Every author seems to go through the eye-opening rite of passage of realizing their prized work of art that took months or years of their life to create is seen as nothing more than a product to publishers.
Perhaps even non-authors view books as art, I don’t know. I can only speak as an author.
So, what’s the deal? Are books art? Are books products?
Yes.
Books are Art
An author creates wild worlds of people that don’t exist. Daydreams them out of his or her imagination and onto the page. Authors invent human beings that don’t exist and give them problems no one would hope to acquire. The messier, the better.
This, my friend, is art. The art of imagination. Painting with thoughts. It’s beautiful. It’s messy. It’s art.
But the moment the author decides to sell it, the beautiful masterpiece becomes a product.
Books are Products
A book becomes a product as soon as the author decides to try to sell it. To the publishers and agents, it has always been a product.
Agents reject books they don’t believe they can sell. Publishers reject books they don’t believe they can sell. Bookstores don’t order books they don’t believe they can sell.
Publishing is a business. That’s the cold, hard truth.
When Art Becomes a Product
Even if the author believes he’s selling his art, the shocking moment when he’s faced with edits to make it more marketable, he will realize he’s dealing with a product.
This is where the author has to decide if he wants to cling to his masterpiece as a work of art and refuse editorial changes, or if he treats it as a product and works with the publisher or agent to turn it into a masterpiece in the eyes of booksellers.
Can It Be Both?
I’ve seen this situation in my 18 years as a publisher many times. Authors submit works that are well-written and engaging but have a few grammatical errors, punctuation errors, and perhaps a saggy middle. It’s even worse if the material contains content that would be considered unacceptable to certain markets. The author adamantly refuses to make any changes at all, reminding everyone that it’s his masterpiece, he’s worked years on it, and it’s perfect just the way it is.
This is a book stalled on its way to becoming a masterpiece.
Trust me, publishers that have been around for a quarter of a century or more know the industry inside and out.
If an author doesn’t trust the publisher enough to navigate the industry and the production process, then that is a book that is unlikely to sell.
The Book = The Product
Please, authors, be as artsy and creative as you can be during the writing process. Invent things. Create stories and characters that are unique and exciting. Make your work as entertaining as you possibly can.
But if you intend to sell it as a product, once the first draft is written, treat it that way. Be ruthless with your cuts if they don’t add to the story. Be unforgiving with loose ends and random details about side characters that just don’t matter.
If you view it as a product, you are considering the marketplace as you edit. The first foot into that marketplace is an agent or a small indie press that still accepts unagented submissions. You must present your book in its best light. Find the hooks. Find a way to boil it all down into one concise sentence in your query.
This is your product pitch, or elevator pitch. It’s called an elevator pitch because you should be able to deliver it if you happen to run into an agent in an elevator someday.
If you get an agent and they tell you your book is too long and you have to cut massive amounts of it, do it. As a product, it has to fit a space on a bookshelf in a store and can’t be expected to take up more space than any other book in that genre. Not to mention, the size of the book determines the carton quantity from distributors, the cost of editing it, and the print cost.
When you’re dealing with publishers who publish hundreds of books per year, your book is a product, and you are very fortunate if a publisher thinks so.
Next up: The Laws of Word Counts