The reasons POD books less likely to succeed

Don I think that's probably the magic part...but I will certainly let you know how it all comes together! Wink

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Pam Robertson

http://andthebandplayedonmylawn.blogspot.com

I do not beleive in pure luck, but I do beleive in sweat equity. Here are some thoughts on luck that make sense to me:

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity (Seneca)

I am a great beleiver in luck and I find the harder I work the more I have of it (Thomas Jefferson)

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it. (Unknown)

Now let's go -- and create some of that magic and luck!

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Pam Robertson

http://andthebandplayedonmylawn.blogspot.com

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1784 Location : UK

"Distribution is a critical piece of the publishing puzzle, yet most new publishers seem to think it will magically open up to them once they publish a book. The only thing that will magically open up is the publisher's wallet. "

This quote was taken from foner books website:

http://www.fonerbooks.com/distribu.htm
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Four Star Member Joined : 17 Jan 2008 Posts : 203

It may not be luck, but as I've pointed out there is an undefinable "something" that cuts one author or one singer or one whatever from the herd and makes them a superstar.

We can all agree that we need at least a bit of talent. Then we need to work at the craft of writing until we are at least as good as our competition. Then we have to have a good idea for out book, and we have to finish it, polish it, and hope an agent or a publisher accepts it. For most of us that will never happen, and while we don't have to stop trying, we should be aware of the facts of the publishing world. And then, if the book is published, and if there is a really good promotion for it, and if there is good distribution, and if we work as hard and as smart as we can, we may sell enough copies to actually earn some money from our writing.

But then comes along someone such as Ms. Rowling. The Harry Potter books are not the best literature ever written. The promotion campaign was good, but not any better than some of the others that were out there. And yet, she and her books leaped into the stratosphere, earning more money, quicker, I think (I may be wrong, because I haven't checked on this) than anyone has ever done. Call it luck, call it fate, call it what you will, but the fact is that now and then, in almost every field, someone will attain this status.

I think that a truly dedicated writer, if he or she has the talent and determination, has a chance, not a good one, but at least a chance, of seeing their book published by a major publisher. I also know that at some point in time someone else will reach the heights that Rowling has reached. It could be me, it could be anyone of you, but there is absolutely no way of knowing if it will be one of us, or when it will happen, and, most especially, why it happened to us if it does.

Luck? Fate? I don't know. What I do know that it can't be attained by any methods that we can define.

If we could, as I wrote to Pam, we would be gazillionaires in a month.

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1784 Location : UK

I don't want to smash anyone's dreams but becoming the next J.K. Rowling is unrealistic. If you think it's fate or luck or whatever, that's fine. I don't think it was. It might have been timing: being in the right place at the right time.

The ingredients for success were there: agent, publisher, books in libraries, grant from the Scottish Arts council. All of these things came together and for another author to have the same success the author would first need to find an agent, who would secure a deal with a publisher, and books from the first print run would have to be sold to libraries. You can't say it could happen to someone else under different circumstances. It wouldn't. It just wouldn't.

I haven't even mentioned the fact that Rowling had outlined a series of seven books!

This is what happens when a POD published author spends money trying to get books into libraries:

"Here's the quick run down on advertising we've paid for. A cooperative mailing to the 3,000 public libraries in the US with the largest budgets sold three books, two months after the mailing went out. This was a pretty classy mailing, nice envelope, nice stamp, only two other publisher fliers included with ours. The books advertised have both had some success in libraries, were well reviewed, and offered at a 30% discount. People who do a lot of mailings will tell you that repeated exposure is critical, that content must be tuned, that it's been a tough year for libraries. All of these things may be true, but at $600 to participate in the mailing and another $150 for the fliers, we have better uses for our marketing dollars. "

http://www.fonerbooks.com/market.htm

J. K. Rowling was not an overnight success but everything was in place to give her a chance. She had the winning numbers:

1. An agent
2. A publisher
3. 300 books in libraries
4. Grant for £8000 from the Scottish Arts Council
5. Seven books outlined
6. A series of books with great appeal

You can't win the lottery without all six numbers. Luck may play a part in the national lottery but when it comes to books, it takes more than luck.
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Four Star Member Joined : 17 Jan 2008 Posts : 203

"You can't win the lottery without all six numbers. Luck may play a part in the national lottery but when it comes to books, it takes more than luck."

The thing is Shelagh, that a lot of people have all six of the numbers. Maybe not the Scottish Arts grant, but grants from elsewhere, and only Rowling hit the lottery with those numbers.

If it were that easy, everyone who had an agent, a publisher, 300 books in libraries, a grant, seven books outlined and a series with great appeal would be now be as successful as Ms Rowlng.

Sorry, but you can have all that and it may help you be successful, but those things alone won't make you and your books as successful as she has become. It takes more, and it is that extra that some find and most don't that I have been talking about.

You've outlined a procedure that may indeed allow one to sell some books, but you haven't hit on the formula that will allow everyone to reach the level that Rowlings has reached.

Four Star Member Joined : 17 Jan 2008 Posts : 203

Taking it a bit farther.

Stephen King. Norah Roberts. John Grisham. Michael Crichton. Tom Clancy. Dean Koonce.

Famous authors, one and all. And the list could go on. All of them highly successful, all great storytellers, all with major publishing deals, super distribution and promotion packages, and all very wealthy due to their writing. All sell large numbers of each new book, and all are considered to be at the very top of the writing food chain. All have pretty much all of the lottery numbers that Shelagh has outlined for us.

They all have agents, they all have major publishers, they all have well over 300 books in libraries, they have enough money to offset any grant funding that Rowlings received, they all have many books outlined, and they all write with a great amount of appeal.

But, did you know that according to the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records, J. K. Rowling is the wealthiest author in the world, with a personal net worth of $1 Billion. Apparently, from June 2003 to June 2004 she earned an estimated $147 million, which was the “highest annual earnings by a children’s author.”

Harry Potter. Hmmm. Not the most original idea in the world. Very well done, although probably not the best crafted or best written literature one can find on the market. And yet, these books have become among the most popular and most successful books ever written.

I post this here to illustrate what I have been talking about. There is some indefinable something that now and then touches someone, and they become an Elvis, or the Beatles, or J.K. Rowling. It is this something and this success that’s puts lie to all of the fables about working hard, polishing, polishing, never giving up, and not drifting from the well worn path so many other authors have used. All of the above things are great to have, but there is no way that anyone can forecast who will become the next superstar.

Do I think we should all strive to be the best we can become? Of course. Do I think we should seek a major agent and a major publisher? Of course. Do I know what course one might take to be the next Rowling? Of course not. And neither does anyone else. Some of us will find these major deals and some will continue to go the self publishing or POD route. At some point in time the next Rowling will leap out of nowhere and be the sensation that everyone wishes to be. But the facts remain that the vast majority of new authors will never see their books published by a major publisher. That is a fact of the publishing business. I think we have to keep working, each in the way we have chosen, and hope that one day we will be one of the chosen ones.

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1784 Location : UK

J.K Rowling is to the book world what Bill Gates is to the computer world. How lucky is Bill Gates? I've read heaps about him and know that he was one of many bright young computer nerds who used to burn the midnight oil and sleep next to their computers. How come they didn't all end up as rich as Bill Gates? Did they have fathers who were lawyers? Did they drop out of school after studying law for a couple of years? Did they have any business acumen? What were the factors that made Bill Gates so different from all the other computer geeks?

J. K. Rowling started out the same as all aspiring writers and when her books became successful, she surrounded herself with people who knew how to make money.
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Also, unlike Gates, she didn't rip anybody else off for her big step up, then ruthlessly force competitors our of business and cut monopolistic deals to force people to use his products even if they did like them.

So she's got that going for her.

Also unlike Gates, she is not actually a spawn of Satan.
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I think another fator in Rowling's success had much to do with her target customers and the characters they could identify with. And just as I did, parents read what their kids were asking for - and loved Harry Potter as well!

Then came the free publicity when the fundie Christians raised their outcry. That was better than the "Banned in Boston" hype.

The rest had a lot to do with the desire to own ALL the books in a series.
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Brew
My website:http://www.philwhitley.com
"Let us dare to read, think, speak and write." ~ John Adams, 1765

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1784 Location : UK

I just asked my husband, "Bill Gates is a billionnaire. Why aren't you?"

"I didn't drop out of school," he replied, "that's where I went wrong."
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

Four Star Member Joined : 17 Jan 2008 Posts : 203

You may want to go back and look at what Steve Jobs said of Gates when they split away from each other.

However, with that said, the mention of Gates only reinforces what I have said here. Why indeed aren't all computer geeks as rich as Bill? For that matter, Steve Jobs, who is plenty rich by the way, but not in the same class as Bill, was the smarter of the two, and the better with computers. So what caused Bill to get singled out, from all of the thousands who were working on software development and design at that time, to become one of the worlds richest men?

It is not how hard you work or how smart you are, or who you surround yourself with, but all of those things probably factor in. There is something that picks out some people to be the superstars, and leaves everyone else wondering how it happened.

Admin Joined : 11 Jan 2008 Posts : 1784 Location : UK

The point of the thread is that although J.K. Rowling started off with the rejection slips that most new authors have to face, she did eventually get onto the bottom rung of the ladder and climbed to the very top. POD published authors are not even on the ladder and until they find an agent/traditional publisher, that's where they will stay. Grounded.
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Shelagh Watkins
http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/