Will publishing ever be fair/diverse - well it hasn't been so far

Will publishing ever be fair? was the title of the following article about diversity in publishing shared on Unheard and written by Kat Rosenfield.

The article explored the challenges faced by white, male authors in securing a publishing deal and the change in publishing in terms of diversity. The diversity debate was stirred up by author James Patterson and Joyce Carol Oates. It's an interesting read and it's terrific in a way that there's so much interest in writing and books. This said, the furore is about the mainstream publishing industry and seems to be focused on that and on fiction.

There's also some great research that's been undertaken here in Australia through the University of Melbourne, Measuring Diversity in Australian Publishing.

I'd like to take a different tack on the diversity discussion in book publishing and talk about diversity in non fiction book publishing and self publishing.

Traditional publishing slow to embrace diversity

I've been a non-traditional publisher for over 30 years. I specialise in business book. I started my first business book publishing company as traditional publishers weren't interested in publishing business histories. At the time some in the 'publishing industry' variously described business books paid for by companies as vanity publishing. There's even a Wikipedia entry about vanity publishing which must have been compiled by a group of traditional publishers as it denigrates 'paid for' books throughout. It does separate out self publishing, but the entry hardly captures the real nature and diversity of this growing market.

The traditional publishing model means that most authors, especially business authors, have very little, if any chance of ever being published...which is why self publishing has taken off over the past 15 years.

When business authors come to me wanting advice about approaching a traditional publisher I advise them to forget it. Most traditional publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, so they need to find an Agent. Finding and securing an Agent is harder than flying to the moon.

And, these days even if they were 'lucky' enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher, the author is expected to carry the can for most of the marketing and promotion. Most publishers focus on a book for three months then move on, don't cover launch costs, rarely cover author travel expenses and do stuff all to market and promote their books, other than putting them in their catalogues to pitch to the bookshop distributors/chains.

Traditional publishing – slow off the mark in the online book world

The traditional book publishing model was partly upended by Amazon, but really Amazon is just an online version of a traditional publisher...controlling the distribution and marketing channel and taking the bulk of the RRP of a book for their 'service'. As THE book distribution platform Amazon has certainly changed book purchasing and distribution (and wiped out any number of bookshop chains in the process such as Borders and Angus & Robertson). Interestingly in March 2022 Amazon shut its own physical bookstores.

Amazon has arguably created way more diversity in non fiction and business books due to increasing global accessibility for books, at a price.

Amazon's Kindle and its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP, has been described as a tipping point in self-publishing. Free for authors to upload their books, it has given authors control over how their books are priced as well as access to the same distribution channels as major publishers.

Print on Demand offers such as IngramSpark, KDP, BookBaby, Lulu have created more diversity by making it much easier for non fiction authors to self publish and avoid the upfront cost of printing. It's a great model and several of my clients have used it (although some POD companies charge a significant amount of money and lock authors in to high and ever creeping costs and restrict access to their own work).

eBooks and audio books have also opened up the non fiction and business book market - now non fiction (and fiction) authors don't even need to physically print a book to share it with the world.

The rise and rise of self publishing

Five years ago, self-publishing was a scar. Now it's a tattoo. Greg White

As a non-traditional book publisher I have witnessed first hand the changing nature of the publishing industry, and I couldn't be happier. In 2020 1.7 million new books were self-published in the U.S. That’s an increase of 264% within the past five years and makes up 43% of the total new books. I can't locate numbers for Australia.

Self publishing for individuals or companies is now seen as a reputable and credible publishing model, especially in the business book segment of the market.

The reality is most businesspeople, consultants, owners and company directors know their subject extremely well and have built a business around this knowledge. This also means they deeply understand who their target audience is and how they can help them. Most need the services of a business book coach to help them navigate the process and good ones understand the whole writing, publishing and marketing process. A deep understanding of specific target audiences is not something a traditional publisher would know (or probably care to research/find out), perhaps that's why they don't see the opportunities in targeted business book publishing.

Many traditional publishers might say that they can't sell enough to make money. Perhaps not, but I'd counter that they should be changing their business model to be more focused, leverage the power of the online world and support greater diversity of knowledge sharing and thought. After all, just how many cookbooks can anyone have (and I have a fair few)?

Similarly, listed public companies and private family businesses are discovering the power of self publishing when they commission books to celebrate a significant business anniversary or event.

Typically, traditional publishers look down on such book projects due to what I consider a completely misguided view about the merits of such books. To be clear, I am not talking about hagiographies of a business owner/entrepreneur here, I am referring to the history of a company. (Full disclosure here readers...I am a business historian with some 27 business histories to my name).

Why traditional publishers don't see the value in capturing the history of business and commerce is yet another example of the highly selective and rather pretentious literary judgement that exists across much of the traditional publishing world, and in this I include academic presses, journals and organisations.

The era of knowledge sharing, flowing, streaming

In his book The Inevitable, Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future Kevin Kelly discusses the future of how knowledge and information will be shared, and the printed book is still there, although it's place is more like the early, illuminated manuscripts prior to the development of the printing press. Imagine a time when you can access every book every written through your phone. Where every article or book you read will have a deep layer of secondary references throughout...so you can search as deep as you want to, whenever you want to and however you want to (another book, video, audio, snippet, summary, metaverse).

Amazon, not surprisingly, is leading the way in machine learning for searching. Check out AmazonKendra if you haven't already.

This is one future of self publishing, and some of us are exploring it already, through multi-channel content.

Another is the rise of bespoke publishers. I recently purchased two books from Louis Vuitton from its Fashion Eye series and then there's the amazing Assouline publishing house. Yet to summon the courage to buy one of these given their price. But they do show there's a wide market for all sorts of books . . . if you know your target audience.

Meanwhile, many of us in the book writing and publishing space are watching the Department of Justice trial to block Penguin Random House from acquiring Simon & Schuster. Here's a great article about it from The New Yorker.

I particularly like the question: Is publishing about art or commerce?

I'm with the author of the article, Katy Waldman, when she responds. Both.

So all of you who are out there wanting to write your business book, get going, be proud. Diversity in all its forms is great.