On the increasing pace of publishing

Porter Anderson, a visionary voice in the publishing world, wrote an outstanding piece for JaneFriedman.com this week. He tackles a subtle but potent trend in the publishing world: the effect of having an entrepreneurial mindset on authors and the pace of book publishing.

He starts with this basic question: "Entrepreneurial authors are being driven to write more books and write them faster. Is this good?"

It's an intersting angle to ask, is this good? Of course, the answer is different depending on who you ask. Authors tend to want to take the time they need to finish a book to our satisfaction. Readers are always hungry for another book from an author they like. And publishers? Well, I'm not sure since I self-publish, but I tend to think they want books that will sell that they can publish according to their content calendar.

Rather than ask whether it is good or not, I thought I would look at the 3 biggest effects on publishing in general of authors thinking like entrepreneurs and the pressure to publish more often that comes with it.

1. Trilogy or Series: I see an explosion of authors writing books in a series (see romance or crime thrillers) and trilogies (see fantasy and sci-fi). This isn't good or bad on its own, but it changes what we write and how we write it. One of the most popular pieces of marketing advice floating around right now is that the best way to market your first book is to write the second. Etc. When authors start to think about target audience and what retains readers, we start to think about giving people new stories with characters they already know and love. A bit like TV or movies that do the same thing. The effect? It locks us in to the initial characters, and starts tweaking the stories to be open to building off of themselves.

2. Pace: Authors I know who are professionals say that putting out a book every two years is grueling but reasonable. In the current climate, if you are a new author and want to build up an audience, putting out just one book every year seems like crawling. The effect? We are writing shorter books to publish more new content more frequently.

3. Quality: The biggest comment from hand-raisers is that if authors need to publish more frequently, the work will not be as good. I'm not sure if this is true all the time. Authors do need space to gather, write, and refine stories, and we need breaks just like anyone else to recharge the battery. But if we are professional writers, I think it is reasonable to think that we could write more without it turning out poorly. The effect I hope for? Authors with a successful book or two can do less of the part time work we all need to do to support ourselves and instead devote ourselves full time to writing. That would mean more time writing, more books, and increase the publishing pace without sacrificing the quality.

Are you feeling the pressure as an author to publish more often? How does that affect your writing?

Image source: SteFou! via flickr