Once upon a time in a far away land called New York City big publishers swirled around each other with pockets full of money eager to lure unsuspecting authors into their gold-lined nests. They promised these starving men and women huge contracts, years of literary bliss and amazing international book trips and sales.
Then, on a dark and stormy night in the year 2008, the fairy tale world of publishing vanished, seemingly overnight. The finances of the entire world, even the comfortable world of publishing that had used the same business model for decades, was brought to its knees. It fell face down and a mess of authors were lying right underneath the whole damn pile.
When publishers and editors started to pull themselves up off the ground following the global financial crisis, their world — the world of many authors and publishing house employees, my world — had totally changed.
I don't stop and think about it much but I have had an amazing career. For a woman who grew up across the street from a Wisconsin cornfield and started writing on a typewriter, the journey has been pretty wonderful. Notice how I didn't say it was easy. Random House, Onyx, Birch Lane, Adams Media, Spinster’s Ink, SparkPress and a mess of foreign houses have published my 14 books. The publishing world was a different place when some of those books hit the shelves, and it really was just like in the movies.
I flew all over the country. Literary escorts picked me up in big cars and took me to hotels with rooms larger than my house. Media people treated me like a star and I had this really cool thing called a book deal that included an advance so I could pay my bills and buy new underwear.
The publishers also paid for advertising in places like The New York Times Book Review. There were posters and gifts and happy people running everywhere.
Today Random House is Penguin Random House. Publishers have downsized, combined, disappeared and discovered they should have jumped onto the eBook train sooner. Traditional publishing these days looks nothing like the old fairy tale.
Literary advances are hard to come by and many new authors are shocked to find out they have to pay for their own advertising and publicity. Fewer publishers and less staff equal less money and not as many books being published. But alas! Now anyone can self-publish and call him or herself an author. It's a bit terrifying.
The wave of the literary future is boutique publishing, and it works so well that many traditional authors are jumping ship — but it's not a voyage for sissies, so buck up. Boutiques — small publishing houses — form a unique partnership with their authors. There's a ton of collaboration and, most amazing of all, authors have a huge voice in everything. We work hard at publicity, editing, social media, event planning and a thousand other things that are necessary in order to sell books. Simply writing the book and storming off to the bar à la Hemingway is a thing of the past, and I'm not buying into that part.
The unfortunate truth is that publishing is a business, and the number one goal of a business is to make money. Publishing is a wild rodeo but I ain't gettin off my literary horse. I've got about 20 more books to write and I'm going to drink with my Hemingway muse while I do it.
This article appears in Dec 14-21, 2017.