If you’re a romance writer and at all savvy in the ways of the ‘Net and keeping up with news of the industry, you know about Dorchester’s announcement to drop its mass market publishing program in favor of ebooks with eventual trade publication down the line. Or something like that. I’m in the midst of edits for my December 2011 Five Star Expressions release, and while I’ve been following the talk throughout the weekend, I haven’t had time to pay the attention to it that I’d like. What I do know is that I have friends who write for Dorchester, and I feel for them. I hear even the editorial staff was surprised by Dorchester’s decision. But Dorchester has fallen on hard times, and at least the company is trying to do something about it. Whether how they’re going about it will make authors happy remains to be seen. If Dorchester is abandoning the mass market publishing model, does that mean they’ll also abandon advances and offer higher royalties instead? I don’t know. I figure the people who are more likely to discover these things are the people, the writers, who have a vested interest in them. IE. Dorchester authors. And so I’ll hand you over to the likes of Anna DeStefano, a Dorchester author who is blogging about the changes at Dorchester on her blog as she experiences them. She’s doing a great job. The link I just provided will take you to the first in Anna’s articles on the subject.
I admire several Dorchester authors, and I have bought several Dorchester books. In fact, on Friday, just before I heard that the rumor bandied about on Twitter was in fact not a rumor, I received notification from my favorite on-line bookstore that a Dorchester novel I’d ordered was on its way in the mail to me. I expect to receive it this week. And I really want to read it (Book 4 in Gemma Halliday’s High Heel Mysteries series). But maybe I should wrap it in plastic and store it away instead—as one of the last mass market paperbacks Dorchester might ever print.
Who am I kidding? I’ll read it. I love Gemma’s writing.
I’m an epublished author (or “digital author,” if that’s your preference). (“Digital author” makes me think of little Jack Horner sticking his fingers into a pie, I must say). “Digital first,” as some larger publishers are now calling themselves. That means ebook first, then trade paperback somewhere down the line, whether it’s a month later with the trades printed with Print on Demand technology (basically no warehousing involved) (by the way, this was how my first two cindypks were published with Amber Quill), or digital release (there’s the finger popping out of the pie!) with the trades releasing several months down the line (like Samhain and others; I only mention Samhain because they have a great reputation and I know several of their authors, so I’m familiar that they indeed do publish their ebooks in print several months down the line). Some publishers use POD technology for the trade paperbacks, and others run small print runs.
Okay, so I’m an epublished author, we’ve established that. Why does hearing that Dorchester is dropping mass market sadden me? Because, to me, “mass market” (meaning a printing format) = distribution. And distribution = a greater chance at sales. A greater chance at earning an income beyond what I fondly term The King Family Kraft Dinner Fund. I know a lot of people who pretty much only buy their books in mass market format—at the grocery store, maybe once in a blue moon through a trip to a bookstore. I don’t know many people who order books on-line (I do, because I don’t have to leave the house and I order enough to qualify for free shipping in one go), I don’t know anyone outside of some American writer friends who owns an e-reader or plans to buy one. Yes, this will change as the publishing industry changes. I don’t even own an e-reader yet, but have plans to buy one next year (must wait for a good reason, like a birthday, and my most recent birthday was in January). Yes, as an epublished author who first ventured into the arena ten years ago (I signed my first epublishing contract in 1999 or 2000, but then cancelled it before the book came out because I’d learned some not-so-good things about the company), I’ve been hopeful and waiting for the time when e-readers would come down in price and the public would begin to embrace ebooks. But I didn’t envision that happening at the expense of other publishing models, like mass market. And that, honestly, isn’t what’s happened. The recession in the U.S. has played a major part. I WANT the public to embrace digital publishing, but I don’t like seeing any format disappear. Certainly not a format to which I aspire to publish my books. I’m sad for new authors who recently sold to Dorchester and thought they’d finally achieved their dream of mass market publication, only to discover that all the bucks they’d spent on promotion, etc., might be for naught, because Dorchester’s entire (now trade) print publishing schedule is being pushed back. I feel for authors who have 3 or 4 books out in a series in mass market who are facing the last book in the series getting published “digital first.” Will their mass market readers follow them? If those readers don’t follow them, what will that mean for those authors’ careers? I feel sad for readers who can’t afford e-readers and don’t use credit cards (I know such people), which are useful little items for ordering things on-line. I think, as the industry changes, readers as well as writers will get caught in the crunch. We are living in exciting times…as long as you aren’t personally affected by it. We’re living in exciting publishing times…you know, when you look back on it fifty years hence and can think, Hey, wasn’t that kind of like when the whole Gutenburg thing happened? And I was part of it. Cool. But right now, the times, they are uncertain. Authors careers, they are uncertain. If you are a reader and you have a favorite author, the best thing you can do for them is support them and buy their books new. Not from a used book store and, for heaven’s sake, not by downloading “free” ebooks from a pirate site. Those “free” ebooks are illegal copies and authors don’t earn one penny from those downloads. Authors don’t earn money from non-existent “sales.” If authors don’t earn money, publishers might axe them—because publishing is a business and businesses like to make money. If publishers don’t earn money, then they might drop entire publishing programs. And if you like to buy your books from the grocery store, then that WILL impact you.
Okay, I’m rambling. I’ll admit it. Time to stop. I don’t know if anything I’ve said here makes sense. The publishing industry is changing, not all of it for the good, and as an author I need to learn as much as I can about those changes. And I need to adapt and change along with them. Which I intend to do. But first I have to honor my contract and get those edits in under deadline. Because I’m a writer, and that’s the way we roll.
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UPDATE! Dorchester now has some information about the transition to their new publishing program on their website.
