Publishers know what people want to read better than we do.

This is a reply to this quote from a forum on linked-in. Thought people here might enjoy and/or despise it.

Quote :

Well, it took bucks, but it also took smarts They know what readers like, don't like and want to like. They know why people read, when people read and which people read. They are...oh, the experts in this game.

Can't say that I agree with this, Terrie. For one thing the publishing industry has an incredible failure rate. MOST books published fail. Can you imagine a restaurant in which most of the meals were not accepted by the patrons? Or a factory that turned out widgets, most of which didn't work. (Actually they have those here in Mexico :-)

They DON'T know why people read and what they read. They think people read for the same reason people in nice apartments in the upper Eighties of Manhattan with degrees from Columbia and NYU read. They think everybody is as interested in the holocaust as they are, just like Hollywood thinks everybody is dying to see films shot in Beverly Hills...but more so. One indication of that, I think, is to look on agents profiles in the data bases like the ones in my link above. What do you want to see? How many say "Judaica"?

Do you really think the majority of American readers go out looking for "Judaica"? Why should they? Very few are Jewish. Yiddish is not really spoken anywhere outside New York, but you keep seeing :"Joys of Yiddish" and titles like that.

I mention that only as an example that's easy to spot. The example being that it's a very closed-in industry, out of touch with what people want or read.

You see who reads your work first at NYC agencies... it's a bunch of lit major chicks. (I used to say, "If your work doesn't appeal to a bunch of Bennington Literature grads names Muffy, Buffy, you won't sell it."
In reality, I could also have said "NYU marketing grads with fashionable Old Testament names."

They want books they can mention with pride in gatherings of lit/pub equals in Manhattan watering holes. They like the literary equivalent of what you see in uptown art galleries. Precious stuff most people wouldn't have in their home for ten minutes. They think people between the coasts are neanderthals. So they keep publishing these wonderful NPR type books (while giving millions in advances to Monica Lewinsky or somebody who gave Tiger Woods a handjob) and eating the losses on their wonderful books than nobody wants except the people who get them for free anyway.

They won't turn down a Tom Clancy they think will earn them money, but they really would rather be doing a penthouse story about gay Jewish black writers or something. Preferably holocaust survivors.

This is, of course, an exaggeration. But I think it's pretty demonstrably closer to reality (and definitely the bottom line) than the "they know what people want to read" theory.

This industry makes Detroit look smart by comparison. The paying of huge advances is insane. Not other industry has anything like that. The whole return policy is crazy. What other industry will take back product the retailer didn't manage to sell? But they stick with it. And are losing their butts and blaming it on ignorant neanderthals (or Walmart selling books at less than their rigged-up dream retail price)

And meanwhile, something else is happening underneath them. Like the early mammals starting to move around under the feet of the dinosaurs.

Hi lin
Where do you live in Mexico?
I loved Mexico, spent two weeks there in 1996, I'll never forget it.
One week in Mexico City and a week in Puerto Vallarta.
I can imagine a writer sitting in an apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Puerto Vallarta, never at a loss for words.
Anyway, I've got to make do with my apartment in Spain. Unfortunately Mrs 'Luigie' doesn't like Spain; so I only get to go there for a maximum of two months a year
I do rent it out every so often but only to responsible people:
http://www.tudor.vc/apartment_rent_torrenueva.html

That may be true of NY publishers, Lin, but not so for London publishers.

Publishers spend a great deal of money on marketing to attract readers to their books. Once they have a readership in place, they are only willing to publish books that fit onto their list, and thus do not need to cater for readers seeking a different type of book. There is an enormous group of readers waiting to be tapped by authors who publish outside the box. The biggest drawback is the cost of finding those readers. A self-publisher's marketing budget is almost non-existent -- or should be; small amounts of money spent on marketing are lost.

Actually, that doesn't sound all that different, Shelagh: working from a box and ignoring anything outside it.

And I'd be willing to bet that if you get around the publishing people in London, you'd run into the same attitude that they know what people want...namely the sort of thing they and their friends and teachers and colleagues want. But that's just a guess.

Actually, I did live in Vallarta for a time, luigie. But currently on a little island on the Caribbean side.

Hi lin
Sounds idyllic...

Good post, Lin. Thought provoking.