‘Traditional publishing is 'no longer fair or sustainable'

In an extraordinary change of approach, Nicola Solomon, the Secretary of the UK Society of Authors, has attacked publishers, saying that ‘Traditional publishing is 'no longer fair or sustainable'.

‘Authors need fair remuneration if they are to keep writing and producing quality work. Publisher profits are holding up and, broadly, so are total book sales if you include ebooks but authors are receiving less per book and less overall due mainly to the fact that they are only paid a small percentage of publishers' net receipts on ebooks and because large advances have gone except for a handful of celebrity authors.'

The view of the head of the 9,000 strong Society has been shaped by the ongoing debate about ebooks, where publishers have continued to insist that they cannot afford to pay more than 25%, even though the costs of producing ebooks are much lower than print books.

It is remarkable how the organisation's approach to self-publishing has changed. It has in the past always insisted that authors can only join the Society of Authors if they have published at least one book - and self-published books have not counted. Now, self-published authors can become members if they have sold 300 copies of a single title in print form, or 500 copies in ebook form, within a 12-month period.
Solomon went on to say that: ‘Authors need fair remuneration if they are to keep writing and producing quality work. Publisher profits are holding up and, broadly, so are total book sales if you include ebooks, but authors are receiving less per book and less overall due mainly to the fact that they are only paid a small percentage of publishers' net receipts on ebooks and because large advances have gone except for a handful of celebrity authors.'

She has also accused publishers of doing less: ‘Publishers are doing less for what they get. There are still important things they do - a traditional publisher can edit, copy edit, design, market, promote, make your book better, deal with foreign sales. With ebooks, though, publishers' costs are less, so authors should get a better share. They do not have to produce, distribute or warehouse physical copies. Even on traditional books, publishers' production costs have gone down but authors have not benefited from these costs savings. And, increasingly authors are being asked to do a lot of marketing and promotion themselves.'

This militancy is quite new and is matched by actions taken by the US Authors Guild, which has in recent years shown itself more active in defending its authors' interests. And as publishing changes and the relationship between writers and publishers comes under greater strain, august organisations such as the 130-year-old Society of Authors and the 100-plus year-old Authors Guild are having to re-think their role in a major way.