I get asked at least once a day
what I believe publishers want,
what types of stories,
characters,
story lengths
they’re interested in.
I can’t remember the last time
a writer asked me
what I believe READERS want.
This is antiquated thinking.
Publishers, in the past,
pushed the books they liked
to readers.
They had to do this.
Development times were long
(three to five years).
Publishers didn’t have the ability
to pander to readers’ tastes.
And this worked,
in the past,
because supply was limited.
If a reader wanted to read,
she had to buy a book
the big 6 or 5 or 4 publishers produced.
This doesn’t work today.
With self-publishing,
there are unlimited publishers.
With eBooks,
development time has been reduced
to days, sometimes minutes.
Shelf life is now forever.
The reader can find exactly what she wants.
The publisher/middleman is either
aligned with the customer
or they aren’t selling books.
This is happening or will happen
in every industry.
Middlemen are either
asking for what the end consumer wants
or they aren’t selling products.
What does this mean?
If there’s a disconnect
between what the end consumer wants
and what the middleman wants,
find yourself a new middleman
or eliminate the middleman completely.