Congratulations. You just finished your manuscript (or maybe are considering writing one) and are on your way to becoming an author. Perhaps dreams of publishing contracts and a life as a full-time writer are your goals, where the novels you write generate enough sales to sustain your lifestyle. Maybe you’ll succeed, but it may be wise to step back and take a realistic look at the (literary) world you are hoping to become a part of.
Currently, as I write, there are an estimated 160-170 million unique books in existence. Many of those titles will be alongside yours in the market. Additionally, with the help of today’s technology, another 4 million books are published each year.
At the same time, readership as a percent of the population continues to decline. These realities (number of books and shifting readership) create an environment that can be challenging for new authors.
Some of you may feel that these statistics don’t matter, that your story is great, and that your writing style is impeccable; surely you’ll beat the odds. You’ll send out your MS to an agent or publisher, and they’ll be knocking down your door because the quality of your work is excellent.
Excellent has little to do with it. Publishers, and by extension agents, are searching for what they think will sell, and many times an excellent story is not it. Unless you’re already a very established author or a celebrity (famous or infamous), you stand little chance of getting a traditional publishing contract. You can go the indie route, but then another host of problems arise, and you realize that writing the MS was the easiest part. You now have to market it and make people realize it exists in an ocean of titles. That is not easy.
While I do not want to discourage any of you, the true state of the industry boils down to a grossly saturated market and a diminishing market. You can overcome it, you can even get lucky, though you may be better off playing Lotto, but it’s best to know exactly what you are getting into and plan accordingly.
Gaius Konstantine is the author of Fading Away: Dark Bay and a literary critic known for honest, no-nonsense takes on literature. He writes. He critiques. He calls it as he sees it.
Connect with him on X at @GaiusKonstantin.
