What do pornographers and book publishers have in common today?
This morning’s New York Times features an article on how today’s pornographers are experiencing a recession, perhaps the first of the electronic age.
The internet, with its millions of amateur strippers, swappers, and fiery sinners, is making it difficult for XXX video producers to make a profit.
They are not alone
Traditional book publishers are struggling too.
They are competing against a tsunami of free content provided by amateur authors.
Many surprisingly capable writers are uploading content and diverting library visitors to their free products.
EzineArticles.com, for example, is a site that is home to more than 50,000 writers, all of whom are working for free. Some of these scribes are shipping up to 10,000 pieces, which is equivalent to 100 non-fiction books.
Why are they literally giving away their work product?
Many reasons:
(1) They have been excluded from the traditional publishing game. Without a track record and established credibility or a special audience, they simply cannot get the attention of the traditional community.
(2) Some are established authors who find traditional publishers turning into vanity or grant printers. If authors promise to buy thousands of their own titles, to sell at conferences and seminars, publishers will be eager to serve as glorified printers. If authors cannot minimize an editor’s risk in this way, they are often rejected.
(3) There was never a lot of money in the traditional publishing game for most authors. So instead of trying to hit the jackpot, they trade a few bucks, a lot of marketing effort, and humiliating rejections for one sure thing – getting their texts to reach at least a few readers, and doing it quickly.
(4) Authors like to control the products of their work. They know their audiences better than most publishers and appreciate turning down nosy middlemen who insist on micromanaging titles, content, and style.
(5) Authors, especially seasoned ones, know that most traditional publishers are clueless when it comes to predicting which books will sell. It is famous that the “Chicken Soup” books were rejected time and again by the “best and brightest” takeover editors of the big publishers before what was once a small print shop, Health Communications, made an offer.
Most people will not cry for the losses suffered by pornographers.
And most authors are not going to shed tears for a traditional publishing community that has had its head in the sand for most of the last 200 years.