As
books go plummeting down in price and author events go up, I’m beginning to
wonder – are books becoming the doughnuts we give away with an author profile
these days? Recently I bought 'The Luminaries' by Booker prize-winning author
Eleanor Catton. It cost £1.19. I committed the sin of purchasing on kindle, but
was shocked nevertheless. All that effort for less than a chocolate bar?
Much like a free doughnut with your coffee, authors now
give away online short stories at launch time, to encourage interest in their
new book. They also write blogs, tweet, appear at festivals, review other books
and generally give away words for free. It’s required.
Author events on the other hand are becoming ever
more expensive. I went to one not that long ago for Sarah Waters. Thirty two
pounds bought me an advance copy of The Paying guests, and my ticket to the
swanky London Rosewood Hotel, where waiters were circling with wine before we
were ushered into a moodily lit seating area, and Ms Waters appeared. I enjoyed
it, and so did the other hundred plus fans. As they say, 'you do the math'.
Perhaps authors are like rock-stars now. The wisdom
goes that bands now make more money on their merchandise than their music. After
all Rock band U2 gave away their last album to everyone with an i-tunes
account, to get bums on seats for their global tour: something which was
unthinkable at the band’s height. What next? T-shirts at author events, or
perhaps a branded purse or make-up bag. Lingerie in fifty shades of grey?
In this brave new world of digital freedom (and
everything free on digital) it’s all about building a profile, getting clicks, retweets,
getting the name out there. Marketing lore tells us that a reader has to hear
the name of a book three times before they decide to purchase. But authors
themselves are now being marketed as celebrities. Gone are the days when a
favourite author would finally stray onto the TV screen and we’d think ‘OMG is that what she looks like? Thought she was blonde.’
But to be a celebrity you need to be famous for
something. And so we are back to the writing. All that crafting of words,
editing, shaping, finessing, has to keep going regardless of whether it’s free
or not. I know most authors don’t expect to make money from books alone these
days, but at least they’d like to be able to earn enough to buy an ice cream at
the end of the month. Or a doughnut…
