When Publishing Goes Awry

For anyone who has taken the journey to become a published author, you know how tough the road can be. Rejection lurks around every corner. Doubt and lack of self-confidence slowly creeps in. You wonder if writing is really the profession for you.

Then, you get that wonderful, magical email that someone wants your book. They tell you how much they loved it and can’t wait to get it into the world for others to enjoy. You find yourself on cloud 9, loving life and reaffirmed that you really are a writer.

Finding a publisher is the best feeling in the world. It gives you validation that what you’ve created is liked by others. But finding a publisher isn’t the be all end all in the publishing game. Things can go wrong. The journey can once again get bumpy.

The relationship between author and publisher should be professional. There should be mutual respect on both sides—after all, neither one of us can exist without the other (unless, of course, you self publish, but that has pros and cons associated with it also). If one person isn’t holding up their end of the deal, the relationship will fail.

Even if an author does their research and due diligence to find the right publisher, things can still change. That publisher may change hands, editor turnover might be high, etc. However, through all of the tough times, the company should stay transparent and let the authors know exactly what is going on. If nothing else, they should stick to the contract and fulfill the duties outlined there.

The author is also expected to adhere to the contract and follow through with expectations. That’s why the contract is in place: to protect the author and the publisher. However, when one party doesn’t uphold their end, then something needs to happen.

I get it: you waited so long for a publisher to come along and say they want your book. You’re willing to put up with a little bit of nonsense here and there because the publisher wanted your book! It’s fine that the deadline was missed for it to be available to the reading public. It’s still coming out—eventually. It’s fine that royalty reports haven’t been sent in 6 months. The publisher is just busy and will get to them eventually.

While it’s totally up to the author how much they are willing to put up with when it comes to publisher shenanigans, keep in mind that you don’t deserve to be treated like crap. The contract you signed with the publisher is always your reference for the way you and they are supposed to behave. If they’ve breached it in any form, you have the opportunity to get out and find someone new.

Again, I totally understand that the prospect of looking for another publisher seems awful—and maybe a bit like you’ve failed somewhere along the way. Plus, who’s going to take a book that’s already been published (if it actually has) because then they don’t get first publishing rights? And I like the cover. And the publisher is just a little behind, but once they get caught up, everything is going to be amazing.

As I said, it’s up to the author to decide how much they are willing to put up with from a publisher, and I understand the fear and loathing that comes with re-querying to find a new home for a book. But look at it from a business perspective: if you were selling toys or clothes or whatever and the distributor was jerking you around, would you put up with it? Would you say that it was okay because they’d eventually get their poop in a group? Probably not. You’d probably say forget you and find someone who was actually willing to work with you and sell your goods.

Yeah, you say, but there are way more toy and clothing distributors than publishers. That may be, but that doesn’t mean the publishers can treat you poorly. Again, it has to be a business decision on their end too. They picked your book because they thought it would bring them revenue, but that only happens if they publish it. They can’t sell something they haven’t published. If they aren’t willing to do that, how are they going to make money? They won’t be in business for long—that’s for sure.

At the end of the day, the relationship between an author and a publisher has to be professional and it has to be based on business decisions. It may be tough to walk away from the one person/company who said they wanted to publish your book, but if they aren’t actually publishing it or if you have no idea how many copies have sold, how can you stay in business? You have to know what’s going on to know that your efforts are worth it.

Walking away from a publisher doesn’t make you a terrible person. It means that you are looking out for your business interest and doing what you have to do to be successful. Is it easy? No. Will there be issues down the road? Maybe. But, again, refer to the contract to find out what is expected of you and of them and fix any issues that arise—even if that means walking away.

When all else fails and you’re not sure what to do, talk to a lawyer or other professional, show them the contract. They can help you decide what’s best for the business.

Making Business Decisions About Your Books

There are a lot of different reasons to publish a book, and making money doesn’t have to be the top priority on the list. If all you want to do is have people read your story, there are ways to let them have access to it for free—and there’s nothing wrong with that decision.

However, if your goal is to have people read your work and to make money from it, then you’re going to have to start thinking about your writing as a business.

Ugh! Doesn’t the phrase “think about your writing as a business” sound super boring and slightly complicated? Where’s the romance? Where’s the fun and intrigue? Well, it should be in your writing, but when it comes to making and spending money for your books, that should be totally boring and straightforward.

Whether you want to keep track of your spending and earnings or whether you want someone else to do it for you, that’s totally up to you, but tracking the success of your business is something that has to be done. I don’t make mine complicated; I use Excel to record my spending and income. I can see at a glance how much I’ve made and how much I’ve spent.

It is important to keep track of your spending and earnings so you know if your writing is successful. It helps you keep track of how much you are investing in promotion/marketing and how much you are making from sales. The numbers can be skewed, and you might be spending more than you’re making, and that’s okay—as long as you’re okay with it. If not, having the numbers in front of you is a great way to change your marketing technique and develop new strategies that will hopefully lead to more sales.

I like to use my earnings and reinvest them into my marketing schemes, but I have to know how much I have to make it work. I don’t have a ton of extra money to spend on marketing for my books, so I use my numbers to create a budget and stretch my dollars as far as they’ll go.

Because I use this technique for marketing, if I don’t have money coming in, I can’t spend it on promotion. Then, I have to make business decisions about what is best for the funds I have and how I will get the most return on the money I can spend. I’ve had to give some things up with this process, but if the money isn’t there, I can’t make it magically appear.

It’s not easy deciding what to trim and what to keep. After all, just because one marketing idea didn’t work in the past doesn’t meant it won’t work in the future. Plus, what if making a business decision means getting rid of something you’re suppose to have, say, your newsletter.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any easy answers to these questions, and they are decisions you have to make based on your preferences and budget. You have to sit back and decide if said newsletter is bringing you any sales to justify paying the monthly fee. If it is, then you probably don’t want to cut it. If it’s not, there’s probably a better, cheaper way to connect with readers.

None of your decisions have to be forever decisions. If you discover down the road that yeah, the newsletter was totally bringing in sales, then add it back in to your marketing plan. If you find that Facebook ads actually make a huge impact on sales, then maybe it’s worth your time and money to invest in more of those. If they don’t, then you can probably cut them out. It’s trial and error when it comes to marketing, and only you can decide what is best for you, your books, and your budget.

It’s not a whole lot of fun to think about writing as a business, but it’s necessary if you want your marketing/promotion and your writing career to be successful—especially if you have a limited budget. The process doesn’t have to be complicated, and it’ll help you track your success.