Why are debut novels failing to launch?
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Why are debut novels failing to launch?
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Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#2My long retired parents met and worked in publishing. The continued deterioration of the industry is a source of deep sadness for them. I personally however recently found my own ray of hope. By chance I started reading something I really liked, found it was published by a tiny house that has a subscription plan- which is different from an aggregator having a book of the month kind of thing- and publishes super niche unique voices, mostly translations into English. Have read 6 of their books this year, every single one has been just great. Think the breakdown of the big house and homogeneity of the star model leaves space for new shoots to find their audience.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#3My long retired parents met and worked in publishing. The continued deterioration of the industry is a source of deep sadness for them. I personally however recently found my own ray of hope. By chance I started reading something I really liked, found it was published by a tiny house that has a subscription plan- which is different from an aggregator having a book of the month kind of thing- and publishes super niche…
What you said reminded me of this Royal Road (https://www.royalroad.com/home) website I came across. It is not physical publishing (at least I don't think so), but it is a large collection of different authors who release books / work incrementally. The work mainly seems to be fiction of different varieties.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#4Spent several years writing and editing my first book before thinking the job was finished when I hit the publish now button. But it is literally only half the job done.
The hell now is unless you get friends and family or an agency involved to push it and market it it will languish on the 500th page of any Amazon search forever. Oh and did I say that there are thousands of books a day released and there is nowhere you can self-promote stuff if you do not have social media, HN and reddit will also immediately block self-promotion even if relevant to the audience (I guess I can understand why). I guess the only ones destined to read it are the AI training algorithms.
Still it wont stop me writing, having a book published, even if nobody reads it is very self-satisfying and leaves something of you in this world when you are gone.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#5My long retired parents met and worked in publishing. The continued deterioration of the industry is a source of deep sadness for them. I personally however recently found my own ray of hope. By chance I started reading something I really liked, found it was published by a tiny house that has a subscription plan- which is different from an aggregator having a book of the month kind of thing- and publishes super niche…
Naturally, you mustn't mention the name in order to keep it exclusive.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#6Because there are way too many books being written.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#7Seems like almost every creative industry (music, video games, art, writing) is having the same issue: Creation & publication tools are getting cheaper & easier to use, which means a lot more people can publish their creative ideas. With such a huge number of choices, discovery is now the issue.
IMO discovery of what is truly high quality is still an unsolved problem. Seems like recommendation systems generally just recommend things that are already popular. For someone that has zero following, but an interesting creative product, there's not much they can do. You're kind of relying on either "going viral" or hoping that someone with a lot of followers takes notice of your work and draws other people in.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#8Spent several years writing and editing my first book before thinking the job was finished when I hit the publish now button. But it is literally only half the job done. The hell now is unless you get friends and family or an agency involved to push it and market it it will languish on the 500th page of any Amazon search forever. Oh and did I say that there are thousands of books a day released and there is nowhere y…
Ten years ago I wrote a science fiction novel in Finnish, printed 300 hardcover copies at my own expense, and gave them away to people over the years. I would guess less than 10% of those copies have actually been read. (A few people claim they liked it, but of course that doesn't necessarily mean they read it.)
So, a waste of time and money? That's not how I feel about it at all. The creative process was illuminating. And as you say, it's satisfying to think that there's now a physical artifact of my mind that's longer and deeper than any other work I've produced, and it will probably stay for a while on somebody's bookshelf after I'm gone.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#9The market is dominated by large publishers. They do not need to compete, they have already won. At the same time, they don't want to loose the marketshare, which makes them less likely to bet on an unknown author.
Re: Why are debut novels failing to launch?
#10Spent several years writing and editing my first book before thinking the job was finished when I hit the publish now button. But it is literally only half the job done. The hell now is unless you get friends and family or an agency involved to push it and market it it will languish on the 500th page of any Amazon search forever. Oh and did I say that there are thousands of books a day released and there is nowhere y…
So it's either a hobby--which is fine!--or it's an adjunct to a day job which can be very profitable--which is very fine!.
But, yes, publishing a book that you think will be a bestseller with or without exceptional promotion is probably a lost hope.