LIES, DAMNED LIES & PUBLISHING

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Ever get the feeling that your publisher isn't telling you the whole truth? Well, if that publisher is asking you for money, then you would be well advised to be on your guard. Now read on ...

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Myth 1: it's normal to pay to get published

Wrong. Most professional authors have never handed over even one single penny to their publishers. They don't even pay their agents directly (agents take a percentage commission instead). If you go into a large bookshop, at least 99.999% of the work there will have been funded by the publisher not the author. [Cartoons on this page courtesy of Gaping Void - our thanks to them]

Myth 2: Once I've turned my manuscript into a book, people will take me more seriously

Not true. If anything commercial publishers and agents will take you less seriously. It's fine to go to agents with a looseleaf manuscript - that's what serious writers do.

Myth 3: The internet has changed the face of book retailing.

There's some truth in that - but not the way you might think. Amazon is good at selling bestsellers very cheaply. It's also good at selling non-fiction. But if, say, you are an unknown fantasy author, then no one will ever find your work on Amazon unless they go to the site and randomly type in your name. If you want to sell fiction, then the internet is not your solution.

Myth 4: Ah, but I've got my own website.

Same issue. It costs money to advertise a website. The Writers' Workshop spends over £25,000 a year advertising its services. That does fine for us, but it wouldn't be remotely enough to get the kind of attention you would need to launch a book - and do you really have that kind of money to splash out?

Myth 5: OK then, I'll get an agent to help publicise my work.

No! Sorry to be a tad negative here, but agents aren't there to publicise books. It's just not what they do. They are there to sell books to publishers. If you want a PR agency, then you're looking at a spend of about £5,000 - but without the muscle of a large commercial publisher behind you, you'd be lucky to recover more than a few quid of that money in extra sales.

Myth 6: My book's great. It'll spread by word of mouth
This is a myth that gets plenty of professional authors fooled too. It's true that every now and then a book does spread explosively by word of mouth. A young author named Jane Rowling once had some success that way, we understand. But (1) it is virtually unheard of to have a word-of-mouth success without a commercial publisher doing masses to support the book at every step of the way. And (2) most of the time, even with commercial publishers in support, good books die. That's hard to believe. Most pro authors go on not believing it. But it's true just the same. Honest!

Myth 7: Agents aren't interested in unknown authors. It's not what you know it's who you know. It's all TV tie-ins & celebrities nowadays.

Hmm. There's truth in this: celebrity does help. But the fact remains that agents have to take on new authors or their businesses will slowly die. Agents also know that all writers who are famous today were total novices once. So they're searching their slushpiles for the next Dan Brown / Ian McEwan / JK Rowling etc. If your book is good enough, it WILL sell.

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