“4. Most authors will be indie authors”
“5. Successful publishing companies will be those that put the most total profit in the author’s pocket. No, not the highest per-unit royalty percentage.”

It’s no new thought that the United States influences other cultures. Americans have been doing that since they settled in the foreign wilderness to take their chances with Native Americans and Nature rather than submit to an “un-G-dly” power. Rebellion is always fueled by the knowledge that an entire country was founded out of rebellion against its colonizing parent country. Horatio Alger wannabees, astronauts, freedom riders, strikers, protesters of all kinds take strength from knowing that the Independent spirit lives on, a whole nation of independents.

So when Mark predicts “most authors will be indie authors”, he’s got good solid footing for that statement. Traditional publishing depends on large teams of people from previewing, reading the manuscript through the production, distribution, and sales. Today that team is not needed. It is possible for an author to hire every single person on that chain, topnotch professional editors, readers, book designers, book cover designers, printers, distributors, and salespeople. The author can get these services for a fraction of the cost of a traditional publisher, there is no infrastructure overhead to account for. At this time authors already have to hire publicists to sell their books. What’s keeping them from hiring the whole team?

Imagine, I, Ms Author, write a book. I can’t get an advance from a publisher because no publisher has any money. So I support myself for the months it takes to write. Then I hire a great editor. Maybe even an editor from a well-known publisher. Why can I do that? Because the editor just found him/herself out of a job because the publishing company went under. Then I hire a designer for the interior and cover of the book. Granted, I’m footing the bill here myself. It means I need a nest egg of about $500. At this point I run out of money, so I use Print on Demand technology to print and distribute the book. I only pay the setup fees and shipping cost of that first book. Once the book is available I get out into the Social Media scene and I start to market my book.

A writer must be in the Business of writing today, just to survive. Tomorrow it will be so “rule of thumb” that I’ll do it because I get the greatest return on my investment by doing it myself, braving nature myself, pulling myself up by my own bootstraps.

And that’s what makes number 5 a reality. I learn that I can produce my own works, get them out there, and pocket the majority of the proceeds.

Each team approaches joint projects in a unique way, depending on the chemistry between the authors and the strengths each brings to the project. One person might be in charge of one theme which runs through the book while the others act a accessories, each contributing minor excerpts to support the main thread. Or the group might become decentralized where every author writes a chapter or section of the book independent of the other parts. Sometimes there are researchers and writers. The researcher finds all the supporting evidence and the writer mashes it, stirs it, and produces a cohesive final book.

Today there are books being written by many people, 144 characters at a time, on Twitter. Brandon Mendelson wrote The Falcon Can Hear the Falconer in Twitter. Instantaneous writing and reading. Ever sit on pins an needles waiting for the next installment of a sequel? Imagine the story is unfolding, tweeting out to your desktop, as your working. And these Twitter novels don’t have a plan, an outline, to speak of. How could thousands of people write to an outline, instantly, in 144 characters? The content reflects real time, it’s certainly not static. Current events make their way into the story as the event occurs. The downside to this is managing the contributors, writing time, and the danger of loosing the main theme.

Collaboration takes another twist in an Agile environment. For those of you who don’t know Agile development, on one foot, it is development to small goals within a limited time frame, usually a week to three weeks long. Certain small goals are set and worked towards. Then the project is reanalyzed and new goals set for the next round or sprint. Writers have to adapt to a new writing cycle between themselves and among the Agile team. Publishing collaborative works follows the general model, if you don’t look too closely. The introduction of writing sprints changes everything. Publication dates become part of a sprint. The piece might be “published” many times before it reached its intended audience.

The next model is slightly more complicated. I’ll be looking a single sourcing information and its relevance to commercial publishing.

Books on a Shelf

So many book models exist today. From the traditional write-and-publish to the eBook, with everything in between, the variations are staggering. This post is about the basic book model. Once the book life cycle is described I can then talk about the variations on the model. By enumerating the book models I can have a better understanding of how to create a flexible, living model that works for French Creek Press.

The basic model starts with the author. Ms. Author has an idea for a book. She has never published a book, nor has she published articles on the book subject. After carefully outlining the book, doing the research, writing the synopsis, and writing the first three chapters, she finds an agent. The agent then submits the book to a likely publisher. For the sake of our example the publisher accepts the book and pays a small advance to the author.

At this time the author retires to her little cubbyhole, chains herself to her desk, and writes the book. Since she is chained to the desk 8 hours a day, she actually finishes it according to schedule. The day finally comes when she writes, either literally or figuratively, “And they lived happily to the end of their days. The End”. She lovingly wraps the manuscript, after all, this is her six month in creation heart and soul, and ships the manuscript to the publisher.

When it gets to the publisher it is sent off to readers. The manuscript is ripped apart and put back together according to the publishers needs. Requests for change are drawn up, and everything is sent back to the author. Please fix. Maximum revision time? Four months.

While the author is revising the book, the publisher sets the publishing process in motion. The publishing schedule is set; the book cover is commissioned; the book layout is designed. When the book returns to the publisher, all revisions accepted, the book goes out to proof, offset printing is scheduled, then to the printer for pre-publication copies (ARC-advanced reading copies), and then to the pre-publication reviewers. Then the first print for publication is run.

In this basic model the publisher is established. The books are sent to the distributor, possibly accompanied by the pre-release reviews. Bookstores order the book, and the book is shipped and placed on the shelf in a brick&mortar bookstore.The book remains on the shelf for some period of time. The books not sold become “remaindered”.

That’s the simple life cycle. Next in the life of a book, I look into publishing variations for printed books.

The pictures displayed here are from two different public domain libraries:
Keyboard by Petr Kratochvil
http://www.public-domain-image.com/site_map.html