For years, it was a schedule as predictable as a calendar: novelists who specialised in mysteries, thrillers and romance would write one book a year, output that was considered not only sufficient, but productive. But the e-book age has accelerated the metabolism of book publishing. Authors are now pulling the literary equivalent of a double shift, churning out short stories, novellas or even an extra full-length book each year. They are trying to satisfy impatient readers who have become used to downloading any e-book they want at the touch of a button, and the publishers who are nudging them toward greater productivity in the belief that the more their authors? names are out in public, the bigger stars they will become.
The push for more material comes as publishers and booksellers are desperately looking for ways to hold onto readers being lured by other forms of entertainment, much of it available non-stop and almost instantaneously. Television shows are rushed online only hours after they are originally broadcast, and some movies are offered on demand at home before they have left theatres. In this environment, publishers say, producing one a book a year, and nothing else, is just not enough.
At the same time, the Internet has allowed readers to enjoy a more intimate relationship with their favorite authors, whom they now expect to be accessible online via blogs, Q&A?s on Twitter and updates on Facebook. Some of the extra work is being pushed by authors themselves, who are easing their own fears that if they stay out of the fickle book market too long, they might be forgotten. Even John Grisham is working overtime. Grisham, who used to write one book each year, now does an additional series aimed at middle-grade readers, the popular ?Theodore Boone? novels that are published annually.
Publishers say that a carefully released short story, timed six to eight weeks before a big hardcover comes out, can entice new readers who might be willing to pay 99 cents for a story but reluctant to spend $14 for a new e-book or $26 for a hardcover. That can translate into higher preorder sales for the novel and even a lift in sales of older books by the author, which are easily accessible as e-book impulse purchases for consumers with Nooks or Kindles.
Jennifer Enderlin, the associate publisher of St Martin?s Paperbacks, said the strategy had worked for many of her authors, who saw a big uptick in hardcover sales, book over book, once they started releasing more work. ?I almost feel sorry for authors these days… We always say,?How about a little novella that we can sell for 99 cents??? That has replaced a carefully plotted print publication system, when readers waited eagerly for the yearly release of a favourite author?s novel. At that rate, publishers reasoned, readers would never be overwhelmed by content. Today?s readers seem incapable of being overwhelmed.
Some of the biggest authors have become so productive that they are nearly an impossible act to follow. Airport bookstores these days can feature not just one stack of James Patterson books, but an entire rack of them, sometimes more than six titles at a time. Patterson produced 12 books last year, aided on some titles by co-writers. He will publish 13 this year.
The new expectations do not apply to literary novelists like Jeffrey Eugenides and Jonathan Franzen, who can publish a new novel approximately every decade and still count on plenty of high-profile book reviews to promote it. Publishers also believe that Salinger-like reclusiveness, which once created an aura of intrigue around an author, is not a viable option in the age of interconnectivity.
Julie Bosman, NYT