Literary Agents on Barnes & Noble and the State of Publishing

I think if Barnes & Noble folds, or something like that, it might be so devastating that we can’t get around it. If Barnes & Noble were to fold, what would happen to all of us? I mean, there’s no way that publishing could really continue. We’ve put too many eggs in one basket.

This was Peter Steinberg commenting on what he is “… most worried about with regard to the industry…” the industry being the publishing industry.

As a writer I appreciate Peter’s honesty along with that of his colleagues, Anna Stein, Jim Rutman and Maria Massie. I encourage all writers/authors to read the article written by Jofie Ferrari-Adler, and entitled, Agents and Editors: A Q & A With Four Literary Agents

A novice writer with only one publication under my belt, a collection of short stories–Keeper of Secrets…Translations of an Incident, and about to launch a second work into the world, a novel, The House, I drew much from these seasoned warriors of an industry undergoing enormous change and evolution regarding how writers and readers connect.

Their concerns again reminded me that like it or not, the internet has become a tool that writers/authors can no longer ignore or sneer at. Rather we must claim it and all cyberspace offers in the way of connecting with people who will read our work and consumers.

And concerning the latter, there are distinct differences. People who will read our work are potential consumers. Consumers are, in the world of the internet those who most likely have been allowed exposure to our work.

No longer can authors afford to withhold themselves and their work from the world while waiting to connect with agents who will then hopefully join us with publishers.

That agents express concern about the survival of bookstores holding the lynch pin to their survival does not speak highly of the traditional way we writers and would-be authors have here-to-fore sought to connect with readers–i.e. publication.

Like the agents interviewed in this article we too must change our tactics.
Again as so often in these turbulent and exciting times I am reminded that at the center of this enormous vortex of change the writer and would-be author who survives will do so not through sheer will and perseverance, but along with that an authentic, and passionate love for the process of writing, crafting and refining stories, along with reading them.

How important is it to see your work in print?

Do you as a novice or would-be writer monitor the state of the economics regarding the publishing industry?

If so, what claims most of your attention?

How do you feel about the changes engulfing the publishing industry?