When you sell a book to a publisher, they give you an advance against future royalties. Where does that money come from?
A publisher has a long history and a long list of titles that continue to sell many years after they were originally published. So when you get a huge advance from Random House, where do you think they get that money? They get it from Louis L’Amour and authors from the past. L’Amour was such a huge moneymaker for them that one of their conferences rooms is named for him.
That is the magic of the backlist. While L’Amour may no longer top bestseller lists, he has been a steady presence for a long, long time and he continues to sell.
If I were an author and I had a choice between a flash in the pan bestseller or a solid backlist title, I would go for the solid backlist title. It means you continue to get income for years, and that income adds up. If you wrote a classic, it may even support you for the rest of your life.
Okay, most book don’t fall into that category, but instead of focusing only on current trends, try to think ahead. What might resonate 10 or 20 or 50 years from now? Think about the recent 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Sabrina Carpenter was on. She remarked that SNL began before she was born, and before her parents were born. And yet they all can still enjoy Steve Martin’s King Tut, Belushi’s samurai, and Dan Ackroyd’s Jimmy Carter. Those are a part of their backlist.
Most books are on the shelves for a few months, and then they are gone. Unless they continue to sell. Before GPS, one title that always made the lists was the Rand McNally Road Atlas. Maybe not glamorous, but steady.
Slow and steady wins the race. Sure, you’d prefer to have both–the major bestseller that lasts for decades. Who wouldn’t? But just think about the other side of it. The book that refuses to leave is a hidden gem.
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