Successful Failures

The following article really caught my attention:

http://www.forewordmagazine.com/blogs/insider/PermaLink,guid,72a47852-5a5c-41d6-a025-c23c93bd96a3.aspx

Staggering Statistics in Book Publishing can Read Like a Stephen King Horror Novel. Is There Any Hope for Authors and Publishers?

Warning: May Cause Nightmares

Book industry numbers are cold-sweat terrifying for publishers and authors alike. According to Nielsen Bookscan, 3,000 books are published per day in the United States alone… Publishers report an average of 2,100 submissions per year, totaling 132 million submissions. Just under one percent are accepted for publication.

In the face of these staggering odds, is there any hope for authors and publishers?

The Majority of Books Sell Fewer than 99 Copies

Of the 1.2 million titles tracked by Bookscan in 2006, only 2.1% sold more than 5,000 books, 16.6% sold fewer than 1,000, and a terrifying 79.6% sold fewer than 99 copies…

I agree with the author here—these statistics are terrifying for writers. But this piece didn’t leave me feeling pessimistic as much as optimistic. I have been lucky to join that elite club of the “one percent” by having a book accepted for publication, and I have sold more books than 80% of my fellow authors apparently.

I might have misread those numbers, but at least I don’t feel so bad now that I’ve not made the New York Times bestseller list yet. Hey, just selling 100 copies of one of your titles means you’re a success. Not rich, not famous, but you are definitely a success in the publishing field. Those stats don’t lie—you are in the top of your class.

So how come is it so hard to convince everyone outside the writing and publishing field that you’re a success?

My guess is that it’s because the rest of the world operates on the idea of the “bottom line”. You make a million dollars—you’re a success. You pen a million words and sell more than 100 copies—you’re a crackpot eccentric who doesn’t have anything better to do with your time. There seems to be no winning for losing. The “real world” will continue to insist that writing is not a “real job” unless you write for something like a newspaper or magazine. Then you might aspire to the lofty title of “hack”. Wow.

“No respect, no respect…” I can hear Rodney Dangerfield now. Writers get no respect.

The recent screenwriters strike gives evidence of this fact. Fans complained when some of their favorite TV shows ended abruptly this past fall. Viewers tended to blamed the writers over the producers and agencies that cheated the writers of royalties for the disruption in the television schedule.

If only the writers would write for free—heck, they don’t need to eat or pay electric bills, right? Give us our entertainment… then go out and get a real job like ditch digging, writer-person.

Until writers can use their words to convince the rest of the world that “success” means more than dollar signs and seeing your name plastered across the tabloids in the supermarket check out line, we’ll have to learn to embrace our “failure” successfully.

Do you have a “success story”—a time where you felt you had succeeded even if others felt you had failed? How did you handle it? Share your tale of encouragement below, and I’ll toss your name in the hat for a drawing of one of my back titles. Thanks for sharing!