.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the synopsis *hint hint*
Back to writing tomorrow, today is the day off.
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