Sometimes the only way to get the change you need in an industry is to air some of the dirty laundry. So let me pull up the curtain and talk about what’s happening in publishing right now…
… if you’re following authors, editors, or publishers on social media in the past few weeks you may have seen some hints that something is rotten in the state of Publishing. There are multiple issues at the moment. From another Nazi Romance (why? WHY???) to creeps and predators in indie publishing and at cons (again – why be gross? why would you do that), to the not-so-sudden exodus of multiple talented editors from major houses which continues a trend of downsizing editorial departments (cue the panic), layoffs, and furloughs that started several years ago.
Two of those are really easy to solve:
– don’t write redemption arcs for racists bent on genocide – Nazis are not sexy and they never will be
– enthusiastic consent is required for everything so keep your dirty hands and thoughts to yourself
The third issue – losing talent in the publishing industry because of unfair labor practices – is not so quickly resolved.
Part of the problem is there isn’t enough competition between the big publishing houses because there are very few big publishing houses and they move very slowly on everything from adapting to tech to raising wages. Like every other large industry publishing has some serious labor practice issues. Everything from exploitative unpaid internships to pro-rates that were last a living wage during the 1930’s. Plus the usual plethora of ableism, racism, sexism, and flings with homophobia. These are cultural issues that are not unique to publishing but that still need to be addressed because it is 2022 and there is no reason for any of those problems to exist.
Some of that is going to be addressed in-house by each publisher. Some of that is a national (or possibly international) discussion about how to include the 15% of the world’s population that is disabled, the 49.6% that are women, the 20% that identify as queer, or the 80% of the world population that is not white.
Some of this needs to be addressed by readers. And this is the part nobody wants to talk about. It’s kind of taboo to talk about money in public, right? But we know that it’s taboo because your boss doesn’t want you to compare your wages to the person next to you because your boss doesn’t want anyone in the office to know the wide range of pay for the exact same jobs (join a union and get paid fairly, please and thank you).
In publishing it’s a little bit gauche to talk about advances. After all, authors should feel lucky they were picked out of all those millions of hopefuls, right? Everyone writes books these days! It’s so easy! Authors should just be grateful they are getting paid anything to do something they enjoy, amiright?
… no.
No, that’s not right.
Because authors and books are not interchangeable. What I write is not something any other person is going to write. Give two authors the same idea and you’ll get 600 books (please check Ao3 if you don’t believe me). And books are not potato chips.
As much as people hate to hear it: Books Are Luxury Items.
There is a rental market (libraries) and a secondary retail market (used bookstores) and, on average, books sell a limited number of copies while taking months or years for each to be handcrafted. They are not paper towels or milk. They aren’t a daily item that people will continuously buy. Most people will only buy each book once and the price should reflect that.
Tickets to a movie cost $15-$25. Dinner at a nice restaurant for one costs $60. A latte that takes five minutes to make costs $8 but people still want a book for $2.99 like it’s extra ketchup at McDonalds. That’s ridiculous.
Unless everyone is earning royalties every time a reader picks a book up or every time a book sells in a used bookshop, the original cost needs to reflect the actual market availability. Sure, there are other books. Just like there are other necklaces on the market, but I still paid $75 for the one I bought last month because I wanted that necklace, not the other ones.
I went home and made a very similar necklace for under $30 using a technique I liked better than the original.
Now I have two fabulous necklaces!
Readers have been trained to think of books as an annoyance (thanks, terrible school systems with underpaid and overstressed teachers!) or as a cheap indulgence (curse you Amazon) instead of appreciating books for what they are: uniquely crafted luxuries.
Each book you buy is the result of thousands of hours of work, training, dedication, and marketing effort. It may take you only a few hours to read a novel (if you read fast like me) but you aren’t paying for the time spent. You’re paying for the unique experience and story within that book.
On the other side of the equation we have the authors and publishers who want to make books accessible to the masses. We all want to sell lots of books. Millions of books are published every year and every single author is hoping you will pick their book to read. What we’ve been doing since ebooks became popular is lower the prices to make it easy for everyone to buy our beautiful books.
And… the results aren’t great, to be honest.
Lower price point readers are not good fans.
They just aren’t. There’s tons of data on this. Many, many authors, publishers, and marketing professionals have spent years of their lives tracking the sales habits of buyers at different price points and the people who buy the 99cent ebooks are not the ones who will stick with a series for ten years. They tend to be looking for instant gratification, a quick read, and then they move on. It’s good for boosting a book’s rating, but bad for an author’s career.
The current mid-tier books (right around the $7.99 price point) sell well, are a very comfortable price, but like minimum wage in the USA the royalties off a book selling for $7.99 will not pay the bills.
This becomes a problem for everyone because it limits who can afford to keep writing and publishing. If writing books can’t pay the bills, the only people who can afford to write books and publish are those with a second income stream.
Sometimes that income comes from a partner or spouse. Sometimes it comes from parents, family, or grants. Most of the time it comes from having another full time job that the author is required to write around (or an editor or agent required to work around). This is one of the major reasons there is a lack of diversity in English-language publishing. What was a viable career a century ago is now paid like a low-value hobby.
It’s hard for people with health problems and disabilities to write and maintain publishing careers.
It’s hard for people who live near the poverty line to write and maintain publishing careers.
It’s hard for people with other demands on their time (family, demanding jobs, ect) to write and maintain publishing careers.
It’s not impossible. But for every single success story I can show you hundreds, if not thousands, of wonderful people who left publishing because they couldn’t afford to do this for love.
Love doesn’t pay the bills in a capitalist society.
What book lovers need to understand is that the conversation in publishing is going to impact the prices of books on the shelves. Those prices are going to continue to climb over the next few years. They need to climb.
Authors need to get paid an advance they can live off of, that means $75,000USD on the low end. Because there is no way to justify paying someone $5000 for a year’s worth of work. Especially when that $75,000 is getting split between the author, the agent, and Uncle Sam who still taxes small businesses more than large corporations (yeah… about that… we need some serious tax reform. tax the rich!).
Editors and the rest of the staff at publishing houses need to get paid a living wage. In the United States that means $22/hr on the very low end. If the job requires someone to be in the office in an expensive city like Los Angeles or New York the starting pay for a new hire needs to be around $35/hr ($72,000/yr) because that’s what it costs to live in those cities. Everyone who works deserves a living wage. If the cost of living is high and you are required to live there for your job, your job should adequately compensate you are the fact you are forced to live there.
Some of those payments can come from the profits the publishing houses are already making, but some of it will come from raising the prices of books. It’s going to impact traditional publishing, small presses, and indie authors too.
Indie authors have been reluctant to raise prices over the $9.99 price point because Amazon punishes authors who charge a fair price for their book, but I think that too is changing. We’re seeing more and more indie authors who have direct sales on their websites and who realize they’d rather make a living than do all the work of writing and publishing and only be able to afford a nice burger after they get their royalties.
The idea of a $30 novel is a little scary. I grew up very poor and food insecure. I don’t like spending money (except on necklaces apparently). I know so many people like me who are living paycheck to paycheck or off of disability checks or struggling because of student loans and medical debts. No one should be struggling to survive in one of the richest countries in the world but we are, and to end that struggle there need to be changes.
Social issues require changes at every level of society. We know change is coming. We know it’s going to be messy and imperfect because humans are messy and imperfect. We know it’s going to be a struggle because change always is.
But it will be worth it.
Readers are going to see a wider range of books in publishing as the wages in publishing goes up. We’ll see more consistency because authors won’t burn out and quit a series mid-series. We’ll see the kind of stability that allows writers to flourish, grow, and experiment as they improve what they’re doing. And that is going to be really exciting.
Dear readers, please bear with us as publishing goes through some growing pains.
Dear future authors and editors, keep going. You are part of the better future we all want to build.
A better world is a work in progress, so let’s get to work.