Reluctant Revolutionary
By Marty Gallanter
I did this piece in about the middle of 2000 and it received quite a bit of Internet play including appearing in a great e-zine called the Inditer, which is now gone. But my optimism about the future of electronic publishing did not turn out to be accurate, at least not yet - mhg 8/19/02
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876
The key question asked by the writer from the prominent California daily was, “Why did you choose an electronic publisher for your first novel?” I hesitated before answering. The truthful response would have been to admit that the electronic publisher was the only one to accept my submission. After two years of offering my work to every major and most of the minor publishers in the United States, and after two years of collecting enough rejection letters to rebuild the Brooklyn Bridge, I was tired. Dead End Street Publications LLC
http://www.deadendstreet.com
said “yes,” and did so with enthusiasm. Since they’re obviously people of literary taste, I signed the contract. But the reporter didn’t want to hear that old story and my publisher had the right to expect something a little more elegant. Besides, that particular answer would have been only partially true.
I am not an amateur in this writing game. My byline has appeared in dozens of publications, among them the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, TV Guide and even on the prestigious New York Times Op Ed Page. My articles led me to television guest spots, including the premier of Diane Sawyer’s Prime Time Live. Undoubtedly, I possess “professional writer’s” qualifications and some pretty strong evidence that I have the capacity to promote my own work. I also think (no surprise here) that the novel I wrote was well worth publishing - better, in fact, than much of the stuff already available in the bookstore.
Strangely enough, lots of the rejection letters agreed with my view. One after another told my agent that I’d written a fine book, but one that “wasn’t quite right” for their company. The theme repeated itself so often, that I wondered what was right for their list, and began to research the state of America’s major fiction publishers. Most of the large well-known, fiction publishing firms are now part of giant media conglomerates. Bertelsmann owns Random House, which itself includes seven other once independent fiction publishers. Fox has Harper Collins, while Time-Warner owns Warner Books & Little, Brown. Viacom absorbed the once staid house of Simon & Schuster. These are but some of the media monsters who have assimilated the old-time icons of American literature. Whether they’re referred to as divisions, subsidiaries, or partners, they now seem to have one thing in common. Virtually all of them bleed red. They don’t make a profit.
I’d always suspected as much based on familiar anecdotal data outlining huge cash advances to the likes of Newt Gingrich, Monica Lewinsky, Dick Morris, Nancy Regan and others “famous people” whose books never seem to sell enough copies to pay the cost of promotion. Most of these companies simply do not make money and in a capitalist society that means they go out of business or they get absorbed.
In 1992, I found myself on a private airplane with the General Counsel for Time Warner. I asked him why his corporation put up with publishing divisions that not only failed to add to the bottom line but lowered its level. His answered vaguely, telling me that one could not be an entertainment giant without a publishing house or two and besides, they were source the for material for movie and TV rights. They call them “content providers” now. I didn’t push the issue, though I could have easily debated its merit.
What doesn’t seem to matter is that the old-guard fiction publishing houses are not major contributors to the advancement of American literature. Each year, first-time novelists become a smaller portion of the list of new books being issued. The editing, printing, publishing and promotional costs for a new novel have simply become prohibitive… too risky. One executive friend working in the industry told me, “If you criticize us for losing money now, you would really have a case if we took on more first novels.” And I’m sure he’s right.
The small publishers, the university presses and the specialty houses (i.e. Christian books) are the ones taking chances. If a new author sells well with one of the independents, the big boys come in for second and third printings and another “overnight success” is born. The public is rarely aware of how many years most authors invest in becoming an “overnight sensation.” I’ve been trying for the better part of two decades.
But I can finally call myself a published author. My novel exists. It has an International Standard Book number and a registered copyright. A person can actually buy it at less than half the price of the average hardcover. That’s because my book isn’t in hardcover. It isn’t bound at all. This personal creation exists only in digital format, is sold over the Internet and can be read on a computer or on one of the new electronic book readers. But it does exist. It is as real as MOBY DICK, even if you can’t yet find it in your neighborhood library, though it is available from on-line retailers like barnesandnoble.com, powels.com and deadendstreet.com. I cringe to think that only a few years ago you couldn’t find CDs, videos, software or even talking books on library shelves. It won’t be long before digital formats will have their own corner, probably not too far from the CD-ROMs. An online digital library already exists at netlibrary.com and my book will be there as well.
A lot of people think the situation surrounding electronic publishing actually defines a revolution. Microsoft is investing a fortune and attempting to take the lead in electronic publishing software. An inter-industry committee is already meeting to agree upon a standard e-book format. Barnes and Noble has radically lowered the cost of a popular electronic reader as a prelude to a major marketing push in the electronic arena. More importantly, previously unpublished authors are creating real books, and making them available to hundreds of millions of people at extremely reasonable prices. So I guess I’m a revolutionary, reluctant at best, but still on the ramparts. I would love to have an old guard, prestige imprint and a front row display at the Barnes and Nobles in the mall. But that’s not what was offered, at least not yet.
So here is what I told the reporter from the California daily. American
literature is alive, well and prospering. There is a new frontier for those who would experiment with the literary arts. Electronic publishing has removed once impenetrable barriers between people like me and those who might want to read my words. For the reader, selection has been increased geometrically, though frankly a lot will hardly be worth reading. But I have faith that the good stuff will rise to the surface and that my book will be there… riding high. But if it isn’t, it won’t be because I didn’t have the opportunity to compete.
post-script - Print On Demand
publishing seems to be doing the same thing - allowing authors to connect to
readers. You can now get my novel on paper and another one I wrote
will be soon following.
Want to read more? Go back to "stuff
I write for fun."
