You know what our job as publishers is? We're the matchmakers. We are here to find amazing, exciting writers and invest in them, publish their work, and get it into the greedy little hands of voracious readers. Nowadays, the readers are way ahead of us all. They're so hungry, all the assumptions of career development for authors is turning upside down. I blame Netflix. And e-readers.
We consume content like a pack of starved werewolves these days. Breaking Bad? Yeah, I'm watching all five seasons in about two months, almost through season four. So what does that mean for my favorite author who delivers a book once a year? Hopefully he realizes the reality: I'll invest a whole lot more in him than he has been led to believe.
So me as a publisher, what am I looking for? Voracious writers! I meet so many people who tell me they're working on a book. And when asked, they say something like, oh yes, I've been working on it for five years now. And they're trying to impress me with that statement. Like that means it's going to be so so so amazingly very good, because it took them THAT MUCH TIME. Guess what that actually says to me when I hear it? Yep, I hear: I guess that means I can expect book two in 2019, at the earliest.
You know who I'm looking for? The author who is going to deliver something for me to sell. On a consistent basis. Who is going to work WITH me to build a fan base. Who knows exactly what he/she wants to write. And has ideas for his/her next two, three, four books floating around in that brain.
That's what I'm looking for. I'm just a matchmaker, I'm just a salesman. I need to quench the thirst of the rabid book-devouring readers out there who are always asking, what's out now that's good to read?
No comments:
Post a Comment