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Writing and Publishing, Part 52:
Becoming your own publisher:
Marketing:
Advertising Methods:
More on Ethics in Publishing:
Last time I talked about the promotions I have tried which included giving books away. As to giving books away, I have also sent a great many books to so called review editors. I still do that, but in very limited numbers to selected editors. I have received a few salutary reviews, but not in places where they have had any profound effect. Sending review copies has been a very costly effort with very limited results to date.
Now, there are other promotional things I could do if I felt like shading my integrity. To date I have resisted that temptation. I said once that I was singularly unsuccessful as a publisher. That is in the marketing arena, of course. One of the smaller reasons for that is my refusal to play the game. There are games in this industry. There are games on top of games and within games. If I was willing to play these games, I could probably be more successful.
One game by SeekBooks.com came as a solicitation by them to make my books appear at the top of their list in a site search. All I have to do is pay them a sum of money. I wonder if their trusting visitors know about this policy. If I wanted to engage in that kind of unethical practice, I could probably make a few sales. This is just one example. The point is, most of these games which have come to my attention are unethical; legal, but unethical. I will not do it.
There are other unethical actions take by publishers which I have not had an opportunity to indulge in. It requires having a successful author which I have yet to do. The con is to take advantage of the fans of the author. The first case I ever saw of this was when I was a kid. I had read Treasure Island and seen the movie. Then I found a book in our school library called Back to Treasure Island. I snapped it up.
Then I discovered the fraud. The book was not written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was written by an inept hack. The plotting and characterization were simply poor. It was a book any thoughtful editor would have rejected out of hand. Yet, it was published and placed in a school library. So much for editorial integrity.
The most recent example of this unethical behavior was a book which seemed to be by Lawrence Sanders. As in all of his books, his name was prominent on the cover along with the name of his very well developed character "McNally." For light fast-paced adventure type reading, Sanders was my author of choice until he died recently. I had given up on ever enjoying more of his work, when this book showed up. I was pleased to get it.
After sitting down to read I noticed the fraud. In small print at the bottom of the cover was the phase, "An Archy McNally Novel by Vincent Lardo. I was severely disappointed. I was even more disappointed when I read the book. It was not Saunders at all, nor his character. The author has some talent, but it needs development. That will probably never happen, for he has discovered a shortcut to success which does not require talent. Just mount up and ride on the back of a dead giant.
I cannot blame Sanders, of course. He is dead. I do hold his publisher G. P. Putnam Sons, to be culpable along with the owners and executors of Sanders estate. This thing is driven by nothing more than insatiable greed. These people are selfishly capitalizing on Sanders' well earned identity and reputation. It's sad.
I encountered another one of these type of situations which concerned Robert Heinlein. He wrote what I consider to be the greatest science fiction work ever. That was "Stranger in a Strange land." He also wrote several other very good science fiction works. Then I bought the last Heinlein book I will ever buy. I forget the name. I started reading and it was not working. I wondered how he was going to pull it all together. I read almost 80% of that book before I realized that I was reading the meanderings of a senile old man. Again, I hold Heinlein blameless, but I hold his publisher and his wife fully culpable.
The final one of these fan disappointments was done consciously by Isaac Asimov where he lent his name to the Robot City series. It was simply very poor amateur writing.
Because of these things and others, I am completely convinced that the book publishing and marketing industry is the most dishonest and disreputable industry in the world. These are not the people of ideas. They are opportunists, hucksters, and, in my book, marginally honest. They do not do it for the love of books or publishing. They do it purely for the money.
I cannot go to that well. I do not want to. If monetary gain was my goal, there are several ways I could have achieved that. I could publish smut. That would have got me there in a hurry. It would also have alienated me from my entire family. I could have played the game with the big boy thugs. That would have got me small gains and perhaps built a business. I could have done that and I didn't. Thus, I really should not be blaming other people for where I am at. If money was my goal, I could have had it.
For whoever is reading this, I would like to make a plea. If money is all you want, please stay out of publishing and writing. Become a manager or a peddler of some kind. Please don't get into this business unless you truly love books and writing. I would dearly like to see new people in this business come in and return it to the golden era of publishing. There was a time when literary content and ethical behavior were important in publishing. Please help me recover that time.
Next time, I will bite the bullet and tell you about my first
book, "The Wesoomi Gardening Journal." I'll. tell you
what I did wrong and what went wrong.
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