Upsetting BIG Publishing

[Shire Hobbit]

Anyone that's heard the latest grumblings knows how much Robert Stanek's phenominal success has pissed off the literati. He is after all a small press author with BIG press sales.

Throughout most of 2002 his books were on online bestseller lists. RP books published 8 of this books that year. By the Fall of 2002 that success was killed in its tracks by a well organized, well connected group of publishing literati with a clear motive to discredit/derail Robert's success.

Fast forward to 2005, Robert again has a huge year. RP Books published 6 of his books in 2005. His books have dominated certain bestseller lists all year. By the Fall of 2005 there is again a serious effort to derail that success by a well organized, well connected group of publishing literati with a clear motive to discredit/derail Robert's success.

This leads me to the subject of this thread "Upsetting BIG Publishing". Obviously Robert has done that. As I consider getting my own book published, I am looking at PublishAmerica whose CEO has recently published "How to Upset A Goliath Book Biz". The value of this book is that it discusses the changing paradigm of publishing.

I had no idea 5 leading publishers controlled 80% of the US book market. I had no idea bookstores only account for 25% of all book sales with 75% of book sales made elsewhere.

I head no idea PublishAmerica has nearly 15,000 authors or that by the end of 2006 there could be as many as 100,000 PublishAmerica authors.

The best quote from the book is the one on the book's main page:

"History has always known elites, and it has always dealt with them in only one way: they disappeared, and always under the pressure of irresistable change. Historically, all elites have been replaced by majority rule, and where this has not happened yet, it will over time, inevitably. As soon as an excluded majority senses that empowerment is within reach, they will grab it. Authors who have always been refused and denied the opportunity to see their book in print unless they paid for it now have an equal opportunity to be in the exact same league as the elite, and they will, by their sheer number, bring an end to the elite's existence."

I'm not completely buying into that, but BIG publishers are obviously scared enough to play dirty. In 2002, Robert's books had the potential to be a "Harry Potter". Big publishing resolved that little problem, but now that 2005 is shaping up to be Robert's biggest year ever and the "Harry Potter" buzz is returning, the dirty tricks and shenanigans are back.

Again, I'm not completely buying into the above quote from Willem Meiners, but I do hope his vision becomes reality.

[dragonlord]

To wit, I haven't set foot in a bookstore since 2002. Not since 3 different clerks at 3 different bookstores told me to buy George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice instead of Robert Stanek's Ruin Mist Chronicles (which they didn't stock or were out of at the time). Sounded like they were all following the same marketing script to the letter even down to the reasons why Song of Fire and Ice was better.

I don't think I'm alone in this regard either. Seen Borders sales lately? They're in the toilet. Not good to piss off thousands of loyal fans of a particular author especially when those thousands of loyal fans know thousands and thousands of book buyers. Dragonlord out, heading back to the listserve.

[Shire Hobbit]

Thanks for adding to my rant dragonlord. I don't spend much time in bookstores either. Why bother they don't stock 1/10th of my favorites and I always have to go get them somewhere else.

[GrimReaper]

Dirty tricks doesn't even begin to cover it. I hope they all go the way of the frickin dinosaurs. They deserve it for what they've done to indie sff writers like RS.

[Sparhawk]

I remember that two years ago Stephen King said that the sails statistics, the bestsellers lists, the data, brought by the publishers - he said that it is bullsh*t, that it's not true, that it's false. That's why RS is not a New York Times Best-sellers, he is excluded from the list.
But this small, fascisct group which tries to control the politics, the art, the movies, the literature, it is in crisis.
This year the only successful movie is "Revenge of the Sith" and you know, George Lucas is actually independent from this elite and that's why he never wins an Oscar.
One day Stanek will be powerful and popular enough and this hyenas will be helpless and choking in their own venom.

[gamequeen]

I thought it was only me and my friends who didn't go to bookstores no more. The bookstores by us don't seem to care what me and my friends like in books so we stopped asking for them and then we stopped going to bookstores at all. What's the point? They'd always be like what's manga or what's ruin mist or we don't carry those? Bunch of idiots. The movies are the same way. They keep making remakes of movies my dad and mom watched when they were my age. Like if I cared to watch reruns I'd just turn on nick at night. Bunch of idiots.

[Sparhawk]

Well said, gamequeen. Fortunately, they can't stop the true fans.

[Shire Hobbit]

I hear you gamequeen. I think more and more people are saying the same thing because the bookstores don't care what you like they just want your money. That's why as long as you buy a $3 latte you can sit and read entire books.

[Aduial]

such is how life works indeed. I dont go to the popular bookstores, they dont really have the books I'm looking for. To find them, I have to go hunt in those lesser know, corner book stores run by one or two individuals, unfortunately, the hunt for any of Robert Stanek has proved fruitless and I'm still hunting