When an author sells her first book, she really has no idea what she’s getting into. All she knows is that she had this goal and now her dream has come true.
That’s lovely and it lasts for a while. Until something else happens.
Like she realizes the publisher is going to do very little to support the book. Or she hates the proposed cover design. Or she calls with questions that don’t get answered.
This is where your agent comes in. Publishers count on agents to manage author expectations, and we do, but I wish publishers would chip in more to achieve this. The reason they don’t is because they don’t want to have to say to their author “No, we rarely do much for books at this level.” Or “This is what B&N said they wanted on the cover and they will order more books if we do it their way.” No author can know the business from the inside out when she’s just starting. And it can’t be learned all at once. That would be too overwhelming. So ask your agent questions. The only stupid question is the one that doesn’t get asked.
One time I had an author who came up with the idea that his book should be distributed so widely that the booksellers couldn’t possibly ignore it. He wanted it shipped everywhere to achieve high visibility. The more books out there, he reasoned, the more that will sell.
Except it doesn’t work that way. Not at all. Here’s how it does work:
The sales force goes out to sell the book to the trade. Naturally, they try to get as many orders as they can. Publishers often create incentives to achieve this. Then the publisher ships what was ordered. They can’t very well ship more than what was ordered. That would only annoy the booksellers and they would send the extra books right back. The book sells how it sells. What doesn’t sell is sent back to the publisher. If the book does very well, more are ordered.
My author didn’t know that going in. It seemed quite reasonable to him to demand flooding the market with HIS book. But what if everyone did that? There is only so much shelf space. Even online, there is only room for so much before people’s eyes glaze over. So they have to choose carefully and they support the books they think will have a chance.
This is just one tip of a multi-tiered iceberg. There is a lot to learn. Authors should make it their business to learn it, agents should be patient and teach, and publishers should be candid about why they did what they did.
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