Trade Publishing Is Dying

Quick ~ what's the latest best seller? Yea, I don't know, either. I do know that when I walk into my local Barnes & Noble, I am greeted with table upon table of novels, all with colorful, eye-catching covers, that I've never seen anyone pick up and peruse, much less buy. All the books just sit there, lonely.

I remember a time when certain books were "must reads". Everyone talked about them. Like popular TV shows that were viewed by the masses, some books became cultural touchstones. It could be that popular tastes are too fragmented now, but it's still true that the cream rises to the top. What happened?

Well, the gatekeepers happened. When I was a new, gullible writer, I honed my query, then eagerly searched out literary agents who repped my genre. I used all the best-known search sites, from QueryTracker to AgentQuery to the various agent wish lists. Manuscript Wish List was the most eye-opening. The most glaring takeaway is that 99.9% of the agents are women in their low to mid-twenties. Why? I'm guessing because agent pay is so low. And I don't know if it's a requirement or just a consensus, but all of these agents are searching for BIPOC, #own voices, LGBTQ; you know the drill. One agent specifically states that she DOESN'T want "anything that holds up MAGA values". What are those exactly? Sounds "scary". Fucking snobs. "I don't want anything that represents half of America." No wonder all those books at B&N go unpurchased. Actually, what these agents DON'T want are well-written books. And no wonder turnover is so high among the agent ranks. None of them are selling anything.

Hardly no one aside from college student protesters want to read the latest alphabet-themed novels. That leaves a whole swath of book lovers to turn to...

Self-published books. The indie book industry is exploding. And that's delicious. All genres are represented, even those with "MAGA values". There is truly something for everyone, even a niche writer like me. Trade publishing is killing itself, something for all those agents-turned-baristas to think about as they're scribbling names on a paper cup. 

Initially, I self-published because that was the only route open to me. It felt like a surrender. But after all these years I've realized that indie writers are the most talented voices on the literary scene. Plus we don't have to kowtow to anyone ~ we can write whatever we want and let readers decide if it's worth laying down money for.

My works will never be found lying on a Barnes & Noble table, but they'll at least never be lonely.