The Author Guy blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve (Nov 6, 2024)

 6th November 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. Writer’s Digest (WD) magazine has been around for eighty-five years and is one of only a handful of publications I trust implicitly in a publishing industry replete with scoundrels, mis-information and disinformation. Sounds a bit like our national political scene, doesn’t it?

In the magazine’s current issue can be found a couple of things I felt worth of sharing. The first one is disheartening to authors like me clawing their way in pursuit of a reader following. My research over the past ten years indicated that somewhere between 750,000 and a million books are added to Amazon’s virtual bookshelves – the place where the preponderance of books sales, at least in the U.S., occur. Without quoting a source of the data, WD has now revised this estimate upward by 100% -- to two million new books being added annually by Amazon.

WD’s other less-than-good news is that the tradition of mainstream publishing houses sticking with and nurturing its author’s careers over time and for multiple books has become an industry relic. If sales expectations fall short, and despite much or most of the marketing/sales burden falling upon the author’s shoulders, these publishers move on in search of the next Patterson, Grisham or J.D. Robb.

I’m confident in the quality of product I’m creating, and equally confident my writing will be ever-improving by continual study and heeding the advice of professional editors. So, I must continue to remain creative in my marketing efforts in search of ways to separate myself and my books from what is inarguably any immensely crowded environment. With your help and support, I’ll continue to march on toward my goal of being recognized as a legitimate bestselling author.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios

Larry B. Gildersleeve