The book market- how does it work?

[Kyriakos]

So, is anyone familiar with how the book market works in western countries? I am trying to form an educated opinion about the local one, but it seems to be very chaotic.
It does seem, though, that as a rule of thumb the easiest the ideas in the book, the more it will sell.

Recently i saw an edition of an A-Z (in greek it was A to Omega of course ) of Friedrich Nietzsche. Out of curiosity i looked at some of the pages.
It consists of notes, supposedly by Nietzsche himself, for words that begin with each of the letters. So i looked at I, for Idealism, since Nietzsche was a very persistent enemy of idealism, and was covertly dependent on it, as a reactionary philosopher. But, to my dismay, there was no such term there. The term Iereis (priests) was there, along with some boring polemic against them, but nothing on idealism at all...

This led me to think that books are marketed as a commodity, without much care of their worth as means to the end of advancing one's thoughts. I can see many people picking up that book thinking (falsely) that they are reading something by Nietzsche, when in reality it is an extremely watered down version of some of his aphorisms.

Then again, in the chaotic Greek book market, there is a place for many things. So even horror story collections by Greek authors have been published. By now i am not really writing horror (if i ever was) since i am in the psychological story genre, but even so i am afraid of the anti-commercialism of this type of literature, which i am always trying to fight back with some attempt to make my work more accessible. Sensationalism is one of them, although i always try to keep the story focused on a deeper meaning.

In this thread you can share your knowledge about the book market of your country, or in general. I confess i know very little on this topic, and surely it does me no good to be not in the position to form and maintain an educated view of it.

 

[downtown]

I know a little about it...I got pretty far into book deal negotiations a few years ago with a few publishing houses in the US before legal concerns blew up the project.

The Fiction and the Non-Fiction markets are pretty different. From talking to publishing houses, the US Fiction market is *very very* competitive, with only a few thousand first time novelists being published a year. The decision on who to publish is based 100% on marketability, not perceived quality. People trying to break into this market often have to apply to a LOT of publishing houses, or look at other avenues of showcasing their work (self publishing, short stories in lit mags or journals, building a blog audience, etc). The writer must have the manuscript done (or at least a draft of it) before contacting a publishing house as well.

Non fiction writers, generally, do not have to have their piece done...an outline, or a single chapter, can be enough (or even a proposal). Decisions on who to publish also rest on marketability...when I would submit proposals, I'd try to calculate exactly who my target audience would be, how many of them there are, and how the book could be marketed to them. I also had to research similar books, and explain why mine was different. The non-fiction market in the US is a little stronger than the fiction market.

The hardest market would be for somebody like you...a highly niche fiction writer. Getting a medium sized publishing house to take a chance on you would be very very difficult unless you could demonstrate that you already have a built in audience that your name could deliver (ideally in the tens of thousands).

 

[Kyriakos]

Thank you for the reply

From what i gather, in this country there are still less organized genres of writing, or they do not matter as much. Big publishers publish anything from lighthearted or melodrama books, to horror, to science fiction. It does appear though that they are unpredictable in what they choose, despite the fact that i agree with you on marketability.

The main reason i went the lit mag road was exactly that, so that i can have an audience, and a couple of tens of thousands hits on google (the latter seems to be a reality, although most are from the same sites, which just are rather big).
I am not really after getting a deal from a huge publisher first. It would be great if i can get a deal from a small one, since after that things are really a lot easier, if for no other reason then due to having proven you have an audience, those who bought the book.
Unfortunately the economic crisis made publishers more prone to be calculative in the extreme about what they publish. But i am hopeful that relative success in printed periodicals may lead to a breakthrough for me

 

[GoodGame]

This led me to think that books are marketed as a commodity, without much care of their worth as means to the end of advancing one's thoughts. I can see many people picking up that book thinking (falsely) that they are reading something by Nietzsche, when in reality it is an extremely watered down version of some of his aphorisms.

I'd say that in the Western world, the equivalent of the above is the "coffee table book". Basically a book that looks impressive, or pretty, and maybe has more photos than text.

A second type of book in the Western world might be the "best-seller" list, especially during the summer months. Not all books, but some books are written just to make a news sensation and hit the best-seller list for a chance of mass market profit.

To some extent, school textbooks fit that concept---they are a marketed commodity, in which their marketing is sometimes more important than what they teach.