Comments on Wylie-Merrick Literary Agency: The Demise of Print Publishing?

Perhaps something to keep in mind is a book's simp...

2009-08-11T06:35:08.951-07:00

Perhaps something to keep in mind is a book's simple beauty and ease of use. You don't need to rely on a power source to read it. It can be taken most anywhere. Once you buy it, it's yours unless you give it away, trade it, or sell it. A freshly printed book smells wonderful.

There is room in this world for both traditional print and electronic media.

@Jim - I've blogged on this a lot. I think the peo...

2009-08-11T05:58:04.138-07:00

@Jim - I've blogged on this a lot. I think the people most affected of all will be publishers. I think the industry of the future will consist of niche specialists - editors, printers, designers, marketers, and authors/their representatives will be able to choose which they want without being constrained to whoever is "in house". I don't think there is a role for publishers unless they think hard about what they can add to the individual tasks.

Agents will have a different role - helping the author coordinate all of the above. Authors I think will be affected very little. The increased opportunities offered by the internet and POD will mean more authors get access to readers. The concommitant is that some of those who are currently as good as tenured may lose their status if they can't compete with exciting new voices from outside the mainstream. But there will still be a good market for good storytelling.

So, definitely publishers will be the losers - I honestly don't think they realise it. When they talk of the problems with the book market, they mean problems for them - not for readers and writers. I really think they have to get out of the mindset that authors need them, and start realising they need to convince the best authors they still have something to offer. Otherwise they'll just die, scratching their heads, as the industruy moves on.

I was delighted to be put onto this by @pitchparlo...

2009-08-11T05:50:58.157-07:00

I was delighted to be put onto this by @pitchparlour

You say
"New writers don’t understand that publishing, as we now know it today, is a fairly new concept" - yes, and I find the problem is even more endemic than that. Almost no one I have come across recognises that books as the primary medium for stories are, in the history of storytelling, a new phenomenon. When I argue in favour of author-reader interaction and get the response that this interferes with an author's voice, I sometimes wonder if there are writers who actually think "Homer" wrote The Odyssey down on a piece of papyrus. Stories arose, for most of their lives, in communities, and evolved with their communities. The idea that they could be "captured" in print and fossilised is a very modern thing.

Writers will have to change - they will have to ch...

2009-08-11T03:24:43.932-07:00

Writers will have to change - they will have to change the normal way of doing things, they will have to change how they write (print and internet are relatively different formats) and they will have to change how they expect to earn a living as a writer. Change is life - the sooner we embrace it then the better off we will be.

Who do you think will be the most adversely affect...

2009-07-13T09:25:51.673-07:00

Who do you think will be the most adversely affected by this change? Authors, Agents or Publishers? If each will be equally affected can you which group will be affected the most and why.
thanks
Jim

I love ebooks but there are several problems with ...

2009-07-13T08:00:21.484-07:00

I love ebooks but there are several problems with the current small presses. The editing is horrible. 99% of the current editors are paid by copy sold. They earn royalties along with the author. It makes for sloppy work when they rush to get to the next book. The editors are also not well trained. I've personally seen books harmed by editors trying to impress.

There is another problem. Many small publishers are turning to erotica to make their sales. EC authors are the best paid. As long as they write about leather-clad, 3-way, weres, who all have soul mates and magically fall in love after the first bang they will get readers.

It used to be that I turned to small presses for books that had a wider subject area. Few can do this as the market tightened. To put it simply sex sells. The little guy tapped into the housewives wanting spicier reading. The market is huge.

One positive is the Kindle. I think it helped the larger presses to put more in electronic form. For those of us who have been reading PDFs, and LITs for ten years, electronic books aren't new. I'm surprised it's taken mainstream this long to catch on.

There are still too many resisting the change though. RWA recently came under fire for acting as if ebook authors weren't authors at all.

In the end, ebooks are great. When the big boys open up and start pushing this trend maybe we will get a wider variety of books. Until then, the million dollar epubs will be the ones doing erotica, and steamy romance.

"So who gets paid for all this writing?" All this...

2009-07-12T10:26:19.725-07:00

"So who gets paid for all this writing?"

All this "free" writing seems to be the platform on which authors build their audience now. Be it through blogs, Twitter, ebooks, etc. Free stuff attracts people.

I sold the same number of books on Kindle in one month (and the price is listed under 2 dollars) than I did in six months in print version. I love the tactile book (don't even own a Kindle), but if selling Kindle copies at such a low price attracts more readers, then I accept that, and hope that following will go to the bookstore for the next book.

It just seems to be the trend right now.

I think it was Sir Francis Bacon who said knowledg...

2009-07-12T08:22:35.497-07:00

I think it was Sir Francis Bacon who said knowledge existed in two forms. One, knowing the actual information and two, knowing how to find it. With the explosion of information and writing I think the second will become the most important.

Johnny Ray

Interesting post. I'm also wondering what directi...

2009-07-12T08:22:17.527-07:00

Interesting post. I'm also wondering what direction publishing will go with ebooks. I know some people say that there will always be a demand for books in print. My husband feels that once a decent ebook player comes down in price, the sale of ebooks will soar. I can't help but remember those in the 80s who said no one would be able to afford a computer. Now it seems most people have one in their homes. I totally agree with the whole paradigm shift too. It'll be interesting to see what will happen in the coming decade.