The pros and cons of buying online are all fine and dandy, but the OP was made, not from the perspective of a reader, but of a writer.
We, as writers, produce a product. We approach publishers in the hopes that they’ll mass produce that product, thereby satisfying our creative and material needs while satisfying the needs of our customers – the readers. In effect, become published.
In order for publishers to buy a product, they need a market. The larger the market, the better an environment for whatever you’re trying to sell. Large chain bookstores have replaced regular bookstores worldwide and now dominate the book market.
They are now folding. As a result, publishers, the people who buy your manuscript and publish it for the general public, have been losing large amounts of money and have been laying off personnel.
That’s less money for the printing of books, less money for promotion, less money to invest in new talent, less people sifting through the piles for new talent worthy to be published, less incentive to take on new writers.
A publisher can only publish a certain amount of books a year, which is part of the problem as far as getting accepted for publication. If they’re going to be publishing even less, than what does that bode for us writers seeking to be published?
With less personnel reading new manuscripts and guiding a book through the process from acceptance to on-the-shelf- publication, what will that do to the acceptance rate and wait times?
With less outlets for published books, and that’s new published books – the ones that make authors and publishers money, what does the future look like for aspiring authors seeking to be published?
The intent of the OP was to tell the aspiring writers here that if you thought it was hard to get published before, guess what? It’s about to become even harder.
You’re going to have to really hone your skills and polish your prose and finesse your story. You’re going to have to make your story even more unique and intriguing. You’re going to have to make your writing really stand out and shine. You’re going to have to be even more patient and willing to slog through hours and hours of personal hell with no thought of gain or reward.
In this current climate, which is not conducive to profit for writers or publishers, you cannot rely on your writing eventually becoming a career or money maker (though I know the majority of us here don’t, still we all dream.)
So, my question:
Does this daunt you? Cause doubt? Make you want to throw it all up in the air?
Or does it fire you up? Cause you to try harder, be better, seek out that story that people can’t help but be curious about once they hear the first sentence?
Or do you not care? Are you unaffected by any of it? It doesn’t bother you at all or cause you to change anything in the way you approach writing and, I assume, publication?
What are your thoughts as a writer?
