The Death of Publishing? Say What?!?

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Facebook lately, making connections with tons – literally, TONS – of authors and learning more about the industry in a few months than I have in years.

Frankly, I think that says less about the time I’ve been spending on Facebook than it does about how quickly the publishing industry itself is changing.

One recent event – the decision of Dorchester Publishing to do away with mass market print publishing in favor of putting out only eBooks and POD from now on – sent shockwaves through the author community of my new Facebook friends.

(Read the story that ignited the furor here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44085-dorchester-drops-mass-market-publishing-for-e-book-pod-model.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=1ef6b64a66-UA-15906914-1&utm_medium=twitter)

I, too, felt a chill as the headline quickly spread and the full impact of this game-changing news settled in. Lately it’s been hard enough getting agents and publishers to respond to my query letters on behalf of worthy clients, would this make it all the more difficult to place great clients with decent publishers?

I thought so, at first; then I spent some more time on Facebook and really dug in deep, visiting the energetic, lively, colorful and powerful sites of some of today’s fastest moving independent publishers.

Most of them specialize in eBooks, yes, but the covers – man, are they great! And the titles are exciting, and timely, and out in a sizzle. It’s nothing for me to see a new author friend announce several eBook publication dates at a time!

I visit these websites, see all these new releases, read their great book reviews, revel in submission guidelines that are actually warm and friendly – not to mention OPEN to un-agented authors – and grow more and more, as opposed to less and less, encouraged.

I just see so much opportunity out there, and authors and ePublishers flourishing while big traditional print publishers seem to be withering on the vine. Not that I’m saying the death of print is immediate, but it’s certainly imminent.

And I, like my clients, will have to adapt.

Most of these new indy ePublishers specialize in fiction, while most of my clients specialize in nonfiction. How will that affect them? Well, I imagine as the demand for paper-free publishing increases so will the ePublishers have to diversify as well.

I can see them adding nonfiction lines already, and as those begin to succeed, maybe I’ll have more publishers to choose from – not less. The point is, these are strange times indeed; “pioneer times,” as I called them after reading the Dorchester article in Publisher’s Weekly.

And what are authors but pioneers? Pioneers with words, who will watch the landscape change, not without grumbling, but will quickly adapt, and reassess, and re-finesse their pitching and querying skills as necessary.

Although still hesitant, and anxious, I’m glad to be living in these times of sea change in publishing, and look forward to – rather than away from – the future! I hope you’ll join me on this new twist in our joint journey toward publication…

Yours in publishing,


Rusty