Today, there is no such formula
June 24, 2024 12:13 PM Subscribe
For writers, the stakes are do or die: A debut sets the bar for each of their subsequent books, so their debut advance and sales performance can follow them for the rest of their career. For editors, if a writer’s first book doesn’t perform, it’s hard to make a financial case for acquiring that writer’s second book. And for you, a reader interested in great fiction, the fallout from this challenging climate can limit your access to exciting new voices in fiction. Unless you diligently shop at independent bookstores where booksellers highlight different types of books, you might only ever encounter the big, splashy debuts that publishers, book clubs, social-media algorithms, and big-box retailers have determined you should see. from Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch? [Esquire; ungated]
I have been ordering a bunch of books recently from my local bookstore, but I've realized two things: First, that I no longer use my local bookstore for discovery, like at all. Second, that I'm definitely deep into the "buying books that I think other people should read" trap.
Our local bookstore is a several cities chain, so I support it out of principle 'cause local-ish folks, but when N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season won the Hugo back in 2016, I had to special order the book. I'm not gonna speculate on reasons why they wouldn't stock the Hugo winner written by a woman of color, but... uh....
I was recently made aware that there's an indie horror/fantasy/whatnot book shop in a strip mall north of town because they had a booth at the local pride fair. I picked up a book then, and later wandered into the shop and more out of "I should support these folks" than anything, I bought Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. Enjoyed it, but as I was reading it I kept thinking "this is reading more like fan fic than anything", and sure enough it had been published online first.
Which, of course, falls back to the real issue/direction/whatever: I read my fiction electronically, and the authors I'm most enthused by are getting to me directly, not by being filtered through the "tastemakers" at big publishing houses. Which, on the one hand, sucks, because those authors are having to do their promotion themselves, on the other hand, I'm no longer having the gatekeepers at publishing houses let through the trite pablum that they've been inflicting on me for years. I'm seeing new ideas in fiction, new models for relationship, new conflicts! Humor, that actually works, and that doesn't punch down (or punches down less often).
So maybe debut novels are failing to launch because readers have gone elsewhere, because we can actually get cool interesting stories that reflect the worlds in which we either live or want to live through other channels. And the dinosaur publishers, and the supply chain pushing dead trees, has a long way to go to catch up with us.
posted by straw at 12:34 PM on June 24 [10 favorites]
Our local bookstore is a several cities chain, so I support it out of principle 'cause local-ish folks, but when N. K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season won the Hugo back in 2016, I had to special order the book. I'm not gonna speculate on reasons why they wouldn't stock the Hugo winner written by a woman of color, but... uh....
I was recently made aware that there's an indie horror/fantasy/whatnot book shop in a strip mall north of town because they had a booth at the local pride fair. I picked up a book then, and later wandered into the shop and more out of "I should support these folks" than anything, I bought Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. Enjoyed it, but as I was reading it I kept thinking "this is reading more like fan fic than anything", and sure enough it had been published online first.
Which, of course, falls back to the real issue/direction/whatever: I read my fiction electronically, and the authors I'm most enthused by are getting to me directly, not by being filtered through the "tastemakers" at big publishing houses. Which, on the one hand, sucks, because those authors are having to do their promotion themselves, on the other hand, I'm no longer having the gatekeepers at publishing houses let through the trite pablum that they've been inflicting on me for years. I'm seeing new ideas in fiction, new models for relationship, new conflicts! Humor, that actually works, and that doesn't punch down (or punches down less often).
So maybe debut novels are failing to launch because readers have gone elsewhere, because we can actually get cool interesting stories that reflect the worlds in which we either live or want to live through other channels. And the dinosaur publishers, and the supply chain pushing dead trees, has a long way to go to catch up with us.
posted by straw at 12:34 PM on June 24 [10 favorites]
I hear that, straw! And it doesn't help that books are so damn expensive, with little or no resale value, especially if a whole lot of them were printed. If you don't like it, you're stuck with it.* This alone has sent me to libraries and ebooks for new acquisitions. That, and moving a lot -- I began that as a parenthetical, but it occurs to me that in a housing crisis, it's probably a widespread consideration. Books are a bastard to move.
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* Unless you're the kind of person who would return an Amazon ebook after finishing it and rob the author. Don't be that person.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:51 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]
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* Unless you're the kind of person who would return an Amazon ebook after finishing it and rob the author. Don't be that person.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:51 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]
My first novel was published the same summer as novels by Donna Tart, Annie Dillard, and Gregory Maguire came out, and I seemed to me that those big books took the air out of the room. Not fair, cried inwardly. Nonetheless, my book eventually caught on through good reviews and word of mouth, and it was only after it was already selling thousands nationwide, that the publisher grudgingly took an ad in the New York Times Book Review. If this sounds like a complaint, it's not. The system worked. My good book got noticed on its own merits. It passed through a series of gatekeepers: agent, slush pile, editor, publisher, newspaper and magazine book reviewers -- and it ultimately made its way to Hollywood, where it enjoyed a whole 'nother life as a movie. A good novel finds its own way. The gatekeepers wisely shut the door on my second novel. And they were right to do so. It wasn't very good.
posted by Modest House at 2:01 PM on June 24 [19 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 2:01 PM on June 24 [19 favorites]
I’m jumping out halfway through the article to complain. I am industry adjacent and for reasons, I attended a large conference for, hmmm, let’s call them ‘tastemakers’, promoting my authors.
“Now I’m lucky if I get seventy-five galleys,” that publicist says. “How am I supposed to ‘make’ a book if I don’t have galleys?” .
After the conference I requested review copies of the books I’d pitched be sent to the contacts I’d made. These are major publishing houses and mid-list books that are in print and selling well. 3 out of 5 publishing companies fucked up fulfilling my requests. Two of them simply dumped my emails in the bin and then apologized for the mistake when I followed up asking why my contact didn’t have a book. One of them I didn’t even bother asking because despite being assured by the publicist that sending out review copies wouldn’t be an issue, I was told directly by the department that was supposed to be fulfilling these requests - that’s their whole job is dealing with this market - that they were ‘a small department and unable to accommodate my needs’ - that’s after I request 2 books in 2 weeks. I’ve learned that if I want someone to get a copy of a book, I need to send it myself from my office or order it off Amazon.. A couple houses were nice enough to send me a box of copies for my use.
posted by bq at 2:20 PM on June 24 [13 favorites]
“Now I’m lucky if I get seventy-five galleys,” that publicist says. “How am I supposed to ‘make’ a book if I don’t have galleys?” .
After the conference I requested review copies of the books I’d pitched be sent to the contacts I’d made. These are major publishing houses and mid-list books that are in print and selling well. 3 out of 5 publishing companies fucked up fulfilling my requests. Two of them simply dumped my emails in the bin and then apologized for the mistake when I followed up asking why my contact didn’t have a book. One of them I didn’t even bother asking because despite being assured by the publicist that sending out review copies wouldn’t be an issue, I was told directly by the department that was supposed to be fulfilling these requests - that’s their whole job is dealing with this market - that they were ‘a small department and unable to accommodate my needs’ - that’s after I request 2 books in 2 weeks. I’ve learned that if I want someone to get a copy of a book, I need to send it myself from my office or order it off Amazon.. A couple houses were nice enough to send me a box of copies for my use.
posted by bq at 2:20 PM on June 24 [13 favorites]
I changed my patreon setting so that everything I post, from essays to fiction, is free to read. I just want subscribers to help me eat and pay bills so I can write what I want.
I realized I’m unlikely to ever meet the guidelines to sell to a major publisher, and the terms I had to accept for my currently published work — to lose my rights for whatever many years and not share on my page — were unacceptable to me.
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:15 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]
I realized I’m unlikely to ever meet the guidelines to sell to a major publisher, and the terms I had to accept for my currently published work — to lose my rights for whatever many years and not share on my page — were unacceptable to me.
posted by toodleydoodley at 3:15 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]
not that it's debut, but it kind of hit me when I found a copy of Augusten Burroughs Magical Thinking at Dollar Tree.™
I bought that for a dollar and it was signed.
posted by clavdivs at 4:05 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]
I bought that for a dollar and it was signed.
posted by clavdivs at 4:05 PM on June 24 [8 favorites]
The last agent (reputable?) I dealt with told me she loved the manuscript (literary fiction) but if I wanted to work with her, I should have at least 150,000 followers on TikTok.
posted by thivaia at 8:12 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]
posted by thivaia at 8:12 PM on June 24 [3 favorites]
It's very much a tangent, but all this book talk has reminded me that once in a second-hand bookstore in Brighton (the one on the south coast of England, not the one in Colorado, to be clear) I ran across a shelf containing seventy--seventy--copies of The Pocket Guide to Ballroom Dancing by Maureen Hughes.
To this day, I wonder what the story behind that was.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:23 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
To this day, I wonder what the story behind that was.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 2:23 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
This reminds me that recently I was thinking that I feel like I used to know what to read. Like I used to have a sense that this is the new big book people are reading these days and reviews would be everywhere and everyone I knew would have read it and I would read it and we would take about it. Clara Callen. The Blind Assassin. Alias Grace. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams. No Great Mischief. Those books were everywhere. And now I feel like I see the same books on the tables at the bookstore all the time, sure, but I don't see the them out in the media in the same way. I don't feel like people I know or people all around me are reading them. And just to be clear, I think people I know and people all around me are reading, but I don't feel like I know what they are reading.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 3:56 AM on June 25 [4 favorites]
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 3:56 AM on June 25 [4 favorites]
if I wanted to work with her, I should have at least 150,000 followers on TikTok
Nine out of ten writers hear that then throw themselves off a bridge.
posted by mittens at 5:27 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
Nine out of ten writers hear that then throw themselves off a bridge.
posted by mittens at 5:27 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
The idea of having to be An Influencer is, I'll speculate, horrifying beyond belief to most writers. Have you ever met a theatre kid? Of all ages. Big expressions, big voices, jazz hands; imagine a mime with the volume turned all the way up. That's an influencer. You know who can't stand people like that? Someone whose idea of a good time is sitting alone in a room for hours, writing.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:10 AM on June 25 [11 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:10 AM on June 25 [11 favorites]
Just recently, an agent flat-out asked Twitter for an author to write a specific pitch for her. She'd liked the pitch but she wanted to work with somebody else. Thankfully, she got the boot from her agency pretty swiftly, but I dare say others have gotten away with it. It validates my hesitation to engage with Pitch Twitter, although I might have done well with it otherwise.
As one of God's introverts, I don't know how to form a personal brand without involving my human person. Chuck Tingle managed it, but Chuck Tingle is also sincere about his persona and entirely immersed in it. Part of what has always drawn me to writing is the ability to erase the self, replace the reedy womany voice with one of disembodied authority. Forming a brand out of the casing of the computer? Not for me.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:37 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
As one of God's introverts, I don't know how to form a personal brand without involving my human person. Chuck Tingle managed it, but Chuck Tingle is also sincere about his persona and entirely immersed in it. Part of what has always drawn me to writing is the ability to erase the self, replace the reedy womany voice with one of disembodied authority. Forming a brand out of the casing of the computer? Not for me.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:37 AM on June 25 [3 favorites]
I am pressed at work and other biz right now, so I will only say (a) thank you for this lovely post, and (b) I work on a literary award for first novels, and I have a bunch of thoughts based on reading a lot of first novels, studying their media footprint, etc. I’m also a writer querying a novel, and it’s rough out there! Maybe more later, but:
There are more books being published now than at any other time in history.
Novels have never had as much competition for attention as they do right now.
More people have access to the tools to write books and enter the market now than ever before.
The publishing industry is in the grip of consolidation, just like everything else, with attendant effects for PR and related.
The corollary asks and expectations that come with publishing are greater now than they once were.
Entire genres are thriving outside of the Big 5 publishers.
The U.S. readership has changed dramatically from what it was when the novels were written that formed the tastes of anyone over the age of 30.
Being wealthy is always a good strategy when trying to publish a book, and there are both more ways to burn that money now and more writers oppressed by debt and looming or current poverty.
Etc.
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:38 AM on June 25 [10 favorites]
There are more books being published now than at any other time in history.
Novels have never had as much competition for attention as they do right now.
More people have access to the tools to write books and enter the market now than ever before.
The publishing industry is in the grip of consolidation, just like everything else, with attendant effects for PR and related.
The corollary asks and expectations that come with publishing are greater now than they once were.
Entire genres are thriving outside of the Big 5 publishers.
The U.S. readership has changed dramatically from what it was when the novels were written that formed the tastes of anyone over the age of 30.
Being wealthy is always a good strategy when trying to publish a book, and there are both more ways to burn that money now and more writers oppressed by debt and looming or current poverty.
Etc.
posted by cupcakeninja at 6:38 AM on June 25 [10 favorites]
I have a bomb-ass idea for a fantasy novel but have come to the conclusion that it's pointless to expect I can get it published, because I don't use Twitter or Tik Tok or Instagram.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:55 AM on June 25
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 8:55 AM on June 25
I ran across a shelf containing seventy--seventy--copies of The Pocket Guide to Ballroom Dancing by Maureen Hughes.
Authors get a box of books....she probably got tired of having 75 copies of her book in the garage.
posted by bq at 9:54 AM on June 25
Authors get a box of books....she probably got tired of having 75 copies of her book in the garage.
posted by bq at 9:54 AM on June 25
So: my first novel came out a couple months ago. And in the last year or so I've met a lot of other people who are 2024 debuts, some of whom have ended up on a bestseller list or two and some of whom haven't. And barely any of us have private publicists who we've hired personally, and even fewer have huge social media presences (I had a dormant twitter account when my book sold, and that's it; I started an instagram account, because I felt like I ought to, and it still had fewer than a thousand followers by the time my book came out).
I think this article is a little cagey about what it means by "break out" but that it is, at its heart, mostly about how it's more difficult than it used to be for publicists to drive very high levels of attention to specific books. I'm sure that's true - it does seem like it's really hard for publicists at the moment, that it's a strange and difficult and shifting job. But for writers, "you need a hundred thousand followers to get published" just isn't true; and "your publisher will not make you as famous as Jack Kerouac" is, you know, true but neither a surprise nor a disappointment.
I like that this article talks about the friendships that can emerge from the process, though - it's often quite hard to make friends as an adult but I found "having a first novel come out" is a real accelerator. Everyone's trying to figure out answers to the same weird questions at the same time, and I think I've made more new friends in the last year than in any single year since primary school.
posted by severalbees at 11:09 AM on June 25 [9 favorites]
I think this article is a little cagey about what it means by "break out" but that it is, at its heart, mostly about how it's more difficult than it used to be for publicists to drive very high levels of attention to specific books. I'm sure that's true - it does seem like it's really hard for publicists at the moment, that it's a strange and difficult and shifting job. But for writers, "you need a hundred thousand followers to get published" just isn't true; and "your publisher will not make you as famous as Jack Kerouac" is, you know, true but neither a surprise nor a disappointment.
I like that this article talks about the friendships that can emerge from the process, though - it's often quite hard to make friends as an adult but I found "having a first novel come out" is a real accelerator. Everyone's trying to figure out answers to the same weird questions at the same time, and I think I've made more new friends in the last year than in any single year since primary school.
posted by severalbees at 11:09 AM on June 25 [9 favorites]
The idea of having to be An Influencer is, I'll speculate, horrifying beyond belief to most writers.
When I talked to a friend in publishing about the process of publishing the novel I'm currently working on, he talked about the promotional activities I would have to do, and I said, "I'm going to be one of those authors who hate doing that sort of thing." He said, "That's every author."
posted by orange swan at 2:17 PM on June 25 [4 favorites]
When I talked to a friend in publishing about the process of publishing the novel I'm currently working on, he talked about the promotional activities I would have to do, and I said, "I'm going to be one of those authors who hate doing that sort of thing." He said, "That's every author."
posted by orange swan at 2:17 PM on June 25 [4 favorites]
... I should have at least 150,000 followers on TikTok...
right, but see, I don't _want_ to have or have to have, 150,000 followers on TikTok I want to someone else to have 150,000 followers on whateverApp for me, if at all. There was an interview from Zadie Smith where she talks about not having a "smart" phone and not being part of any of that and the more I go on the more I think that is 100% the right idea.
Because it's hard enough just to write a book, but I gotta be a performing ... am I supposed to do dances or something? I have issues with my joints and, frankly, I don't think anyone really wants to see me dance...
This new world? Not so shiny, not so sparkly, not so interesting.
I'll be at my desk.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:33 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
right, but see, I don't _want_ to have or have to have, 150,000 followers on TikTok I want to someone else to have 150,000 followers on whateverApp for me, if at all. There was an interview from Zadie Smith where she talks about not having a "smart" phone and not being part of any of that and the more I go on the more I think that is 100% the right idea.
Because it's hard enough just to write a book, but I gotta be a performing ... am I supposed to do dances or something? I have issues with my joints and, frankly, I don't think anyone really wants to see me dance...
This new world? Not so shiny, not so sparkly, not so interesting.
I'll be at my desk.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:33 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
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posted by HearHere at 12:28 PM on June 24 [9 favorites]