If you’re an author or small press publisher, you really owe it to yourself to think long and hard about the Google Book Settlement. I mean, REALLY think about it, and what it can mean for you and your content. In my opinion, one of the best articles about the implications and predictions about The Settlement (yeah, you have to capitalize like that, it really is That Important!) can be found RIGHT HERE. It’s a lot to wrap your head around, but go read it. I’ll wait.
Got it? Good!
Now let’s talk about what all this means to YOU, the independent author, the micro-press, the small imprint. The article goes into some theorizing a bit about pulp science fiction, but I think it bears some more examination. And since the article used those big ol’ numbered bullet points, I will too!
1. THE WORLD IS CHANGING
If you are at all in tune with the state of publishing, you know this to be true. We hammer this point home over and over in our business model, our advice, and our approach to everything we do, but it’s just because its That. Damn. Important. The state of publishing was pretty much static for about 100 years. A century! Publishers consolidated. Middlemen flourished. The people who actually CREATED increasingly got the short end of the stick. But that ship has sailed. The digital revolution that has struck down music conglomerates (did you catch that EMI is on the verge of bankruptcy?) and, to a lesser extent, is blowing apart the film business, has spread to publishing. Distribution used to be the big sticking point when it came to books. It took lots of resources and deep pockets to get paper and cloth around the world. Not anymore. Amazon. Google. Apple. Audible. Lightning Source.
2. THERE IS OPPORTUNITY IN CHANGE
As the publishing industry bangs on the big red PANIC button over and over, the time has come to seize your destiny. That might seem a little overblown, but really. Change is unsettling. It’s scary. When we see a new way of doing things, our first instinct is to mistrust it. The GBS is a big, honking tower of change being erected in the middle of everything. And it’s not the only one. Look at Apple over there, building the iPad. Look at everybody else, scrambling to build their own tablets. Is that a Kindle? A JooJoo? It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t. Just remember this…
When you look at all of these things, you should think 3 words: New Distribution Opportunities. In 1975, there was precisely ONE way to get your words into the hands of thousands of readers: Big Publishing. Now, there are hundreds of competing ways to do so. Leverage them!
3. BIG PUBLISHING WILL LIE TO YOU
As half of the industry hits the panic button, the other half will yell at everybody who’ll listen, and they’ll have one message: THIS WON’T WORK! Understand, this is a bunker mentality. The status quo is crumbling around them, and once you’ve built a reality, it’s natural to deny that change is happening. Many in the industry are completely focused on doing things “the way we always have.” They’re going to deny that change is afoot until it’s too late. Here, WATCH THIS. Kind of like that, except that no matter how many times that happens, big publishing is ONLY interested in how many times the team in white passes the ball, and will DENY that anything else is going on. So expect to read a lot of articles by and have a lot of conversations with “insiders” who will list a million reasons that the old system is the only “legitimate” way to go. They’ll pooh-pooh independent publishing, small publishing, new distribution. They’ll talk about how The Settlement is the end of publishing. They’ll long for the bygone days of massive consolidation, and they’ll tell you that, one way or another, that’s the best way to do things. Ignore them. They’re wrong.
4. REVOLUTION IS HARD
Nobody said this was going to be easy. If there’s something I tell our clients over and over, it’s this: You must be an evangelist for your work. With the changing landscape of publishing, that fact is more important than ever. When power shifts to the hands of the people, it’s easy for your voice to get drowned out in the crowd. The GBS is going to make untold thousands of titles easily and immediately available. How do you find an audience in that sort of market?
There is precisely one way. You have to seek out those who are receptive to your message. There has to be a fire in your heart that wants to get that message out! Be authentic, be focused, be bold. There’s NOTHING wrong with “selling” your ideas. It’s not dirty, it’s necessary! If you want your message to find your reader, if you want your beautiful words to lodge in the hearts and minds of the maximum number of people, if you want to touch them, to affect them, it’s up to YOU to find THEM, not the other way around! Exploit new media, throw yourself into the fray. Be a revolutionary.
Ready to roll up your sleeves?
