Grab a Pitchfork or a Torch & Join The Publishing Revolution

Revolutions are in vogue this year.  It’s great to see evil dictators overthrown by common people.  After years of oppression, belittling and fear, the people in Tunisa and Egypt (and hopefully Libya), with the help of the internet,  were able to reverse decades of autocratic rule in weeks.  That’s amazing.  It makes me proud to be a citizen of the world.

Certainly, what has happened in book publishing (and before that the music industry) isn’t as important or meaningful as the birth of democracies in the Middle East.  However, there are parallels that I find interesting.  Many authors try for years to get an agents (a member of the Court)  or traditional book publisher (the “Traditionals”) interested in their books.   Up until about 10 years ago, this approach was the only viable one. When I wrote my book about the self-publishing industry in 2004,  I didn’t want to spend all of my time trying to get discovered by the Traditionals.  Plus, I knew they wouldn’t invite me anyway (think any John Hughes movie from the 80′s and me as the dorky kid who only gets popular at the end).  Seven years and four editions later, my book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, turned grew into a 22 person company that has both traditional and self-publishing divisions.  We have a great distributor, strong sales reps and all of the other bells-and-whistles that the Traditionals offer. If you don’t get invited to the party by the popular kids, you have to throw your own party.

Back in 2004, I felt like the lone revolutionary out there.  There were a few other people pounding at the gates of the Traditionals, but the Traditionals were able to fend us off pretty easily.  The Traditionals still had their Courts (consisting of large book retail chains, agents, major TV, print, and radio media outlets).  Gradually, with the help of the Internet, the pounding got louder and those of us outside the gates got access to many of the same weapons the Traditionals have. Our weapons cache includes (1) print-on-demand technology, (2) Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites, (3) Amazon.com and other online retailers, (4) ebook readers that people like to read one, (5) advancement of ebook creation technology, (6) WordPress and other platforms that make it easy to create blogs and websites, and (7) great online sources of publishing information.

Traditionals still have some weapons that we don’t have, like their Courts and all the other advantages that come with being entrenched in power for decades.  Traditionals used to have a lock on the Tastemakers (reviewers like The New York Times, who tell the regular folk what they should read).  The control of the Tastemakers was one of the first things to crumble during this revolution.  When reviews by real consumers (e.g. like those on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com, and LibraryThing.com) started posting reviews about books, getting a review by a Tastemaker, while very helpful, wasn’t required for a book to make it.

Pedigree still counts for something in this country.  Just like it was easier for Charlie Sheen to break into Hollywood because he had a famous father in the industry, it is still easier for a book to be noticed when a logo of one of the big Traditionals is stamped on the spine (Hmm…it’s the literary elite’s idea of a tramp stamp?).   But, today you can be a writing pauper and still make it.  You face more challenges than if you came through the Court, but as long as you have a book that has real potential, it can open doors for you, even if you have to do the opening yourself.

Pedigree aside, it’s becoming clear that the Traditionals’ gatekeepers have either run for the hills (or Sharm el-Sheikh, just to keep the revolutionary theme going) or are trying to reinvent themselves by figuring out how to use the weapons they’ve always had, but never had to use before us revolutionaries took our battering ram to the gates of the kingdom. Two major Court members are teetering on total collapse.  Borders is on life-support and if Barnes & Noble doesn’t find a buyer, it will soon join them.  Remove those two members of the Court, and the fight becomes much more fair.  I can almost hear the chants of “New Word Order! New Word Order!” as the rebels storm the castle (think Braveheart).

Unlike revolutions that are about basic human rights and control, the revolution in book publishing is peaceful.  The Traditionals will need to get used to sharing power with the authors and small presses they once barred from the kingdom.  If they are smart they will invite some enterprising peasants to join the Court, so they can understand why and how we stormed the gates.  Sort of the old, “Keep your friends close, and your frienemies, even closer.”

So, who am I and why would anyone care what I have to say? I’m one of those enterprising peasants.   The fourth edition of my book, The Fine Print of Self-Publishing , will be released on April 2, 2011. With this first post, I’m officially no longer a Not-As-I-Do guy, I’m finally a Do-As-I-Say guy.

PublishingRevolution.com is blog where anyone interested in The New Word Order can find useful information about how the Publishing Revolution is and will continue to change the publishing landscape.  Like every other blogger, I want you to come back and read often, tell your friends, and make me the next huge, viral sensation.  I want to be be the blogging equivalent of a cute cat on on Youtube that does something to make a million people laugh until they feel like vomiting.  Instead, I’ll just be a guy who writes about things I find interesting about our industry.

The publishing world is changing.  There really is a New Word Order.  You don’t need to risk your life to be heard or help make change.  All you have to do is write and publish books that people actually want to read.  How hard are can that be?