Paper Based Publishing May Vanish But Writers Will Be Here Forever
2011
Seth Godin recently offered an interesting blog, “Without fortune cookies, are there fortunes? His post discussed the changing fortunes of writers. From my own experience as a writer, I’ve seen the extremely slow and lethargic publishing industry grind out a process to edit, promote and print my upcoming book. All told, it will be about 14 months start to finish, from the time I signed my contract to the time the book is actually on shelves at Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon (I guess Amazon must have shelves too). Advances on royalties are modest for all of those who are not Bill Clinton or Sarah Palin. And once the book starts selling, there is still a significant lag before a writer receives royalties. This model is challenging at best for any would be author, then again, my primary goal is to use the book as a platform to further support my B2B Marketing Services firm. This results in a symbiotic relationship, with the book(s) promoting my business, and my business creating profits allowing me to write more books. An author, seeking profit from book sales alone will likely need a sideline to pay the bills, often as an editor, copywriter or in many cases some unrelated field of endeavor. Very soon, the costs and logistics of paper based book production will likely result in a metamorphosis similar to the music industry as it transitioned from CDs to iPods. What will happen to the writers then? Will earnings for writers be further squeezed to the point that there are no more “full time” authors?