Is My Book Publishable? Is Not the Real
Question
By Lauren Carr
“Is my book
publishable?” Not a month goes by that I am not asked that or “Is my book good
enough to get the notice of a literary agent or big publisher in New York?” or
“If I were to publish my book myself, will it become a best-seller? Will I make
a million dollars? Will Hollywood come knocking?”
As an
author, former editor, and publisher, I can’t answer any of these questions. My
inability to answer is not because I don’t know if a book has problems that
will keep it from becoming a hit—it’s because the answer lies in the writer
himself.
Let me
explain:
“Is my book
publishable?” I can answer that without even reading a word of it. The answer
is yes. Nowadays, any book can be
published. Good, bad, or ugly. You can self-publish (been there), or
do-it-yourself (been there, too), or you can even do it the traditional way
(done that). There are publishing models that can fit any author based on their
own needs and preferences.
Ask yourself
if you want total artistic and legal control of your book or would it be better
for you to have a traditional publisher who will purchase your rights and do
everything for you?
Like many
readers, I have scratched my head over books that I did not consider to be
great literary pieces, or even well written, that have found traditional
publishers. So yes, if you are determined to sell your rights to a traditional
publisher, I have no doubt that you can find a publisher who would buy it. It is simply a matter of time and effort in
finding one—which means perseverance.
Literally,
no book is not publishable. The true question, what the writer really wants
answered is—Can their book be
successful after it is published?
That answer
lies in the writer’s response to this question: Are you determined and
dedicated enough to your writing career to make
your book a best-seller? Many authors fail to realize that it has nothing to do with who their publisher
is, or maybe even the book’s quality.
There’s the
story of Stephanie Bond, who was with the big houses in New
York. She was already a best-selling author. Her publisher would take her books
out of print after so long, just when she thought that they were gaining an
audience. She got back the rights for each of those books. (Yep, she had to
work to get those rights back to the very books she wrote.) Then, she decided
to re-release them, via self-publishing, along with a book that her publisher
had turned down three times. She still has contracts for some books. Her
self-published titles are outselling the traditional titles and her
best-selling book is the one the publisher had turned down—three times!
Also, I have
read books by unknown authors that I thought were good enough to be award
winners. Yet, those books have failed to gain an audience and sit untouched on
Amazon.
So, to
answer your question: If your book was released (either self-published or
traditional) will it be a success? That is completely up to you. Look at
Stephanie Bond again. When her books were taken out of print, she had the
initiative to re-release them on her own and turn them into best sellers.
Why are
those books that I have read and considered to be great literary pieces sitting
unknown on Amazon and failing to find an audience—it’s because their authors
are not promoting them. There’s a variety of reasons for this. They don’t want
to invest the money, time, and effort of a virtual book tour. They’re too
intimidated to learn the ropes of the Internet. They’re scared of reviewers.
I have actually
had two authors at separate times tell me that they did not want strangers
reading and reviewing their books. Then, in the next breath ask me why they
aren’t selling. (Don’t ask me why they
bothered publishing their books if they didn’t want strangers reading them. I have nothing to offer to answer that
question.)
So, when you
ask me. “Is my book is publishable? Can it be a best seller?” My question to
you is, “Do you want it to be a
best-seller?”
Visit the tour
No comments:
Post a Comment