Authors on income and acquisitions in a changing industry

Last year, 57 Australian authors participated in an online forum as part of a Macquarie University study into changes in the Australian book industry. The authors shared their views on a range of topics, including ebooks, self-publishing, promotion and experimentation. The findings have been published in a series of articles in the Australian Society of Authors’ AA Online. This is an extract from the final article by Macquarie researchers Jan Zwar and Tom Longden, which explores the impact of changes in the industry on authors’ income and publisher acquisitions. All authors quoted are anonymous.

Publisher acquisitions

Traditionally, an important source of income for authors has been a publisher’s advance. However, authors are finding that generally advances are lower and that it can be more difficult to get work accepted for publication, even by some long-established authors.

‘You put your heart and soul into writing and it’s a commercial business and increasingly the commerciality is the dominating decision for publication. Factors such as ability to market the book, author profile and social media skills […] are now as important as the craft.’

Authors discussed the emphasis placed by large publishers on a book’s ‘blockbuster’ potential.

‘Now it’s perfectly possible for an editor to love a book and start talking about artwork and promotions only to send a sad-and-sorry email a week later because the committee “doesn’t see the numbers”.

‘The increasing prominence of the blockbuster in movies is also present in other creative industries, including books. This risks costing us diversity, and might see it become harder for passionate editors to justify taking on new talent (and sticking with moderate-selling older talent). As in the movie industry, the temptation will be for publishers to concentrate their resources on a very limited number of titles and let the others fend for themselves. Most of the promoted titles will be from established “brand” authors, some might be from first-time authors if they have a blockbuster story (sales into twenty-two countries! advances $1m, Brad/Angelina signed up for the movie!).’

While blockbuster titles attract public attention, one author noted that they don’t necessary expand the market for books.

‘Penguin said the blockbuster sales of Fifty Shades of Grey materially hurt their list that year, showing sadly that it’s a zero sum game—the megasuccess of one author actually damages the industry, it doesn’t grow it. There aren’t suddenly many more people who see the light and say “oh yeah, now I remember, books are awesome.” It’s just that’s the one book a year everyone reads on holidays.’

The changing retail environment for books

Authors recognise that publishers are responding to the changing retail environment, particularly the increasing influence of discount department stores and the impact of online book retailing.

‘… shelf-lives have fallen for stock that doesn’t move right away. And we’ve seen the rise in discount department stores (DDSs) as book retailers, so that they’re now approximately 30% of the market. I’m happy that DDSs see books as important, and happy that this makes books physically available in some regional communities without specialist booksellers, but it does have its downside. At the Brisbane Writers Festival last year, a number of publishers on a panel said they would be reluctant to take on a book if they thought it wouldn’t sell into DDSs. Frankly, if publishing decisions are determined by a publisher’s best guess about Target, Kmart and Big W’s best guesses as to what might sell, that’s a nightmare and risks a drastic narrowing in the scope of what’s published.

‘I think it’s genuinely difficult for Australian publishers and retailers. For a start, neither has the scale of the bigger UK and US operations (this even applies to offshoots of multinationals operating here). We’re a small market and we tax books, which plenty of places don’t.’

Authors generally agreed that prices have shifted downwards for print books and ebooks, with effects on authors’ income.

‘Online retailers are discounting which impacts on bookshops. There is a downward trend in book prices but if this was attached to higher sales, it would balance out. This isn’t the case. It’s just cheaper prices.’

One author distinguished between the effects of RRP and other pricing on authors’ income.

‘Royalties pegged to recommended retail price are one thing; royalties pegged to publisher’s net takings are some 50% less.’

To see the full article, click here. To see other articles in this series, click here.

Category: Features