Two Things I Would Change About Publishing
2024 Edition
Latest News from the Desk of Sooz
Two Things I Would Change About Publishing
UK Tour Dates!
Latest News from the Desk of Sooz
My other dog, Asimov, passed away on Monday. I still haven’t dealt with losing Leia, so the grief is sharp.
But…I am trying to celebrate all I had with him. He was with me for almost fifteen years (he would have turned fifteen on May 25!). I was still in science when I brought that wild 8-week-old puppy home. He barked and destroyed chew toys I while I wrote my first book—and I’ve never actually written a book without him at my side.
He moved with me from Germany to the US (and was forever traumatized against his crate after that, poor guy). And of course, he was there through all the infertility trauma and eventual baby. His favorite thing about Cricket, right up until the end, was how much food she drops at the table.
Asimov and Leia were best friends, as I’m sure you can imagine. so although I don’t believe in an afterlife, I am happy to know the energy of his being is now wherever hers is. We always called her the Sheriff because she bossed him around so much—she had very strict ideas about how the house should be run, ha. So, I hope she’s snipping and barking at him all over again.
So here’s to both my pups: Leia and Asimov. I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living, my puppies you’ll be.
2. Two Things I Would Change About Publishing
Fortunately, I wrote a two posts last week, when Asimov was actually still doing quite well (his health turned very quickly over the weekend). So…yay? I have content for you, ha—which includes finally catching up on AMA questions.
So here’s one that came in from @Rachael:
What are two things you wish you could change about publishing? And how do you know when your character and narrative voice are wrong. What do you do to get them back on track? I know I asked more than one question, but I couldn't narrow them down. Please choose which one you'd like to answer. Thank you.
No need to narrow it down, Rachael. I got you. 😉 We’ll start with your second question here, and then I’ll dig into the first question next week in a paid post.
So, what are the two things I would change about publishing?
This is hard to answer because the publishing of today is not the publishing of five years ago, nor is it the publishing of 2010, when I sold my debut series.
The bookstores aren’t the bookstores they once wore, since they had to dramatically adjust how they do business during the pandemic. The readers aren’t the readers they used to be because trends and tastes are forever changing. And the avenues of discovery are so dramatically transformed in today’s age thanks to algorithms that I frequently feel like I got on the wrong bus and ended up three states over.
So although many of the publishing issues I would have changed a decade ago still remain, I think there are far more pressing problems now. And if I had to choose two, I would say:
First: I wish publishers would pay their employees better—and similarly, hire more people because everyone is so overworked.
It is so far past unsustainable, we are in a state of industry-wide burnout. It’s not good for the people in publishing, and it’s not good for the authors.
Second: I wish publishers would focus more resources on the midlist.
The chasing of trends has always been a big focus, and it always will be because publishing is a corporation-run, speculative industry who must make money. I understand this. We need the trends to help support the other books that might be “quieter.”
But the midlist has been shrinking and shrinking, and the authors who’ve been writing and growing their skills for years are simply unable to afford to keep doing it—and many are also simply unable to sell again. Meanwhile, publishers are snapping up whatever appears to be hot on TikTok. (And hey, huge kudos to those authors getting snapped up! No shade on them in the slightest.)
What worries me, though, is how short-sighted this strategy can be. We’ve seen how bubbles burst . In my 14 years of publishing, the YA bubbles that burst were paranormal romance, dystopian, fantasy, and then the false trend of diversity (it’s not a trend, but rather a systemic issue that is still unsolved—yet it was treated like a trend).
And look: it’s expected that bubbles will burst. No one thinks anything will stay on top forever, including publishers.
But what happens when you have no midlist and the bubble bursts? What do you do if you also have no other chance for a new trend to emerge because there are no other chances?
We will reach a saturation point when readers will no longer want what the algorithms are boosting. We used to reach saturation before algorithms controlled so much, now algorithms have supercharged it all. (And contrary to what we users have been made to believe, our For You pages aren’t really For You at all.1)
As Kyle Chayka says in Filterworld, quoting his friend Hallie Bateman (an artist with huge success on Instagram, but who ultimately quit the platform and never looked back):
“Sometimes people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”
When we flatten all of our options into one option, then how can people ever find what they want next? They’ll simply burn out on the current trend, and then move on to a place where there are more choices. (Indie publishing, for example, or even a place like Wattpad. Or heck, a new medium entirely like gaming!)
I have too many friends who are unable to sell again, but who write phenomenal books. Truly good, high quality books built from years, sometimes decades of writing experience. But those books won’t reach people who want them, nor will those books have a chance to break out because the old avenues for reaching readers simply no longer exist.2
People don’t know what they want. To find it, they need choices. When we eliminate the midlist, we eliminate those choices—and I think readers, even more than authors, are the ones who suffer most.
3. UK Tour Dates!
I realized I announced this on my
newsletter, but not over here! I’ll be in the UK in exactly one month! So grab tickets for my events below!Monday, 27 May
Tuesday, 28 May
Wednesday, 29 May
Thursday, 30 May
Saturday, 1 June
Thank you for reading, friends. Rachael, I’ll be back next week to answer the other part or your question!
And thank you to everyone who has supported me since Leia passed. Losing two dogs so close together is…tough. Really tough. Logistically, it’s easier because I was spending so much of my day managing their illnesses and keeping them comfortable. But, as I think I’ve said before, I’d prefer to have those challenges than be without them.
My house feels so empty now, and my heart does too.
I will see you all again on here soon.
💚 - Sooz
P.S. The Writing Academy is NOW LIVE! And you can still use the MD-FIFTEEN coupon to get 15% off a membership.
I learned so much from the book Filterworld by Kyle Chayka, and I recommend it to everyone here. Read it. It will change your view of culture, taste, algorithms, and the future of creativity.
And it’s not easy to simply “go indie.” Many people in traditional chose traditional for a reason! Just as so many indie authors chose indie for a reason and would not want to go traditional.
So sorry to hear about your two dogs 💕
"I wish publishers would pay their employees better" I have a question, Susan. Are there employees at publishers who just do sales? I'm not talking academic bookstore sales. These positions have always existed. I'm talking about someone who works the phone selling to public libraries and the bigger bookstores.