Frustrations

We had an enquiry this week in connection with our Book Review Service from an author in the USA who has self-published a novel. Dennis Batchelder went through the same process that we have done i.e. he set up a small publishing business to publish his own novel and is now using the lessons learned to help others achieve the same. If you're living in the States and need this sort of help, pay his website a visit www.netleaves.com

What caught my attention is that he uses almost identical terms in describing his frustrations with the book industry as appear in a book that we are about to publish (a practical guide to selling self-published books). As both Dennis and our new book say, we expect artists to sell their own paintings, potters their pots and sculptors their sculptures, but authors selling their own books are regarded with suspicion by the book trade and the public.

Why is that? Why does a book need to carry the logo of a mainstream publisher to be an acceptable book?

Whatever the reason, it's a modern phenomenon. At some stage in their careers, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling and Beatrix Potter all self-published without having their work disregarded as rubbish. So what has changed? Why are the mainstream publishers now regarded as essential assessors of quality?

Clearly they are not infallible. Jill Paton Walsh failed to find a UK publisher for her excellent A Knowledge of Angels that, self-published, went on to make it to the Booker shortlist. More significantly perhaps, the constant stream of tacky rubbish of TV spin-offs and 'celebrity' memoirs indicates that the output of the mainstream publishers is not a sign of quality, but a sign of perceived commerciality - and judging by the 'returns' piles I see in bookshops, that's an assessment that they frequently get wrong.

So why does the 'essential badge of quality' idea persist? Well, it's an industry dominated by the big players and the current situation suits them very well. The last thing they want is for the book-buying public to realise that there are many excellent books reaching the marketplace via self-publishers and small independent presses.

The solution lies with ourselves - and the small independent booksellers.

As authors/publishers we have to ensure that we produce books of quality: books that are well-written, original, professionally edited and proofread, and competitively priced. Then we have to supply the bookshops with good point-of-sale materials to help the books sell.

The independent booksellers are unable to compete with the chains selling the top-sellers at knockdown prices. Where they can compete is on choice. They can offer their customers titles not available in the chains and they can establish a readership base for local authors - authors who are available for book-signings and any other events the bookshops care to arrange as part of their activities aimed at building a relationship with their clients.

This is a partnership that has to work. I can feel the tide turning.

Good luck with Soul Identity, Dennis. I hope it sells in millions.