I’ve been reading this article: “The Financial Reality of a Traditionally Published Book – a Complete Breakdown” from Tiago at Forte Labs. He published a non-fiction ‘how-to’ book called ‘Building a Second Brain’, addressing the problem of information storage and curation for anyone using the internet these days. Put bluntly, ChatGPT is much better than humans at combing the web for information, but humans are much better at finding links between the various titbits and putting them together in different ways. AI solves the puzzles: we build the mosaics. So, Tiago wrote a book on how to handle information effectively - and he ran his sales like a business product, rather than a book launch.
One of the things that strikes me about the traditional publishing industry is the disconnect between the creator (the writers) and the business (publishing/sales). As a collective, we seem to be suffering from this odd 19th-century hangover, where - if we are good enough - we might be given a book deal that sells out its advance, whilst the publisher does the mysterious stuff of printing and selling it. In return, they get 90% of the book’s turnover. The problem with this model is that the writer is working in a vacuum because they never see the raw numbers from the publishers and only get tangential feedback from their readers via online reviews. On top of that, publishers make the bulk of their regular income from the back catalog which doesn’t always correlate to recent marketing efforts.
This is why I like Tiago’s approach. He freely admits that if he went on book sales alone, he would be barely breaking even. Instead, his book is the gateway to his other products - online courses, affiliate commissions, speaking opportunities, and so on. Of course, he also has a newsletter and attributes a 16% growth rate, based on his book.
When you view ‘Building a Second Brain’ as part of a business ecosystem, the numbers look very different.
My conclusion is that traditional publishing only makes sense financially if you have a product or service to sell on the backend. That could be another book, an online course or other program, a set of templates, coaching, consulting, or speaking services.
If I had to spend 7 years working so hard on my book only to break even, I would feel pretty disappointed regardless of any other accolades or milestones I’d reached. The uptick in sales of our products balances the books and makes the whole endeavor worthwhile.
- Tiago Forte
So, where does this leave fiction writers? I would argue our opportunities are just as lucrative as the non-fiction market but more diffuse. Tiago’s business targets a very specific problem (digital overwhelm) whereas ours addresses the more general problem of entertainment. Writers compete for attention in a very crowded space with a lot of other options. At the same time, that also gives us a lot of opportunities. For example, Brandon Sanderson ran his famous Kickstarter on the premise that people want collectible items, whilst Terry Pratchett’s universe spawned games, cards, T-shirts, TV series, and the Discworld Convention. Even if you go down the Substack subscription route, it’s still a conversation, instead of static text on the page.
Of course, this means writers are setting up their own businesses and that’s a huge undertaking without some idea of what you are doing. It’s not just words on the page anymore, but a sprawling edifice of publicity, pricing, and marketing. It’s a tiring slog and (if you are juggling work and family) a step too far for many people. However - is it really any better if you hand it over to a publisher? Even the biggest firms rarely advertise anymore and rely on the writer to promote their book in the hope of sales. It’s the equivalent of a zero-hours contract without a minimum wage.
So, perhaps it’s time that authors stopped thinking of themselves as mere ‘writers’ and books as the end product. We’re creating entire worlds. It’s time to step beyond ink and paper and see what else we can do with it.
"We’re creating entire worlds" -- amen, Natalie.
And the title of your post is such a great question.
That prompted another question for me: is there a need for a main product or just a main purpose that can be flexible with value as validated by the marketplace?
For example, I have an interest in men's work and dad's work. I see men and dads focusing on personal growth as a way to mature into available, peaceful, and joyful men who have a healthy relationship to death. From that place, I write.
But my writing, as long as it serves that original purpose ("why am I really doing this?") can take the form of any product like fiction (as it has), or non-fiction (as it has), or a slogan on a T-shirt (not yet), or ???
And if I go a level higher up from writing, maybe even writing is a spoke in the wheel alongside other forms of expression that can serve that same original purpose. Like recorded interviews, or the audio version of a story, or creating visual artwork (with or without AI support).
But back to writing, maybe "which is the main product" will differ from writer to writer, and may even differ for an individual writer depending on the arc of their business journey. Maybe books will start out as a loss leader in the beginning (just a way to connect) and then become the main event 15 years later! Or maybe the reverse!
So much to explore. Very excited to find people talking about this ; )
I've often thought about how "merch" could be more of a prominent feature alongside sci-fi and fantasy novels. It seems like it should be relatively easy to create products based on well-defined characters and worlds. What happens typically is that these well-defined characters and worlds have to become visual media before fans lust after physical goods -- toys, posters, figurines etc. so until books and scripts are adapted there just isn't much desire for this. Obviously comics stand alone because they already possess the visual component. To fix this, authors could commission illustrators to visualize their well defined characters and worlds (more than just a book cover) so that fans can order many different types of merch based on the illustrated models and backgrounds.
In my first novel Pulse I have visualized several robot characters that would make good little toy figures. There are characters and backdrops that would look great on posters. Maybe a T-shirt.
The problem with this of course is that people only tend to purchase merchandise that belongs to a popular franchise because fans share a common interest. But I think it's still worth pursuing depending on the cost of hiring the visual artist. Maybe 99Designs would be a good place to start? Remember you would only need a set of designs that you can multiply across many different media.