Where to begin?
At Murderati, Mike MacLean touches on a very pressing subject for debut and veteran author alike: where should you start your career?
“You’ve got to start out with a hit, right off the bat."
An
agent told me this once after reading part of a novel I’d written. The
book, he said, showed promise but wasn’t big enough in scope to snag a
major publisher. Being a fan of Ugly Town Books and Point Blank Press,
I asked him what were the novel’s chances at one of the smaller houses.
He dismissed the idea.
“Years ago, you could slowly build an audience,” he said. “But these days you have to start out with a hit.” He went on to say if your first novel only manages meager sales, it’s unlikely the bigger houses will take a chance on you.
…Is there a stigma associated with being a small press author, one that closes the door to the bigger publishing companies?
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<span face="Times New Roman">There are several issues to tease out here. First is the agent’s comments, which more likely reflect his or her own bias and contacts and the predictions of how much money could be made off the manuscript. Not big enough in scope = not likely to sell to major publisher = no money for agent, who may not necessarily have the confidence or hustle to pitch it to the right people who would be willing to take it on. <br /></span>
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<span face="Times New Roman">Next is scope. For the most part (except some of the more uber-literary houses where the top brass’s declarations that a book "deserves to be published" justifies the tiny print runs and tinier advances) the major houses want to take on books with the widest possible audience appeal possible. But there are many books they don’t have a clue how to publish, those difficult to categorize easily, those whose sales may build up slowly over time. Hence the small press, like personal faves Soft Skull, Akashic, Coffee House Press, Busted Flush, Hard Case Crime, etc. They know what they publish and generally, publish it well and to its maximum market ceiling. Such books do find a rabid audience, get positive review coverage, and as several writers have pointed out in the comments section, can be a springboard to landing with a larger house later on. <br /></span>
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<span face="Times New Roman">And then, my new favorite bugaboo: <a href="http://www.sarahweinman.com/confessions/2006/10/convergence_of_.html">category vs. single title</a>. Because that’s exactly what Maclean has run up against, an agent who has little idea (or interest) in selling the former because he or she clamors for the latter. It used to be, in the majors’ eyes, that a crime writer could start slowly and build over time; then they had fewer books before it was time to "break out"; now it seems the "breakout" must happen right away, because there’s not as much interest (or bottom line) in options 1 or 2. Single titledom must happen right away, unless you’re specifically writing a book that fills a particular niche, established or brand new. <br /></span>
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<span face="Times New Roman">So to answer the question, no, it’s no stigma to be with a small press (unless it’s a small press with no distribution in place and no interest in getting the word out, but that’s another topic for another day.) Because if you then write a manuscript that is clearly destined for greater things, then the chances increase that such great things will happen – at a time when the success is more easily appreciated. <br /></span>
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