Disruption Isn't Always Progress
An author discovers his value. Amazon gives up on retail books.
Two news stories crossed my radar this week that have managed to lodge in my brain together.
One is the news that prolific fantasy novelist Brandon Sanderson has set the all-time record for a Kickstarter campaign, raising (as of this typing) more than $24 million in support of a quartet of books, besting his original goal of $1 million in just over half an hour.
The other news story is Amazon’s announcement that they will be shuttering all of their retail bookstores. Writing at The New Republic, Alex Shepherd gives the “terrible” Amazon stores the obituary raspberry they deserve. I have pretty much never found a bookstore I couldn’t kill some time in, but my one foray into an Amazon store lasted all of six minutes, the veritable embodiment of “Tell me you don’t know anything about what makes a good bookstore without telling me you don’t know anything about what makes a good bookstore.”
(I’m not a regular Whole Foods shopper, but I’ve heard Amazon has managed to diminish that experience as well.)
Sanderson is a big, well-established name in science fiction and fantasy, with multiple best-selling series (including Mistborn and Stormlight), but he is not a colossus like George R.R. Martin or Diana Gabaldon, and none of his books have sold anything like Andy Weir’s The Martian or Project Hail Mary.
But he has a very sizable, very dedicated core stable of fans who will buy each of the four or so books he produces every year, which puts him in very rare territory, but it seems clear even he is surprised by the degree of support for his Kickstarter campaign.
Writing at Slate Laura Miller observes correctly that this isn’t just Brandon Sanderson getting $24 million (and counting) to write four books. He’s going into the publishing business, responsible for all aspects of production and distribution across multiple formats in order to fulfill the promises of the campaign. The great news is for Sanderson is that he has over 100,000 pre-orders for his product.
Miller rounds up some online grumbling about how all that money is flowing to a single author, rather than getting spread around a more diverse array of writers and books, and lord knows it’s tough for any writer to not feel pangs of envy looking at those numbers.
That said, personally, I’m all for writers seizing the means of production where they have the will and the means. And it’s not like Sanderson gets to kick back and just enjoy the dough. Writing four books in a year is probably the least of his worries.
If I’m envious, it’s of Sanderson’s entrepreneurial drive. Between my various projects (column, newsletter, et al.), I write four books or more worth of words every year, so the amount of time at the keyboard doesn’t scare me. I just have little to no interest in managing a self-publishing business, and even the thought of switching on the paid subscription option on this newsletter filled me with anxiety for months.
I’ve never begrudged another writer’s superior popularity. Delivering something lots of readers want is all the proof you need for that pudding, even if it’s not something I personally find all that tasty.
Maybe most interesting is what Sanderson’s success reveals about the economics of publishing. That $24 million total represents a little over 100,000 backers or 400,000 books sold1, given backers will receive four books in return for their pledge.
I’m guessing Brandon Sanderson easily sells 100,000 copies of his books, but depending on his deal and the formats sold, this likely represents well less than seven figures in income per book to the author, even though he’s generated millions in sales revenue to his publisher.
By way of comparison, the fifth Harry Potter book sold what I believe is still a record 8.3 million copies on the day of its release.2 This would make an equivalent J.K. Rowling project worth something like $500,000,000 based on first-day sales alone.
As Amazon discovered with its bookstores, publishing is a very low margin business, but Sanderson has cut out a number of parts of the business that soak up expense, and grabbed those savings for himself.
We see that in absolute terms, it does not take a huge audience to create a sustainable income for writing, provided that money goes to the writer. A hundred thousand people is a lot, not doubt, but as compared to the audience necessary to support a TV show or film, it’s a speck. When writers can capture the bulk of the direct revenue, even small audiences can be meaningful.
Consider the differences between my Sunday Chicago Tribune column and this newsletter. The column is collected in a newspaper with scads of other content and circulated to something like 500,000 people.3 If only 10% of readers see my column, that’s still 50,000 people.
An average post here garners between 2500 and 3000 views. I have fewer than 200 paying subscribers. If I could double those numbers to 5000 views and 400 subscribers, I would bring in more income for myself from this newsletter than I receive as a freelancer for the Tribune. In other words, same money to me for 1/10th the audience.
Is that a good thing? I think it cuts both ways. On the one hand, it’s nice for an individual writer to have a way to bring in a few extra dollars, or if this newsletter grows, to have a platform that provides me freedom and control and a reasonable income.
On the other hand, I’ve always believed, and still believe that there’s something meaningful about writing from a bunch of different people being bundled together either in a newspaper, or under the imprint of a publisher, or inside the walls of a bookstore. There are cultural and societal benefits to these things being robust and viable. I’m imaging a world where the most popular authors emulate Sanderson and we start pre-ordering our books from these known quantities, and for sure, we would never lack for things to read, but that seems like a more impoverished space to me.
I’m also thinking about the writers I grew up reading in the Chicago Tribune. How great was it that I could read Mike Royko, Anna Quindlen, Bob Verdi, Dear Abby, Erma Bombeck, and Dave Barry collected in the same pages? I can’t imagine a world where I have to subscribe to each writer I like on an individual basis. How do I ever find someone new to read?
But individual creators have to play the game as its constructed. I would gladly fork over a chunk of whatever revenue I bring in through my writing to another entity in exchange for a sustainable income and the freedom to spend the bulk of my time writing. It’s what I’ve been striving for my whole career.
Unfortunately, that kind of support and security is no longer in the offing for the vast majority of us. You need to be a writer, a publisher, a publicist, and a brand manager simultaneously if you want to stay in the game.
If you can reach the level of Brandon Sanderson, true fortune awaits, but there’s a cost for all of this, including to people like Sanderson.
Maybe I’m guilty of some old fogey, “get off my lawnism” here, but it doesn’t look like progress to me.
But nothing and no one is coming to the rescue to rebundle our collective fortunes together, so it’s best not to dwell too much and just work the hustle as best one can.
Links
My Chicago Tribune column this week is on how impressed I was with the Reacher and Station Eleven television adaptations, and how they both manage to capture the essences of the books, even when that means making signification changes.
If you need help figuring out which of the 25 Reacher novels to dive into, Ellen Akins at The Washington Post has you covered.
Also at the Chicago Tribune, Christopher Borrelli continues to ferret out fascinating book-related stories because unlike yours truly he’s a genuine journalist and reporter. This time he’s looking at The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman.
Sheila Heti, author of the recently released Pure Color recommends “6 books about the power of sex.”
If you’re looking for background and context on what’s going on in Ukraine, the New York Times recommends six books.
Debutiful rounds up the new books in March by first time authors.
Recommendations
All books linked below and above are part of The Biblioracle Recommends bookshop at Bookshop.org. Affiliate income for purchases through the bookshop goes to Open Books in Chicago. I’ll match affiliate income up to 5% of annualized revenue for the newsletter, or $500, whichever is larger.
Busted through a logjam of affiliate income to take a big leap to $52.80 for the year.
Recommendations are always open. Send in your requests by clicking below and following the instructions.
1. News of the World by Paulette Jiles
2. The Orphan Collector by Ellen Wiseman
3. The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
4. Mermaid Confidential by Tim Dorsey
5. Joy to the Just by TR Pearson
Mike K. - (Mike didn't include his hometown, but the email says it was sent from “my Galaxy” so that’s cool. I’ve always wanted my own galaxy.)
I think the irreverent comedy of Michael Perry’s The Jesus Cow will be a good match for Mike reading in his galaxy.
Paid subscription update
Annualized revenue for this newsletter currently stands at $12,379. Two more annual subscribers would crack the $12,500 mark, which means I can start commissioning an additional piece by another writer every month and pay that writer the same wage I pay myself. If you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll consider supporting this endeavor.
The rest of my Sunday will be spent compiling all of the stuff my tax people need to do my taxes, a process many times compounded as someone who is self-employed. I would gladly pay several thousand dollars more in taxes to not have to do this every year.
Have a good week,
JW
The Biblioracle
This is an oversimplification given some backing levels have additional premiums and the like, but it’s close enough.
I recall massive pallets of copies stacked in the aisles at my neighborhood Kroger grocery store of all places. That never happened before, and I don’t think it will happen ever again.
Sadly, that’s about 1/3 of what it was at its peak.