By Aral Bereux

Publishing in a world today, where the market is saturated by wannabes and talent, is growing increasingly difficult. Navigating your way around the industry has never been more difficult, contrary to all the self-help blogs out there.

Instead, the contemporary publishing industry is a diverse environment of complex trade sector trends and arising challenges, something that most self-published authors struggle to grasp. Despite this, the author as publisher must consider marketing trends and professional networks if any moderate amount of success is to be achieved. How these networks and practices influence the role of marketing (one of the single most important strategies to guarantee author success), coupled with the author’s role in promoting the book, and how product placement sees the book into the hands of a ‘gatekeepers’ will inevitably determine success.

It’s a long-winded process, with no short cuts available. What was once an industry of traditional printing, publishing, and bookselling, straightforward in its procedures, is now a series of complex relationships interdependent with one another—and difficult to negotiate.

Vying for market and customers in an exceedingly competitive industry equates no longer to the publishing industry being a ‘straight-forward’ author-publisher-distributor relationship. The new trends and challenges are unprecedented, and with price wars between billion-dollar franchises like Amazon, Kmart and Walmart selling books below cost to entice customers through doors, the logistics of publishing an author to success are becoming increasingly challenging.

Once Upon A Time…

The contemporary publishing industry trends traditionally relied on several interwoven industries, but with the event of technology, some of these are changing. Publishing is and has only ever been one part of the complex relationship (though integral) of producing a text, whereas printing, the logistics of marketing, distributing and bookselling—whether digital or in bricks and mortar stores—and the authoring of the book also play crucial roles in the success of publishing.

The publishing world has long engaged with agents, proof-readers, editors, and marketers, as well as sales representatives, illustrators, and publicists, but not until recently has the industry directly engaged with its consumers to survive. A move driven largely by independent publishing.

The importance of the publishing companies’ engagement with the consumer—and this includes the self-published multitasking author who dons the publishing and marketing hats—is vital for success. By treating the publisher as the gatekeepers to young readers, librarian Karys McEwen stresses that marketing is vital for generating genuine interest, and influences the type of book purchased for the high school libraries she works in.

Ventura Press publisher Jane Curry agrees that marketing is the crux of the industry. The publishing business exists purely to make a profit. The bigger you are as a publisher the more likely profits are made.

It is a common theme within the industry no matter who you are. The contemporary publishing industry now pushes the smaller and medium-sized publishers into increasingly niche markets, to compete against global giants like Penguin Random House and Hachette. Only the most switched on independent publishers succeed.

The book selling industry is depressing. It isn’t for the faint-hearted, and sometimes talent simply doesn’t count as much as the marketing.

However, it isn’t all bad news for the author. The development of new media flooding the market has a silver lining, explains editors Anabel Pandiella and Tom Saras. They highlight how professional networks are reliant on collaborations which result from new media, and how streaming platforms and well-placed entertainment magazines enhance this. Reflecting on their collaboration with Who magazine to “host book clubs for Who readers”, Saras saw an increase of author’s sales. Pandiella, who promoted a novel by partnering with an SBS streaming platform, also saw an increase of up to 30 percent in author’s sales. Professional book publishing networks are essential for success.

However, in the current climate of self-publishing—a result of publishing due largely to discontent in earnings and the inability to secure a publishing contract—presents the question of what remains of the role of the author?

Tasked to doing most of the work themselves, the evolution of large-scale self-publishing has changed the face of the author’s role in publishing, even in a traditional setting with a publisher. Editing, marketing, and the author’s ability to maintain their own webpages, and other digital promotion is now commonplace for authors of any fashion. The alternative self-publishing mode has created a publisher’s requirement that an author must have some proof of ‘membership’ within the literary community through these tools and networking, even if it is minimal.

The role of the author in marketing is crucial to the success of sales. The author’s “genuine” involvement with their books when marketing on social media platforms, attributes some publishing success to the author’s display of authenticity for the public to identify with. This becomes more important if what Pandiella suggests is occurring with notable consumer interest dropping away from the Internet and digital marketing.

The saturation of digital marketing creates a difficult online environment for marketers and publicists to negotiate; suggesting the importance of a ‘personable’ author to boost revenues via social capable—an approachable author online and off. The crucial role of publishers—large and independent ones—in promotional capacity is essential.

The author’s role is to maintain the professional networks within the publishing industry and to maintain them in a rapidly evolving publishing environment.

 

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