Traditional Publishing in the 2020s

Don’t abandon all hope ye who want to enter into traditional publishing this decade, but you might consider changing what you’re looking for.

I recently had an article covering self-publishing on this site, for which I interviewed some writers who have been self-publishing. I wanted then to discuss what we call “traditional publishing” and thought about who I might interview for such a piece.

Indeed, I know people who publish traditionally, but the idea of interviewing most seemed useless because they have been putting out their books in the mainstream for quite a while, decades in some cases. Talking to them wouldn’t give the great majority of us who wish we were in their shoes much information. And much of traditional publishing still follows the same model, but it has changed.

So let’s start with what traditional publishing is. The authors are the supplicants, first-off to gain an agent who knows the publishers and their needs and will sell for the selected clients.

Well, wait, let’s throw that notion out the window. Okay, not entirely, because some newer writers/authors may hook an agent. (Authors are the ones who have been published, and below them on the status rung are writers who knock out manuscripts with love and a wish, but who haven’t maybe sold an actual book yet—or even a story.)

Attracting the attention of an agent is excruciatingly difficult. I had an agent in my youth and a fine agent he was, who turned into a friend. But he didn’t sell a thing for me. I have also known folks who had the best agents in the business, but, you see, the best agents are working hardest for the bestselling authors… Do you kind of have the picture there? They didn’t do much for the lower level clients I’ve known.

Well, that’s agents. They have grown even more, hmm, how do I put this delicately?…entitled?…over time. Let me give an example. With a new manuscript recently I queried about a hundred agents and then stopped. Seriously? Well, yes. And FYI, what used to be the Association of Authors Representatives in the U.S. is now the Association of American Literary Agents (https://aalitagents.org/about/). You should query a few dozen and go on querying for a while and see how you do. (Some of you, I hope, will succeed.) I had a couple of requests for a peek, and either heard back or didn’t. (My first book many years ago had a rave in the NYTimes.)

So, traditional publishing. Let me define it without the agent, as a model in which the author has a novel or nonfiction opus and a publisher wants to publish it, having come upon the novel…somehow. The publisher has the novel edited (poorly or well) and then turns it into an electronic or print book, or more likely both. The author is extremely gratified at having all that mysterious and difficult work accomplished behind the scenes.

Thus far, the author hasn’t paid a cent—that is, in traditional publishing.

Now, the author has to pony up either largely or in small amounts, depending on strategy and means. This is the promotion phase. The publisher, too, may enter into this part of the joint effort enthusiastically or in a minor vein, depending on the publishers’ list and allotment for publicity. Books considered having more potential will be promoted by the publisher more heavily—perhaps based on advances paid. And advances don’t have to be paid to consider this traditional publishing. Advances, in fact, are often not paid at all or just in a small amount to be sporting.

At the end of all this in traditional publishing is the payment of royalties, maybe twice a year—sometimes enough for a cheap lunch, sometimes enough for an author to pay his rent—well, maybe not in New York City. Or maybe yes, the lucky few at the top of the bestseller list can buy multi-million-dollar condos. (Are you feelin’ lucky?)

And were I to interview those who have seats at the traditional table, you would hear all of or some of the above.

I mentioned at the start of this piece that while the basics of the traditional publishing model hasn’t changed, the way in which we might look at it really has changed because what is, in fact, going on has changed. Opportunities for authors have expanded! But while those openings are in traditional-model small press, still few chances appear at the publishers more yearned for by the writers/authors.  

I had an acceptance a few months ago by a traditional small press, which is also looking at another novel of mine. I don’t have my first contract yet. On the other hand, another small publisher, more efficient and maybe with more cash on hand, signed me up and sent a contract within a week and a cover draft a short week after that. Then I sent the sequel shortly thereafter, and today the first contract was updated to include book two. Now, that’s fast.

This is traditional publishing. I suspect I’ll have one or two books out this year (2023) and one or two in 2024. And that’s odd, and the remarkable advantage of everything being done on the Internet these days.

Now I’m not going to give you the name of the publishers just yet, (but maybe once I have books in hand and can promote), though I will tell you how I found these publishers and the publisher who licensed four of my novels in 2021 and 2022, actually paying very welcome cash for each book that I’d written years before…

That’s the thing. You have to find the presses that will take your novels or nonfiction and will publish. That’s the hard first step, finding the publisher. My friend, also a traditionally published author, turned me on to two of these small presses, while the third I came upon through a genre association, having stories in an anthology they had published. If you just looked at this last site, you’d see they aren’t accepting submissions—but maybe they are, if you know them. All of this goes back to the old idea of networking and showing appreciation if people help you with similar connections that might be the golden charm.

Yes, pay back, always pay back, and be honest… And pay it forward, too.

And don’t think your publisher must be Random House or nothing. The new arena in publishing IS small press. And firstwriter.com is the place to follow to find those secret niches in publishing and make those connections. Start right here.

Work hard—write the book, and unless you’re meticulous, have it edited. Then try your luck at the agents—do try—and don’t forget the gift of the 2020s, the small press... Don’t turn your nose up. Some of today’s best and brightest are finding homes here.