It's simple. The authors book don't sell. It used to be publishers would bring authors along. This ended about thirty years ago if not more. Now if you do not sell then you don't get another book contract. You are simply done with that publisher. The author may kill him or herself for the book only to be unceremoniously dropped. The author then has to find another home but this is easier said than done.
So that leaves marketing. If you dont' market then you will surely be dropped. Hats off to the authors whose books magically sell without doing a thing. But for the rest of us mortals people need to be informed a book has just been published. It is a reality of the internet age that our attention spans have grown shorter with a plethora of entertainment vying for our nanosecond focus. But that doesn't mean you can throw up your hands.
Once upon a time in a land far away authors like Fitzgerald and Hemingway sipped martinis and absinthe on the West Bank while waiting for their royalty checks. This then is the literary fantasy but then Fitzgerald at the time of his death was barely selling and Hemingway was a master at media manipulation. So if you look at it that way, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Madam President
So that leaves marketing. If you dont' market then you will surely be dropped. Hats off to the authors whose books magically sell without doing a thing. But for the rest of us mortals people need to be informed a book has just been published. It is a reality of the internet age that our attention spans have grown shorter with a plethora of entertainment vying for our nanosecond focus. But that doesn't mean you can throw up your hands.
Once upon a time in a land far away authors like Fitzgerald and Hemingway sipped martinis and absinthe on the West Bank while waiting for their royalty checks. This then is the literary fantasy but then Fitzgerald at the time of his death was barely selling and Hemingway was a master at media manipulation. So if you look at it that way, maybe the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Madam President
