Where to begin?

At Murderati, Mike MacLean touches on a very pressing subject for debut and veteran author alike: where should you start your career?

“You’ve got to start out with a hit, right off the bat."   

An agent told me this once after reading part of a novel I’d written. The book, he said, showed promise but wasn’t big enough in scope to snag a major publisher. Being a fan of Ugly Town Books and Point Blank Press, I asked him what were the novel’s chances at one of the smaller houses. He dismissed the idea.

 

“Years ago, you could slowly build an audience,” he said. “But these days you have to start out with a hit.” He went on to say if your first novel only manages meager sales, it’s unlikely the bigger houses will take a chance on you.

...Is there a stigma associated with being a small press author, one that closes the door to the bigger publishing companies? 

There are several issues to tease out here. First is the agent's comments, which more likely reflect his or her own bias and contacts and the predictions of how much money could be made off the manuscript. Not big enough in scope = not likely to sell to major publisher = no money for agent, who may not necessarily have the confidence or hustle to pitch it to the right people who would be willing to take it on.

Next is scope. For the most part (except some of the more uber-literary houses where the top brass's declarations that a book "deserves to be published" justifies the tiny print runs and tinier advances) the major houses want to take on books with the widest possible audience appeal possible. But there are many books they don't have a clue how to publish, those difficult to categorize easily, those whose sales may build up slowly over time. Hence the small press, like personal faves Soft Skull, Akashic, Coffee House Press, Busted Flush, Hard Case Crime, etc. They know what they publish and generally, publish it well and to its maximum market ceiling. Such books do find a rabid audience, get positive review coverage, and as several writers have pointed out in the comments section, can be a springboard to landing with a larger house later on.

And then, my new favorite bugaboo: category vs. single title. Because that's exactly what Maclean has run up against, an agent who has little idea (or interest) in selling the former because he or she clamors for the latter. It used to be, in the majors' eyes, that a crime writer could start slowly and build over time; then they had fewer books before it was time to "break out"; now it seems the "breakout" must happen right away, because there's not as much interest (or bottom line) in options 1 or 2. Single titledom must happen right away, unless you're specifically writing a book that fills a particular niche, established or brand new.

So to answer the question, no, it's no stigma to be with a small press (unless it's a small press with no distribution in place and no interest in getting the word out, but that's another topic for another day.) Because if you then write a manuscript that is clearly destined for greater things, then the chances increase that such great things will happen - at a time when the success is more easily appreciated.

Comments

[Ingrid (I.J.Parker)]

Somewhere there is a grain of truth in that dire prediction by the agent. However, this may have more to do with the fact that publishers support very few titles with adequate marketing and promotion so that new and not so new authors have to rely on word of mouth for sales. I leave it to everyone's imgination how eager the average reader is to buy a book by an author he's never heard of -- or a book store to stock it. Thus a series becomes a dangerous jumping-off point for the writer. If the first book fails to meet the sales expectation, the series bites the dust. New authors are much better off thinking in terms of the single book. The worry that comes with having six titles ready to go while waiting for the public's "eager" response to the first (or second, or third)will take the heart out of anyone.

[Robert Fate]

Have a look at Capital Crime Press and see if you don’t think it should be added to your personal faves. Fortunately for me, my debut crime novel was published by CCP, a publisher with only six authors. I say fortunately, since the publisher seems to be getting as much attention as the authors because of the success of the well-chosen titles. It is my belief that the close relationship between a small publisher and an author, i.e., the patience, the cooperation, the mutual respect are the elements so often missing at the larger houses when a series is in need of time and trust while establishing a beachhead. Robert Fate

[Pari Noskin Taichert]

You hit on another point which is important. Smaller publishers are the ones who will, indeed, grow their writers. I've found this with the University of New Mexico Press. Each print run increases. My audience is expanding. And, I'm not worried about going out of print in the wink of an eye.

Though I want a bigger publisher so that I can make a living, small publishers sure provide a lot of important reinforcement for a writing career over time.

[Guyot]

It's worth pointing out that a small press is not be confused with a vanity press.

So many people are so desperate to get published that they convince themselves that certain presses are simply "small" when in reality they are a vanity.

[David J. Montgomery]

As much as it depresses me, my sense of the current state of publishing is that this agent hits the nail right on the head.

[Mike MacLean]

Thanks for the insights Sarah. I guess it was too much to ask that everyone agree on one perspective, making any future decisions clear-cut. I can certainly see the advantages to going with a small press. However, the decision to do so must not be made lightly. You only get one chance at your debut after all.

On the other hand, you can also wallow in the decision-making and not get a damn word on the page, spending all your time reading blogs and posting comments, thus avoiding the problem altogether.

[Debi]

The problem is that even with a large publisher, very few authors are likely to make enough to live on!

Unless you're a 'celebrity' selling your ghost-written memoirs - in which case they'll throw a fortune your way and then moan when the books don't leap from the shelves ...

Happy Chanukah by the way!

[PJ Parrish]

When I read this agent's comments over at Murderati yesterday, I was depressed but found myself nodding because I've heard the same thing from other agents (and authors) at conferences in the past year. But as with anything, you can't make generalizations about the death of series or the need to hit at home run on your first at bat.

I began my series with Kensington Books (a medium-sized family-owned NYC publisher) in 1999 and they were committed to helping me build an audience slowly over the course of seven Louis Kincaid books. However, when I moved to a new publisher recently, it was with the understanding I would start a new series to perhaps alternate with the Kincaid series. I believe the thinking behind this was partly dictated by the fact my backlist belonged to someone else and my new publisher needed something fresh to grow. But I am grateful to Kensington for having the patience to let my Kincaid series find its legs and audience.

Not all authors get this, that's for sure. Which is why some are going to pen names under the guise of "debuts" or established series authors are encouraged to turn to stand-alones, or switch from series mysteries to thrillers. (That's a whole other blog entry!) The reality is, I think, is that you have to figure out a way to survive long enough for enough readers to find you in numbers that publishers find acceptable.

With some exceptions, it seems there is little room for iconoclastic, oddball or even idiosyncratic writers in the main big publishers these days. Like the indy movie producers, the small presses are filling a vital need here. More and more, I'm thinking that whatever fresh blood gets infused into our genre will come from the small presses, not the mainstream publishers.

[Jim Winter]

In a way, I'm sort of glad the bigs want authors coming from smaller presses to change up a bit. That may sound blasphemous, but over the summer, I had a conversation about series longevity with another author. I said if I managed to find my series a new home and continue, I would kill the character off after a dozen books. He said, "You can't do that! What if he's making a lot of money for them?"

It occurred to me he'd pinned his whole career one on series. He's doing well with it, but what happens ten years from now. That core audience will still be there, but casual readers may get to the point where they want something new.

And that's my biggest fear doing series fiction. It'd be great to be Ed McBain and just keep writing 87th Precinct forever and ever to death do I stop typing, but most writers should be more concerned with being a one-note wonder.

Which Mr. Hunter, aka McBain, most certainly wasn't.