On Howey Changed Publishing

Full Disclosure: I know the guy and like his stuff.

Hugh Howey has changed the publishing industry. Sort of. Perhaps a more accurate statement is: Hugh Howey has dug away at a corner of the business model of the modern publishing industry. It was a slow process and he describes it in detail here. This is an exciting time in the publishing industry, here’s why:

The publishing industry has long maintained tight control of the works they publish, not out of a desire to turn authors into content-producing slaves, it is simply how everyone got paid. Authors have usually sold the rights to their books to publishers in exchange for a large advance followed by royalties once sales of the book have paid for the advance. This isn’t an unusual relationship, and is a valid way of doing business. Content creators work for hire all the time in every industry. They produce works that will be owned by the publisher and in return receive a paycheck. It has worked for TV, film, video games, and comic books, but even that is changing with self-publishing avenues like You Tube (Geek and Sundry and Machinima), Netflix (House of Cards), and even Kickstarter where consumers become the money behind content.

The system was shaken up when Amazon and others began selling ebooks. Self-publishing has now turned the industry upside down and we are still discovering where all the bits and pieces will settle.

One way the traditional publishers have adjusted is to treat the self-published market as a farm system for authors. Authors enter the minor leagues and when their stuff gets good enough they get called up to the majors. This works well enough: publishers get high quality content that has a proven track record and a solid fan-base and pay the author a substantial amount of money while authors give up ownership of their work for a large advance and royalties.

Now, though, there may be another way. Howey demanded a change in the traditional relationship between author and publisher. He wants to own what he writes. As he put it: “It was about the partnership”. Until now, that was a non-starter for publishers and it is easy to see their perspective. By not owning all of the rights, by making the author a partner, they leave money on the table. Publishers don’t want to be relegated to boutique status, they want to continue to be the gatekeepers to the the works that people read. There is a lot of money in being a gatekeeper.

As authors become more and more business savvy, as more and more authors become successful self-publishers, the number of authors willing to sell the rights to their works will drop. Howey has provided an example of how to maintain ownership of content and still get his works into the hands of his fans. This will not be the last deal of its kind. Publishers need to learn how to make money by putting self-published books onto bookshelves.

We’re living in a world where artists can reach their audience directly. It’s still hard work to build fans, and publishers can certainly provide a short-cut to them. But in this new world, publishers need to find where they fit. Maybe they do need to be the major leagues, maybe they need to be purveyors of great quality hardcopies, maybe they need to be promoters and buzz-builders. Whatever they case, the publishing industry is in flux and it will be exciting to see the direction that it takes.