I am curious to see what insiders have to say about this question. I'd also like to hear what you think of the changes?
How has publishing changed in the last ten years?
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At is base, it hasn't. It's the same as when scribes made notes in clay tablets. It's primarily distribution that has changed over the years. Printing press, moveable type, electronic versions and so on.
But, consolidation of large publishers and an explosion of small publishers has changed both the entry level costs as well as the requirements for entry. IT used to cost a fortune to buy a press, set type, run a print series, store those printed tomes and ship or deliver them. Now it's easy enough to do this at almost no charge. This has resulted int here being a far lower barrier to entry for both publishers and authors. Anyone can write anything, upload it to Amazon and become a published author. When publishers had to spend a large amount of capital to do this, there was a natural tendency only to publish what might possibly sell and earn a profit. Not so much any more.
This also results in a low barrier for publishers to enter the fray. Going digital only, many small shops have started with some specialized lists. There's no need to sell 10,000 to break even, you can sell as few as a hundred and make an okay return. And individual authors can skip the normal process and simply publish, whether the manuscript will sell or not. You can publish in a blog, online video or whatever you want.
This leads to a glut of pure crap available. And more opportunities for scams that part wannabe authors with their unearned cash. And, unfortunately, a certain dumbing down of a readership who are being conditioned to read anything. There is less money being divvied up by agents, so fewer agents getting into the field. But there is still a hard core market for good material, traditionally published.
None of this is good for the industry. Or bad either. It's just changes. And like any change, some accept it willingly, others profit greatly and still others get passed over. Personally, not a great effect on me personally, except that I no longer have to lick envelopes and stamps.
Jeff
But, consolidation of large publishers and an explosion of small publishers has changed both the entry level costs as well as the requirements for entry. IT used to cost a fortune to buy a press, set type, run a print series, store those printed tomes and ship or deliver them. Now it's easy enough to do this at almost no charge. This has resulted int here being a far lower barrier to entry for both publishers and authors. Anyone can write anything, upload it to Amazon and become a published author. When publishers had to spend a large amount of capital to do this, there was a natural tendency only to publish what might possibly sell and earn a profit. Not so much any more.
This also results in a low barrier for publishers to enter the fray. Going digital only, many small shops have started with some specialized lists. There's no need to sell 10,000 to break even, you can sell as few as a hundred and make an okay return. And individual authors can skip the normal process and simply publish, whether the manuscript will sell or not. You can publish in a blog, online video or whatever you want.
This leads to a glut of pure crap available. And more opportunities for scams that part wannabe authors with their unearned cash. And, unfortunately, a certain dumbing down of a readership who are being conditioned to read anything. There is less money being divvied up by agents, so fewer agents getting into the field. But there is still a hard core market for good material, traditionally published.
None of this is good for the industry. Or bad either. It's just changes. And like any change, some accept it willingly, others profit greatly and still others get passed over. Personally, not a great effect on me personally, except that I no longer have to lick envelopes and stamps.
Jeff
Jeff's last comment is actually a shift I've seen just from reading BR&BC threads from ten years ago to today (I go back through the archives a lot, I wasn't on this site that long ago). Eight or ten years ago, even at the beginning of the 2010s, you'd see a lot of agents who still wanted requested material to be printed and mailed to them, even if the queries were electronic. Today the discussion isn't whether to print or email the manuscript, it's what file type to attach it (and at what point you attach instead of pasting into the email).
Other than that, the only shifts Jeff didn't mention are the perennial shifts in genre. And that YA and the surrounding age groups have grown in the past ten years. I just went into a library for the first time since their remodel. Their teen section has gone, in my lifetime, from a circle of tables to a room full of shelves. (I didn't poke around in it today because I was going for MG.) My much bigger suburban library has undergone a similar change, from a single shelving unit to the entire back wall and some of the shelves around. When they're done with their remodel, IIRC, they'll have an entire teen room.
Other than that, the only shifts Jeff didn't mention are the perennial shifts in genre. And that YA and the surrounding age groups have grown in the past ten years. I just went into a library for the first time since their remodel. Their teen section has gone, in my lifetime, from a circle of tables to a room full of shelves. (I didn't poke around in it today because I was going for MG.) My much bigger suburban library has undergone a similar change, from a single shelving unit to the entire back wall and some of the shelves around. When they're done with their remodel, IIRC, they'll have an entire teen room.
I also think the industry has better models for self publishing than it did 10 years ago. Those who do it well are doing it better, and passing that knowledge along to other self pubbers. They're figuring out what works and what doesn't. I'm by no means an insider aside from following discussions here, so I'd like to hesr from others how people getting better at self publishing has changed the industry as a whole.
I don't agree that it's gotten easier to scam. Scams baiting people through magazine ads are quite old, but I think the packaging of the scamming has changed. What's stayed the same is the scammers offer an easy out and prey upon the frustration and uncertainty new authors face coupled with double truths and half lies they let the target continue to believe. What seems to have changed is that vanity publishing scams along the lines of Dorrance, Tate, PublishAmerica and the various Robert Fletcher scams (your physical book in real bookstores!) common when I joined AW have given way to "joining a family of adoring readers who will use social media to do your promotion for you." Both sell dreams based on misunderstandings of how publishing works, and the "family" aspect has always been there, but it's adapting to the times.
ETA: On reflection regarding scammers, I think it's a lot easier today for people who don't know what they're doing to set up a publishing house regardless of an intention to scam. They become inadvertant scammers and fail because they set up a naive business model and sign naive authors when neither of them know any better.
I don't agree that it's gotten easier to scam. Scams baiting people through magazine ads are quite old, but I think the packaging of the scamming has changed. What's stayed the same is the scammers offer an easy out and prey upon the frustration and uncertainty new authors face coupled with double truths and half lies they let the target continue to believe. What seems to have changed is that vanity publishing scams along the lines of Dorrance, Tate, PublishAmerica and the various Robert Fletcher scams (your physical book in real bookstores!) common when I joined AW have given way to "joining a family of adoring readers who will use social media to do your promotion for you." Both sell dreams based on misunderstandings of how publishing works, and the "family" aspect has always been there, but it's adapting to the times.
ETA: On reflection regarding scammers, I think it's a lot easier today for people who don't know what they're doing to set up a publishing house regardless of an intention to scam. They become inadvertant scammers and fail because they set up a naive business model and sign naive authors when neither of them know any better.
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I noticed the tremendous increase in books specifically targeted for teens as well, but as a parent. My oldest, like me, went directly from childrens novels to adult novels, but my two younger kids wallowed in the YA section. There was some good stuff there (I know because I read it too!) but its definitely different now.
I wondered about the quality of the written word issue as well. Especially in children's books where they are just learning what can be had from story. I've often wondered if the reason many kids dont like to read comes from exposure to really crappy stories when they're young.
So no one feel like the amalgamation of major publishing houses is creating an homogenization of story?
I wondered about the quality of the written word issue as well. Especially in children's books where they are just learning what can be had from story. I've often wondered if the reason many kids dont like to read comes from exposure to really crappy stories when they're young.
So no one feel like the amalgamation of major publishing houses is creating an homogenization of story?
Not really. The success of 'Black Swan' projects (say, like Harry Potter, Fifty Shades, or Captive Prince) makes for a healthy almost-paranoia among literary agents and Big Five imprints. Sure they want the 'same only different', but they are also looking for projects with unexpected appeal. Online resources like Manuscript Wish List help authors track agents' and editors' whims and longterm needs.
Self-pub and agile small press also put pressure on agencies and Big Five imprints.
Self-pub and agile small press also put pressure on agencies and Big Five imprints.
The quality of writing being published is generally on the up. Intense competition and smaller markets will do that to books, especially on the literary end.
You just have to read some retro scifi to see how the genre has, on the whole, improved vastly.
You just have to read some retro scifi to see how the genre has, on the whole, improved vastly.
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Some of it's not really quantifiable, I think. For me - the appearance of easy* self-publishing galvanized me into working seriously on finished novels instead of just screwing around with vignettes the way I had been for 25 years. Suddenly the only barriers to publishing were me, myself, and I, and if I really wanted to do it, I needed to BIC and do the work. I didn't end up self-publishing, but it was my first plan, and I'm still glad to have it as an option.
*by which I mean technologically - not the writing, marketing, finishing etc. around it.
*by which I mean technologically - not the writing, marketing, finishing etc. around it.
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Hmm, that's at least partly a question of taste. Captain Future or Lucky Starr would never see the light of day today, but those were some of my favorite books growing up. OTOH, I'm not particularly a fan of cyberpunk or steampunk.
All my favorite novels are retro sff or classic literature, but I still feel quality of writing and general technique has improved, overall.
All things are taste though, definitely.
All things are taste though, definitely.
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I also think it's changing culture, as well as some genres (SFF in particular) becoming more "serious" as they mature. The pulp SFF that was published in the 1930s wasn't intended to be "literature," although some of it was quite well done.
I don't know that I'd agree that writing is of a higher quality now than it was in 2007, though. Or 1997, or before that.
I'm noticing technical changes on the querying side, as others have mentioned. More online submission forms and more agents looking for email only queries. More granular realtime info on agent wishes and reactions. More online communities.
It's probably to do with the small sample I've looked at, but I have trouble finding a steampunk world I would want to stay in for more than ten pages or so. Part of it is that I am largely assumed to be female but I do not identify as female, and I resent any world that tries to justify putting people with my physiology in boxes. This is, in turn, probably why the one steampunk-ish world I read through to the end and thoroughly enjoyed was by Adrienne Kress (THE FRIDAY SOCIETY). Three female characters, placed variously on the gender-presentation spectrum.
Okay, tangent over.
It depends. Most of my reading throughout my life has been in YA, and I still have pre-HP books on my shelves from that age range. I will tell you that, in my opinion and that of my Pierce-loving friends, Tamora Pierce didn't shine nearly so brightly in Alanna's books as she did in Kel's and Aly's. A large part of that is to do with the number of pages per book she was allowed, which brings me to another way publishing (at least in YA) has changed.
As Pierce pointed out in the acknowledgements for TRICKSTER'S QUEEN, it wasn't until the later books of HP that publishers started to think kids would read long books, and allow YA books to extend past roughly 200-300 pages. My memory of other books in that time period backs this up--lots of very slim books (Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Laurie Halse Anderson, Vivian Vande Velde, Meredith Ann Pierce). If you look at those same writers today (the ones who are still writing), their books have largely gotten longer and thicker. The middle grade books being published today are longer than YA was when I was in middle school. I've got a book on my shelf that contains three novels from the pre-Twilight era; the whole thing is the same thickness as one of Beka Cooper's (Tamora Pierce again) books. When QueryShark started, anything over 80,000 words or so was flagged as "too long" for YA; more recent YA queries for books 100k or so don't even get blinked at.
While the books got longer, the format in which YA is published seems to have transitioned. I used to find all my books in mass-market paperback. Until Twilight. Now, YA books are released as hardcover, then trade paperbacks. The last new YA book I saw in mass-market (ironically) was a printing of Twilight with the movie poster as the cover. I found it in a grocery store or an airport or something. Everything else--trade.
(The above is all what I've seen as a reader and observer. I may be wrong in the grander scheme of things.)
Oh yeah. No longer are things lost in the mail--now, a good chunk of agencies have auto-responders confirming they got the query, and plenty of agents tweet with how far back they are in their slush.
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Between QueryTracker and agents' own social media updates, it's much easier to figure when a submission should leave the 'there's still hope' for 'they're not interested' column. Much less guesswork.
This is more of just a publishing trend in general. Mass-market paperbacks are on their way out, in general - ebooks have kind of taken over the price point, and the only authors who really sell well in mass-market are the big ones (Stephen King, etc.).
I don't know about that. I go into a store looking for any urban fantasy old enough to be out of hardcover, and I'm likely to find it in mass market. Same with mysteries and romances. The only books I notice going from hardcover to trade, besides YA, are literary and nonfiction. Maybe Christian fiction too, but I don't look at that as much.
The HP books got longer for several reasons.
HP was growing up, and so he wasn't really a suitable character for proper YA books anymore. So as he aged in the books, the books' genres changed slightly with him.
A longer book has more in it, and might therefore be more likely to provide enough material for two films rather than just one. And two films are likely to be twice as profitable as one.
As the HP books grew in popularity, JKR became more confident and more trusted as a writer. Her editors realised they could relax a bit with regard to genre conventions because the books would sell no matter what their lengths. And I think this is the big reason the HP books got longer and longer.
I don't usually write in the YA genre so might well be out of the loop here, but I don't think this is broadly true in trade publishing. Shorter is still easier to publish. That doesn't mean agents won't consider longer books if they're great, of course.
Most of my YA-writing friends are published straight into trade paperback. Backlists and classics are sometimes reprinted as mass-market paperbacks, if the settings make this possible. Relatively few YA books first appear as hardbacks, in my experience.
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I really don't know where you get the idea that YA was not a thing, that there was some rule YA books couldn't exceed 200-300 pgs, and now that there weren't YA hardbacks, before ... you started reading YA.
There was tons of YA, some long, some released in hardback, years and years ago. I used to go park myself in the YA section, among shelves and shelves. I used to mine the used bookstore too, for older stuff (they had a whole little room of YA) and I remember reading stuff from Danziger, Zindel, Cooney, Duncan, Sleator, even V.C. Andrews, and ten tons more.
Not for nothing, but longer does not equal better. Some of the later Harry Potter books needed cutting.
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Doesn't HP go from MG-->YA, not YA-->adult?
By books 4 (or even 3) he'd become a perfect character for YA, but he was no longer really suitable for MG where he started as a more naive 11yo.
True dat.
I'm guessing it's a categorisation issue rather than content change issue... Reading a retro-ish science fantasy series atm starring protagonists who go 12-16 over the course of the story (complete with coming of age, trials, finding yourself, etc).
It was billed as adult at the time, but it probably would have been YA these days. Just on age and themes alone.
It was billed as adult at the time, but it probably would have been YA these days. Just on age and themes alone.
It might well. As I said, YA isn't my genre. Nevertheless, my point about HP the character growing and ageing through the series stands.
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That it does.
One of my favourite aspects of the series is how the plots become more complex as Harry ages and his understanding of the complicated world around him grows.
I haven't read all the books, but that was definitely my impression of the movies. I wondered if part of that growth was also JKR's growth as a writer showing through, allowing her to handle more complex plot lines and characters. Interesting. Someone could write a thesis on that. (Someone probably already has.)