Here’s a telling quote from Pearson’s Nov. 10 trading update:
“Our technology publishing business continues to face weak conditions in the IT industry but is gaining share and benefiting from its lower cost base.”
I’m sure part of the lower cost base is lower advances and royalties based on so much author competition for book projects. And also the result of dropping staff. Let’s hope this begins to turn around someday soon.
Happily, they report modest growth in the higher education market, as well as online training.
Probably the biggest misconception I see with first time authors is that a great idea and great execution can guarantee a book deal. Maybe ten years ago this was the case, but today the key question from most publishers is “what’s your platform?”
What the heck does this mean?
Well, it’s publisher and agent slang for visibility. And visibility _really_ helps. With so much competition for shelf-space, advertising space, and reviews, publishers have found that they need authors with pre-existing public platforms to help promote the book. A platform can be as grand as a day-time talk show — as evidenced by the bestseller list — or it can be as modest as a newspaper column, but whatever you do when you plan to launch your book you need to think about how you’re going to sell it.
