Has anyone else seen the latest Edition of MsLexia? The article is given the title "Don't Give Up The Day Job" and is pretty damn depressing, explaining how modern book retailing is making it harder for publishers to keep their profit margins, which in turn, effects writers, advances and the inreasing possibility of mid-list authors being dropped.

If you happen to be dreaming of that big advance - best forget it. Not because it doesn't happen, but because of the chances of your career being cut short should you not make the advance back in sales are pretty high. It all seems to pivot around BookScan, which can give publishers accurate stats on their book sales, and it's your latest performance that seems to count. On top of that, if one publisher ditches you, other publishers can check BookScan to see if you're worth taking on, resulting in established names having to submit work under pseudonyms because a new author won't have a negative track record (so a small positive for us then...)

It also points out that author's cut (7.5% of a paperback) is taken from the retail price. But the biggest retailers at the mo happen to be ASDA and Tesco, who sell a £6.99 book for £3.73, which makes the job of covering your advance all the harder - ie, having to double your sales to survive.

The conclusion drawn: When you consider the amount of time it takes to write a book, you'd make more money behind a till of on of those supermarkets that are slashing the price of the books the sell.

Colin M

Yes, no one makes money out of a £3.99 book in Tesco, not the author, nor the publisher, nor even Tesco - it's about market share for them, and starvation for everyone else. The equivalent of buying Fairtrade products when it comes to books is to buy them for full price in your local independent bookseller.

It was a good article, I thought, and told it how it is, though it doesn't make for cheerful reading for anyone who's decided to give up their job and write for six months, and get a thumping advance at the end of it.

Emma

Where's my Mslexia?

Bloody Royal Mail redirection service. Gggrr!

(Sorry Sazzyjack).

Cath

Geographically, I'm almost on their doorstep. I don't know if that would have made a difference.

Other than a few pointers on self publishing and tips for getting an agent's attention, the rest of the mag isn't much cop.

Good listings, usually. And anyone thinking of self-publishing might find a good selection of self-publishing firms to explore.

Emma

That always makes me smile. Self publishing firms, helping people self-publish. It's like deciding to be self sufficient and employing a farmer.

I mean the ones who are basically helpful printers who've learnt to deal with people who don't know all that much about production. I'm not sure who else a self-publishing author's supposed to use.

Emma

Cath