How Much Has Changed in 13 Years
By Sophie Masson | January 12, 2015 |
In my previous post, I wrote about how my first adult novel in thirteen years had been recently published. Since then, I’ve been observing first-hand just how much the literary landscape has changed for genre fiction writers since my last adult novel came out, in 2001. Some of these changes have surprised me, and not because I’ve been out of the publishing scene for 13 years; I’ve been right in it all along, only in the area of YA and children’s fiction, and that by comparison has not changed quite as much (though it certainly has not stood still either). But there are things within the world of publishing for children and young adults which to some extent quarantines it from some of the more extreme or challenging changes. I’ve been aware of what’s been going on in the world of adult fiction, but to experience it firsthand is something else — like a leap into a new world. This has led me to think about just what a difference thirteen years have made, and what these changes are.
Changes in format and timing. In publishing for young people, the ebook has scarcely had an impact. Print still dominates there. But in adult fiction, the rise of the ebook, particularly in genre fiction, has meant an explosion in the numbers of books published. More risks can be taken with ebooks, and so books may have more of a chance at publication. As well, indie authors now compete to some extent with commercial publishers (though not exactly in fair combat). For commercial publishers, it means they’ve had to adjust schedules, previous ideas of marketing, readership and relationship with authors. It’s been great to see my book (first published as an ebook, then as a POD) take shape so quickly, from contract in June to editing and design in September and release in November. That did not happen with my previous adult novel—indeed not with most of my novels for young people, even this year’s crop. Getting the book quickly on the market is certainly a great advantage. However, the low price of ebooks means that achieving the kinds of royalty payments you’d get on a print book is just that much harder and the lack of advances from most digital publishers is another challenge. And that huge and continuing flow of new ebooks is another major challenge. Discoverability is, it seems, more difficult in many ways, though there is the compensation that an ebook’s ‘shelf ‘ life is potentially not as short as a new print novel appearing on a bookshop shelf where it might only have a few weeks to have any kind of impact before it’s returned to the publisher to languish in a warehouse before being remaindered.
Changes in marketing. This is a general observation, not just to do with this book, for this is something that’s been happening a bit even in the children’s/YA publishing world (though not to the same extent). But in the world of adult fiction, especially in genre fiction, authors really have to be co-partners with their publishers as far as marketing and promotion are concerned. Guest blogs, questionnaires, interviews, blog tours, Facebook ads, Twitter campaigns, you name it. A lot of it is great fun and you get to interact directly with readers that way, but it’s time-consuming. Back in 2001, as well as being interviewed on radio and in print, I did write a couple of articles myself around the 12th century setting and inspiration of Forest of Dreams, but for my new book, I wrote a stream of posts and pieces for blogs and websites, including my own. Those articles in 2001 were printed in newspapers and I was paid; none of the writing I did for my new book was remunerated at all.
Changes in reception/reviewing. In 2001, books were mainly reviewed in magazines and newspapers and a bit on radio or TV. Today, though there are still review sections in print publications, space for them has shrunk dramatically, and most of the reviewing of adult genre novels, and certainly for ebooks, happens online, on blogs, podcasts, video journals, online journals and sites such as Goodreads and Amazon. This is certainly where the world of adult fiction and children’s fiction part company, for most reviewing of fiction for young people still happens in print—in specialist journals and magazines. There are of course also many blogs which regularly review YA and children’s fiction, but with a few exceptions, these are not usually very influential in directing buyers’ choices, unlike the library magazines, etc.
This seems to be different in adult fiction, especially genre fiction, where the dominance of online reviews is pretty much established now. There’s a lot of good aspects to this, of course. Any reader can have the chance to share his or her own experience of a book with fellow readers, so you get a multitude of voices, and many of them are vivid and interesting. However, the great attraction of online reviewing–the immediacy of posting, the almost instant reaction from readers to a book–can be a mixed blessing. Ironically, online amateur reviewers with strong views may act more like boundary-patrolling ‘gatekeepers’ and create more of an ‘ouch’ factor for authors than the old-style reviewers ever did. And with the online world thriving on impulse and strong opinions, there’s not always time or even inclination for the considered word, the quiet reflection, the careful crafting of a review, whether that’s positive or negative, which respects the lengthy and dedicated process of writing a book. This disconnection between the craft of reviewing and the craft of writing fiction feels to me like one of the biggest changes of all.
However, what hasn’t changed is the fact that authors are still expected to ‘suck it up’–no matter what freedom the online world is meant to give you in terms of interaction with readers, in truth you have to keep to the same unspoken rules as previously, and never respond directly to reviews. In ‘the old days’, that was not always easy either, of course, but you usually didn’t get to read all the reviews anyway. But given the immediacy of the online world, that’s not what it’s like anymore.
Over to you. What do you think has changed most in the last thirteen years, in terms of the experiences both for authors and readers, in adult genre fiction?
Born in Indonesia of French parents, and brought up in France and Australia, Sophie Masson is the award-winning author of over 70 books for children, young adults and adults. Her latest books include Sydney under Attack (children’s historical novel, Scholastic Australia, 2022) A Hundred Words for Butterfly (adult novella, ES-Press, 2022) and Cock-a-doodle-doo (children’s picture book, (illustrated by Kathy Creamer, little Pink Dog Books, 2022). In 2019, Sophie received an AM (Member, General Division) award in the Order of Australia honours list.
Sophie,
Back in the day (not mine, my parent’s), there was a song called, “There’s a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway.” Today, we can apply that broken heart analogy to ebooks on Amazon. It seems like everyone (including me) wants to be in A Chorus Line. And with the advent of electronic self-pub (one of those major changes in your thirteen-year run), it’s easy to do. Unfortunately, most of those stories play off-off-off Broadway—like, in Schenectady.
You stated: “But in the world of adult fiction, especially in genre fiction, authors really have to be co-partners with their publishers as far as marketing and promotion are concerned. Guest blogs, questionnaires, interviews, blog tours, Facebook ads, Twitter campaigns, you name it. A lot of it is great fun and you get to interact directly with readers that way, but it’s time-consuming.”
When I first explored the world of publication (it wasn’t my life’s work), I kept hearing of “platform,” which seemed to only apply to non-fiction authors. I kept asking myself, “What is MY platform? I write fiction.” I may be totally off-base with this, but the answer I deduced was “My platform is me.” So, before ever writing a book (or co-partnering with a publisher), I decided to work on promoting me while learning everything else. I’ve done this for a couple years, now.
Why? Because I know a flooded market when I see one, and I knew I had to stand out from the crowd. People have now “seen” me, know of me, and, if I’ve played my cards right, when my book is released, may just say, “Hmm…he talks a lot of smack, let’s see how it translates into his craft.” I’ve built a cliff from which to jump, now to fly or flounder.
Even in the two+ years I’ve been doing this online “platform” building, I’ve seen so many changes that, while I read up on everything and stash it away in the crevices, I wait until I’m at a bridge before crossing it. That original bridge may have washed away, replaced by a new and better(?) way of getting across.
Thanks for your article!
Thank you for your comments, very interesting. And good luck with that bridge-crossing!
Sophie-
Yes, much has changed since 2001. Even more has changed since I entered the book publishing industry as an editorial assistant in 1977.
The near-death of the mass-market paperback has, for me, been the most surprising change of all. Who would have imagined that the lowest price-point book format would lose its appeal for consumers?
It began with hardcover discounting by the (then) villainous and rapacious bookstore chain Barnes & Noble. Remember when all hardcovers were discounted at least 10% and best sellers at 30%? B&N used that strategy to put thousands of independent bookstores out of business. When market dominance was achieved the discounts went away.
Fiction reading, then, became less cheap entertainment and more an affordable luxury. For the hardcover and trade paperback prices, luxury consumers demanded more than pulp-level writing. They sought something with the gloss of literature. Crime authors like Dennis Lehane and speculative writers like Neal Stephenson met that need.
The arrival of a truly easy-to-use e-book reader, the Kindle, could have opened a new market for genre fiction for price-sensitive consumers, and to some extent it has done that especially for romance fiction. But a couple of things, ask me, have complicated that opportunity.
By opening e-book publishing to everyone, Amazon opened a floodgate. The tidal wave of titles drove prices down to close to zero. Quality, overall, suffered. Consumers remain wary. Many I’m sure would dispute that interpretation, and that’s fine. My point is that genre fiction has not, in my observation, found a comfortable place to dwell that is somewhere between nosebleed-priced print and dollar-store “e”.
That is not to make judgments about anyone’s writing. It is merely to say that the evolution of the industry has affected the way we write. For genre writers today the choice feels like one between writing literature or writing twelve books a year. I’m exaggerating and over-simplifying, understand, but perhaps you see my point.
Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in the context of an industry and changes in that industry shape the way stories are told. Even the great meritocracy of indie publishing has not resulted in a great neutrality or has, as much as hoped, created a laboratory for innovation. Yes, you can find those things just as you can find great pulp storytelling in print. The industry bends our intentions, though, or can.
And that’s my real point. What’s important is for fiction writers and those of us who serve them to be less swayed by the marketplace and more committed to the stories that matter to us, told in the way that works for us. It’s the trailblazers who are remembered.
This really hit the nail on the proverbial head: “For genre writers today the choice feels like one between writing literature or writing twelve books a year.” Since I’m incapable of doing either (nor do I want to), I’m not sure where that leaves me and everyone else in the genre-fiction boat. Thought provoking post and response.
Thank you for such a thoughtful and interesting response to my post. You are so right about that pincer movement of cheap paperbacks and bargain basement ebooks–though I think it’s even more pronounced in the US than in Australia, where the trade paperback is still king(and hardcover novels vanished long ago and are only used for very very big name authors, and even then, mostly in literary rather than genre fiction.) I think many writers do feel that sense of desperation that you evoke so succintly in the choice between writing literature(which may not sell) or twelve books(which may sell only a little anyway). The thing to do of course is keep your nerve, don’t look over your shoulder or even around too much–and follow your nose. Though it can get cut off without warning of course :-)
Sophie–
With both concision and thoroughness, you lay out what you see as having happened in genre-fiction publishing in the thirteen years since your last adult novel was published. Anyone who’s been paying attention will find your summary convincing, but I especially appreciate the emphasis you give to the online world’s dependence on “impulse and strong opinions.” As you say, this immediacy, coupled with Everyman/Everywoman now publishing reviews has led to a loss of respect for “the lengthy and dedicated process of writing a book.”
But maybe this loss of respect is to some degree self-generated by writers. How is respect to be maintained in an atmosphere that encourages writers to pump out titles ASAP? Marketing demands it, we’re told, because more titles, preferably as part of an ongoing series is now seen as crucial to success. In other words, the tail (marketing) is wagging the dog (the book).
In the intervening thirteen years since you published your last novel for adults, you have published a prodigious number of titles for children and young adults. Could it be that you’ve been at the “lengthy and dedicated process” of writing a book for adult readers all this time?
Thank you again for a smart post on serious issues, written for grownups.
Thank you for your insightful comments, Barry. Regarding your suggestion that those 13 years were necessary for me to write that new adult novel, you’re right–but the books I wrote in between are also the process of a long and dedicated process. Most of my ideas take a long time to develop into books(sometimes years!) but I am working on more than one at a time, all in different stages–developing ideas; fleshing out plans; thinking about characters and plot lines; researching settings; then sitting down to write at last. At any onetime I may have three different books on the go, in my head, and on the screen.
However when you write children’s/YA fiction, the possibility of earning a living there is higher–because kids read more than adults, because more kids’ books are sold, because the adults who encourage children and teens to pick up books are very supportive, and creatively speaking, because the field is much freer in its exploration of different genres of literature.
Representing the self-publishing side of the coin, I am extremely grateful that ebooks have enabled me to do what I love. However, I do see the advantage of traditional publishers, and think each of us has to make our own choices.
Marketing has definitely changed over the past 13 years. Discoverability seems to be the leading issue as we begin 2015. I know many say it’s because of the self-pubbers, but I think trad pubbed midlisters are in the same boat. Since ebooks never get pulled from virtual shelves, the amount of books available is increasing at an almost ridiculous rate. I wonder what will happen in the next 13 years?
Yes–should be an interesting time, Karen. Would hate to make predictions–things often take you by surprise in this business!
Great article, Sophie. What struck my ‘wonder cord’ was that you notice drastic ebook differences between YA and Adult. Observations such as: “In publishing for young people, the ebook has scarcely had an impact. Print still dominates there.” And:”Online reviews…This is certainly where the world of adult fiction and children’s fiction part company, for most reviewing of fiction for young people still happens in print—in specialist journals and magazines.”
What I found most curious about this is why it wouldn’t be the other way around, considering the sheer age of YA versus Adult demographics, and their use of technology? The younger generation is much more ‘plugged in,’ no?
In my neck-of-the-woods, kids navigate technology and surf the net like these are in-born talents. At 7, my daughter taught me how to use a new smartphone. No one taught her, she just KNEW. They use computers, smartboards, smartphones, and all-kinds of pads at school. Even their social network is entwined with technology. “No one CALLS anymore, Mom. My friends text and email.”
I wonder, then, why YA wouldn’t see much bigger sales (than adult) in ebook format? And why would YA reviews still be focused on traditional print versus online? Curious….
Denise (Dee) Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth and GOT
Yes, it’s a very interesting phenomenon, isn’t it, Denise? It seems counter-intuitive that kids prefer to read books in print rather than on a screen–e-reader, smartphone, tablet or whatever–but it does seem to be what’s going on. Mostly–and I’m generalizing here, because I know some teenagers have in fact taken to ebooks–they do not associate reading for pleasure with screens. Maybe it’s to do with the fact that reading on screen for them is mostly to do with school work; maybe it’s that screens are also associated with socializing, listening to music, watching TV, videos, etc. But it is a fact that very few kids choose to read ebooks. Some people say that could be because they don’t have access to credit cards etc to buy ebooks, but that doesn’t really to me provide a good explanation, and that a true preference is at work here. in light of that, here’s an interesting recent article in the Uk newspaper The Guardian, which published the results of a survey about what format young readers prefer for books: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/25/young-adult-readers-prefer-printed-ebooks
Regarding those YA reviews, too, I think that many of them are read by teachers and librarians looking for books for their school libraries, and–generalizing again!–they tend to trust more reviews in publications such as The Horn Book or School Library Journal than online.
Great post, Sophie. I am a newcomer, so I wasn’t involved in the way it was 13 years ago. I did attend college and take classes in the late 80’s-early 90’s, before the internet. I was interested in being a novelist then, but I was talked out of it because it was so hard to get published. So, I didn’t come back into the publishing fold until recently, after retirement three years ago. I have been writing and planning my first novel for a couple of years. Yes, I am very slow, but also studying the craft and publishing trends. You mentioned online reviewing. That was the first thing I did, to start a blog. I review debut authors. The one thing I question is your assessment here:
“Ironically, online amateur reviewers with strong views may act more like boundary-patrolling ‘gatekeepers’ and create more of an ‘ouch’ factor for authors than the old-style reviewers ever did. And with the online world thriving on impulse and strong opinions, there’s not always time or even inclination for the considered word, the quiet reflection, the careful crafting of a review, whether that’s positive or negative, which respects the lengthy and dedicated process of writing a book.”
Although, that is true in a lot of cases, I know many reviewers that take it seriously and do understand the length and dedication that it takes to write a book. As for myself, I do reflect and craft a review thoughtfully, usually over 2-3 days. My rule is to never tear down an author. There is no need or reason to do so. Even if my review is negative, I try to always point out the positive elements and suggest, in my opinion, how to improve. I see this in many other reviewers as well. Those that are scathing and attack authors, (believe me, I’ve seen them too!), are not serious about reviewing, but are only out to build themselves up while hurting others–much like the schoolyard bully. Those people will burn themselves out eventually. Reviews, whether in print magazines, newspapers, or online are all one thing: subjective. They are that reviewer’s opinion. Opinions are like noses, everyone has one. I appreciate my blog readers for valuing my opinion. Thanks again. :)
Thank you, Rebecca, for your thoughtful response. I completely agree that there are many excellent reviewers working online, like yourself, who really think about what they’re doing and carefully craft their responses to other people’s books–and I as well as other authors certainly value their opinions. Thank you for doing what you do!
However as you also mention, in online reviewing there are some people who function just like bullies in the schoolyard–and sadly, like bullies generally, they can reduce other voices to silence.
While reading this post I thought back to the beginning days of cable tv (some of you may remember “I want my MTV”). There were a few good networks (HBO and AMC) that showed movies and then as I mentioned, MTV, which in the beginning had like 12 music videos. But there was a ton of atrocious programming. Anyone who could buy a time slot could get a show. I remember a woman who would demonstrate how to lift weights or do aerobics in a bikini bottom and high heels.
Perhaps publishing is hitting that same type of mile marker. People who wrote with a quill and ink probably bemoaned the printing press. How we write, review and publish will change because of technology. The advent of the PC let’s anyone write but it will take time to shake out the true innovators. Change is good. Change is hard. Change changes.
Thanks for your comments, Wila. Yes, I agree, change is a part of life. And it can be good. But not always! Some changes are not for the better, as we know in all aspects of life. And the trouble is, unless we have an infallible crystal ball, we can’t know what change will bring in its wake.