Are Authors All Headed for Burnout?
The publishing industry is mirroring music's downward spiral, sacrificing creativity at the altar of profit. But does it have to be this way?
I’ve now been a published author for over a decade. In that time I’ve seen huge changes in the publishing industry, and by and large they haven’t been for the better. Let’s take a look at what’s going wrong.
Over the last few years I’ve been asked a number of times about how I think the world of book publishing — specifically of fiction though I’m guessing non-fiction isn’t that different — is changing. I usually answer that it’s going the same way as the music industry. Different pressures perhaps, and for different reasons, but it’s making the same mistakes. Just a few years later.
And to me that’s unforgivable. Unlike music, the publishing industry had a heads up. It should have been able to avoid the race to the bottom. It’s also a creative industry (or is supposed to be anyway, don’t get me started on that) so it should have been able to dodge the bullets, and find other, better ways of getting books into the hands of readers in the twenty-first century.
But unfortunately the way into the industry is (usually) by becoming an unpaid intern, and publishing is based primarily in cities like London and New York, which aren’t the cheapest in which to live. So, it’s ended up being an industry full of overprivileged, Oxbridge educated, white middle-class men, who aren’t, generally, known for nimble thinking and coming up with creative solutions to problems.
Right now there’s another David Bowie out there, and they live on a council estate, making records in their bedroom that are unusual and quirky and utterly unique. But, even if they’re lucky enough to be discovered, the industry will expect a hit, an instant return on investment. And if that doesn’t happen straight out of the gate? Well, I hear Tescos are hiring.
But what do I mean by ‘going the same way as music’? Allow me to elaborate:
I recently came across this quote about the music industry…
64% of all artists in the last 6 decades were one-hit wonders on the Billboard Top 100 charts according to data.
Pressure provides poor performance. It’s choking. It’s performing below the levels of our skills due to extreme stress and pressure.
And it happens to artists and producers at all levels. Success is relative — stress and pressure are not.
Record labels spent $5.8 billion on finding and marketing new talent in 2019. And next to nothing on nurturing existing talent.
They leave hundreds of millions of dollars on the table annually by not helping current artists manage the pressure of their follow-up records.
Pro sports teams spend big on mental skills coaches to help athletes achieve peak performance under pressure. The music industry does nothing.
Just swap ‘labels’ for ‘publishers’ and ‘records’ for ‘books’ to get the idea of what I’m talking about.
As for where it leads us, you want an example?
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