From the Archive – Choosing a Market
Here’s the archive post for the holiday weekend. I will be spending tomorrow hopefully writing and having U-Verse installed… see you on the flip side…
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If you write it, it will sell. This seems to be the underlying theory of all new writers. Now, I don’t want to squash any promising hopes and dreams, but just because you write the most brilliant piece of writing on the planet, it doesn’t mean an automatic sale.
Brilliance is important, but it’s only part of the battle. The rest comes down to finding the right market for your work. This process is the same but different for long and short fiction — non-fiction is a totally different animal. For this process, we’re dealing with fiction.
For long fiction (novels), the first question is whether or not to look for an agent first. An agent is a debatable necessity/asset. This is a personal preference for each writer. Having an agent may get your book before more/different publishers who are not open to “unsolicited” manuscripts. However, this process can be just as difficult and long as pursuing a publisher on your own. Gaining an agent is one of the only businesses where you have to be accepted by your “employee” rather than the other way around.
If you don’t go the agent route, you’re still looking at picking the best publisher for your work. In all cases, most will tell you to aim high and work your way down the ladder. This is good advice. Every writer wants to be picked up by a major publisher and see their books in every major retailer on the planet. However, depending on your work, a major publisher may not be the best path for you or your work. Small presses have their place in the industry. They’re known to hit niches and specialties ignored by large presses and for taking risks on lesser known authors.
For short fiction — except for the agent route — it’s the same. Your short story should go to the “top” markets first, knowing the odds of breaking in there are slim, but possible. Then, you work your way down the “food chain” to smaller markets. However, these markets may be the best fit for whatever niche you’re trying to hit. It may be a themed anthology or issue, a magazine or webzine that specializes in humor or dark fiction, etc.
What’s the problem with working with the smaller presses and markets? Nothing. The quality is often as good or higher than the major markets. However, the press runs and distribution is smaller (by definition), and the author is responsible for promoting the book (oh, wait, that’s true no matter WHO you’re published with).
The problem is the economy. We’ve already seen the major publishers in New York take a financial hit. You can’t turn on the news without seeing/hearing the word “recession”. People are cutting back. And the small presses are taking the major financial hits. Bill Lundblad at Storytellersunplugged said it best with this post.
In the age of the internet, mail-order sales can make up a significant percentage of a small press publisher’s sales. But most of them are still buoyed by retailers: small businesses run by people who want to support local authors or friends from conventions and chat boards, larger storefronts who specialize in a particular field and need the reputation that stems from having rarities available, online retailers who survive by skimming five to ten percent off of the bulk discount from each book and getting the copies out to connoisseurs of the field.
Go read the rest of the post. It’s worthwhile reading. Small presses like Apex and YardDog Press struggle to stay afloat, while others like Subatomic Books have closed their doors indefinitely. If you look at market lists like Ralan, you see all kinds of small markets closing their doors for lack of sales.
Allstate is currently running ads talking about people going back to basics. It’s time writers and readers get back to basics. Buying books. Books are an investment in the future. Books are an inexpensive investment in the future. And if you want to see diversity in publishing, that investment needs to be in small and independent presses.