Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray!
July 1 question - Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?
I'd like to see AI-generated books not taking the place of actual writers. I'd like to see more indie authors given a better chance. The entire query process could be better streamlined. A form, where all authors could input what they have (perhaps even with offshoots to define categories/ genres by the definitions agents agree on, especially when it comes to ages - just a checklist), and then instead of authors hunting all over for agents, all agents and small press publishers, etc, could go to ONE central place and see if they can rep any of the submitted ideas. This would eliminate the problem of authors sending query letters to agents who don't represent their work.
It may also reduce query letters that are rejected because some agents want things formatted one way, and others another way, and some demand comp titles and others do not, and so many tiny things that can get a good book rejected.
The publishing industry might be in decline. (https://www.authormedia.com/traditional-publishing-in-crisis-sales-down-9-4/) But book publishing has exploded! (https://ideas.bkconnection.com/10-awful-truths-about-publishing)
If the traditional publishing industry plans to survive, they need a shift to what they can offer authors, because it's faster and easier to go indie and cut the industry out. With more readers looking at ebooks, the promise of higher print sales isn't the draw it once was. There aren't as many "bookstore windows" to offer an author. And, as authors seem to have to do most of their own marketing anyway, the question is looming as to why they're splitting sales profits with agents and publishers.
Other than a customer mailing list and distribution network, what advantages do you feel the "Big Five" traditional publishers offer to authors today? (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster.)
A word about Quotation Marks:
https://medium.com/for-the-love-of-language/the-hard-and-soft-rules-of-dialogue-88881f1b6f31
An issue I've encountered when reading and editing is that of quotation marks. I've learned that " and ' are used differently in various versions of English, depending on the region of the writer.
Other than a customer mailing list and distribution network, what advantages do you feel the "Big Five" traditional publishers offer to authors today? (Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster.)
A word about Quotation Marks:
https://medium.com/for-the-love-of-language/the-hard-and-soft-rules-of-dialogue-88881f1b6f31
An issue I've encountered when reading and editing is that of quotation marks. I've learned that " and ' are used differently in various versions of English, depending on the region of the writer.
🤯
This explains a lot. I've read a few books now where dialogue is in single quotes, and it confused me as to why this would be, how an editor didn't notice it page after page.
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This explains a lot. I've read a few books now where dialogue is in single quotes, and it confused me as to why this would be, how an editor didn't notice it page after page.
Which way do you use quotation marks? Have you ever noticed the ' " difference in a book?
July is your best chance to find my ebook collection for FREE at @Smashwords as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JLDorner #SWSale2026
Come get your free ebooks! July exclusive.
📚💙 — J (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Speculative Fiction & Reference Author and Co-host of the April Blogging #AtoZChallenge
https://bsky.app/profile/jlennidorner.bsky.social My current favorite social media site.
https://amzn.to/41QBB4P Author page on Amazon — please consider following and supporting this indie author!https://www.bookbub.com/authors/j-lenni-dorner I'm grateful for follows! https://www.goodreads.com/j_lenni_dorner
#AtoZChallenge a-to-zchallenge.com Kindly check out the blog hop's website. Watch for special features!
EXCELLENT POST!!!!!! Sightful and spot on!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that writers have to hunt a lot to find agents that represent what they write, and that there are too many agent quirks to follow. QueryTracker has a good database, but it only tells you so much about agents. Plus they move around and change what they're looking for frequently.
ReplyDeleteOne central place for queries - now that is a brilliant idea.
ReplyDeleteI have used querytracker in the past. If only life wasn't so messy and we could just organize this industry so everything make sense, eh?
ReplyDeleteLots could change, but it would take time and effort, and I don't see the industry doing that anytime soon. Not because they don't want to, but because it's a huge slow-moving dinosaur. :-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the dichotomy about the publishing industry and published books. I do tire of agents/editors whining about how busy they are and how our books aren't what people are reading right now. That didn't used to be the problem(s).
ReplyDeleteYeah, the thing about different agents wanting everything formatted in very slightly different ways is so frustrating. There's got to be some way to standardize that.
ReplyDeleteRegarding quotation marks, I live in the U.S., so I kind of have to do them the American way, but I've always felt like the British way makes more sense: single quotation marks for a quotation, double quotation marks for a quotation inside a quotation. And if, somehow, there's a quotation inside a quotation inside a quotation, it should have triple quotation marks!
Yeah, I use British English so the quotation mark thing has been front and centre since I became an author (especially reading American books and seeing the difference, it's a lot like books published in the fifties here, so I just thought at first that you guys were behind. LOL). My spelling is also different at times.
ReplyDeleteAs for that customer mailing list, authors can build their own newsletter... and there are services like BookBub on which you can advertise your books to their massive mailing lists, so what's the point of trad publishers?
It would be good if they could just streamline the process of querying. At this point, agents really only help with quality control. If you get a book from one of the big publishing houses, you know you've got something that has been vetted. Indie books you can't be so sure about. Some are excellent. Some are dreck. I don't know if that's enough reason to go traditional, though.
ReplyDeleteYes, I did notice that about quotation marks. I think in high school? I read some British books, and I quickly understood that they reverse what we do in the US. Easy enough. What bugs me is when they place the quotes wrong. I've read a couple books lately where they have someone speaking for multiple paragraphs, and they don't start each paragraph with opening quotes (as is the rule), only using the closing quotes for when the speech has ended. Or one where sometimes the quotes appeared and sometimes they didn't. It was a mess. Line editors, anyone?
An excellent post, J! With a Canadian and American background, punctuation makes me crazy. 😂
ReplyDeleteThe closest thing I've seen to your idea of a central place to post queries is the pitch party. Back before Twitter became a) X and b) a cesspool, pitch parties used to get lots of agent, editor, and author participation.
ReplyDeleteI format quotes US style, as I publish over here, but I read a lot of books from across the pond, so I'm used to seeing it either way. I struggle more with books in French or Spanish, where they use dashes to set off dialog.
ReplyDeleteAs for the trad publishers, I'm not sure what they would offer me, other than access (I would hope) to professional editing. In exchange, they'd take almost all the money (even moreso than Amazon does already) and still expect me to do the marketing, which is the #1 thing I suck at.
I think pitch parties are a good way to have a place where authors can go and agents can pick what interests them. There should be more of those.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed different quotes- but didn't know their reasoning. Thanks for sharing. I agree with you about no AI books! Great ideas about what needs to be changed in traditional publishing. They definitely need to update their plans! :)
ReplyDelete