Market segment

Except for the few writers who make it to the news for having received advances and royalties, authorship is now far from being lucrative. Though there have been advances in printing technology, the cost of producing books — mainly because of the increase in the price of paper — has almost put an end to ‘prestige’ publishing, where surplus was produced to pay authors well. Poetry has become nearly unpublishable — even the Oxford University Press scrapped its modern poetry list some years ago. The novel, an interpreter of contemporary life, is accepted for publication if it has a chance to spin off into a film or a television sitcom.

But perhaps the most damaging thing of all is that experimental writing is being abandoned. Producing creative writing needs a settled income, and it is increasingly being treated as routine and ephemeral. What should authors who want to work as full-time writers do to earn more money? They must ask for better remuneration from publishers; there is nothing demeaning about it. There are three ways to do so.

First, all authors must realize that no writer earns enough by writing books alone. This is as true for the big and the famous as it is for the newcomer who is trying to break ground. Income from books, either by way of advances or royalties, has to be supplemented by writing book reviews or articles related to one’s field of specialization in newspapers or magazines.

But this form of writing has to be qualitatively different from ‘bookish’ writing — it has to be addressed to the intelligent common reader, which means that the language has to be simple and direct without academic frills. Once the writer has mastered the art of ‘speaking on paper’, the print media will open up to their work. This is because developments in print and communications technology in the last decade have led to a vast expansion and diversification within the media. Newspapers, magazines and TV channels have an inexhaustible appetite for raw material, of which authors are a cheap source — at least, they are cheaper to come by than the big shots in the corporate world.

Second, potential writers must know that publishers today commission books on the topics for which they feel there is a market to be exploited. Unsolicited works are rarely considered. If they are, it is only because they fit into the publication programmes of publishers.

This is true for educational books as well as for fiction, which should preferably deal with topics of contemporary interest. For some mass-market fiction, authors are provided with a full brief of the storyline, the plot and so on, so that the book caters not only to a particular segment of the market but also has good chances of being rendered into a film or a TV series.

This raises the imperative question of whether there is anything wrong in seeking financial assistance to get a book published. For authors wanting to break into an increasingly competitive publishing industry, there is no harm in getting a little help from outside. This is done the world over, and we shouldn’t be too squeamish about it either. All said and done, authors shouldn’t sell themselves short because without them, publishers would find themselves at a dead end.