What about the Author?

By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern Writers Magazine

My job entails reading-from magazines to books. Always looking for better ways to present, help and promote authors.

As most of you are aware, Random House and Penguin were two of the biggest publishers, now they have merged. They will be the world’s largest publisher. Where does that leave Hachette, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins?

Well obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball, nor do I wear a turban, but the real question is “How will this affect authors?”

What will happen if, say, mystery books become the hot new fad? Will the publishing houses still want romance, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.? Or, will they want to jump on the bandwagon and roll out as many mystery books as they can.

Let’s face it; the publishing industry has gone through tremendous changes. For the most part, they are in uncharted waters. They have to recreate their thinking. This isn’t any different from what companies all over the world are doing, rethinking how to run their businesses and create profits. It isn’t like it was in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. For the most part, authors didn’t have to worry about how to promote and market their books, the houses set up all of that. Publishers today aren’t picking up authors and spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to promote and market their book. That is done for only a few authors.

So the question goes back to, what are authors to do?  You’ve written a book, it’s been published. If you want it to sell, you are going to have to promote the book. You’ve heard writing is a business. That is truer today than ever before for authors. Many new authors use Facebook and a few other Social Medias to promote their book thinking this is the best way, some even think it is the only way. What they are doing is limiting their book sales. Social Media is just one outlet to promote your book…it is not the only, and possibly not the best way (the jury is still out on that part), it is just one way. Let’s face it, how does an author know how the buyer of their book heard about their book.

Because it is a business, you have to introduce your book to as many people as possible, to do that you have to use many facets.

Remember, the more people that hear about your book, the better chance you have of selling your book.