Saw an online discussion recently that
made me think of a comparison, of how publishing is a bit like the
movie It's A Wonderful Life.
Say what? Well, let's take a look. The
Big Five traditional publishing companies often act like a group of
Mr. Potters, the richest, greediest, and meanest men in town. Note
that this whole comparison thing is a generalization, and not all of
the people and groups are exactly representative, but as a whole,
group efforts certainly do invite the comparison.
The Big Five sit on an excess of
wealth, while many authors are scrabbling for enough money to pay a
few bills. The Big Five engage in "sharp practice," refuse
to pay all but a few authors a fair wage, and have an arrogance and
a sneering contempt for the riff-raff and "garlic eaters"
(authors and readers). For a prime example, look at Don Maass' public
remarks about publishers "culling the prize cattle from the
herd"
(http://writerunboxed.com/2014/02/05/the-new-class-system/). There
are many other utterances from people in the publishing industry
expressing similar derision and scorn for writers, who are the very
people that supply them with a comfortable living.
For a long time, crawling to the
Potters was the only practical way to get published and read. Then
along comes George Bailey, in the form of Jeff Bezos. He creates
Amazon, which serves as the Bailey Building and Loan. It allowed
authors to get published, distributed, and read, at such low cost all
can afford it. And the world changed. Like owning your own home in
Bailey Park, you can now publish your own book and forego being
subservient to the Potters and whatever scraps they decide to toss
your way. The Potters of the industry want the suckers to continue
paying them rent forever, but many of the riff-raff authors have
wised up, and are flocking to the Bailey Building and Loan, to strike
out on their own. Maybe they won't have the biggest mansion in town,
but they'll have something good- which most didn't have a chance at
before.
And it drives the Potters absolutely
insane. The Big Five and their cohorts publish hundreds of screechy,
non-factual articles trashing Amazon for one thing or another, to the
point where people amusedly call it "Amazon Derangement
Syndrome," or ADS for short. There's one particular lapdog of
the Potters at the New York Times who suffers from ADS in the
extreme, and who writes a non-stop series of shrill screeds against
Amazon, enough so that his name on a piece is enough to induce
chuckles in those who follow industry news, because they know all the
false arguments that will follow. No fact-checking or true journalism
required- apparently, hating the most successful retailer and writing
hit pieces on them is enough to get one a nice gig at the NYT.
If you ask the Potters why authors
cannot get paid a little more equitably, say like 50% on ebook
revenue instead of the measly 25% they now receive, you get a
song-and-dance about how they're suffering. Oh, the poor Potters with
their plush Manhattan offices, expense accounts, bonuses, and
six-figure salaries are enduring such misery because they're
dedicated to Art. Meanwhile, the Bailey Building and Loan gives
authors 70%, and still makes money. You'd think there's a lesson
there, but it's one the Potters don't want to learn, even though
they're losing customers in droves.
I had an online discussion with one of
the Potters, and he insisted they couldn't pay authors more, because
everyone else in the publishing industry had to get paid, and did I
want all those other people to go without? I told him that authors
were not responsible for the salary of everyone else but themselves,
and he might not want to keep saying that the only people that
shouldn't get fairly paid are the content providers, without who, no
one else in that field would be getting paid anything. It's a
weird, inverted-pyramid style of thinking.
The Potters got rich because they had
no competition for many years but each other. With the rise of ebooks
and Amazon and other media, they now have a rapidly-shrinking market
share, and it scares the daylights out of them. Then successful
independent author (Bailey customer) Hugh Howey comes along, and with
the help of a data guru, puts out quarterly reports that show most
people would be better off with the Bailey Building and Loan route
than with the Potters. And the Potters go bananas, calling the
reports a pack of filthy lies, even though the reports painstakingly
show how the data is gathered. To date, no one has offered better
data- the Potters simply insist it cannot be true, because they don't
want it to be.
The Potters say that authors shouldn't
support the Bailey Building and Loan, because someday the BB&L
will turn on its loyal customers, and give them less money. Well,
that may be (or more likely not), but for now, all those authors are getting
their books published and getting paid something for them.
Some are even doing rather well.
The Potters are greedy, and so they
charge too much for their ebooks in many cases, driving people to the
Baileys in greater numbers. The Potter authors themselves know they'd sell
more if the prices were lower, but the Potters don't care about stuff
like that.
And with the Bailey Building and Loan,
an author doesn't need a Potter contract, a devilish device designed
to put most authors at a major disadvantage in publishing. And an
author can get the cover they want, because many Potter authors get
stuck with crappy stock art, or a cover that has nothing to do with
the contents of the book.
Some people want to deal with the
Potters, thinking it makes them better. Less than five years ago, I
got an account with the Bailey Building and Loan, and have been doing
great since. I'm happy about not having to deal with any Potters. I
just don't care for their business methods, and their snotty attitude
toward writers. I'm publishing and selling quality books in all
formats and platforms, and gaining new fans all the time.
So just like the movie, It's a
Wonderful Life- in Publishing. Thanks, George. Maybe, like Clarence,
you'll get your wings.
