The butler did it!

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

Our fearless leader wrote:

“In 1929 she helped two of her sons found the publishing house of Farrar and Rinehart, which printed her books from then on – to my mind the surest means yet devised to guarantee a successful career as a writer.”

This remark was made concerning Mary Roberts Rinehart. I understand it was just an off-the-cuff comment, but I still thought I’d chime in (not surprised, huh?) I am a writer and I can tell you that (defacto) self-publishing is not “the surest means… to guarantee a successful career as a writer”, not at all. Mrs. Rinehart was already a successful novelist when her sons started their publishing company, so her involvement guaranteed success for her sons, not the other way around.

Booksellers rarely purchase self-published works, yet the publishing house started by her sons did quite well. This is a testament to the popularity of Mrs. Rinehart at the time and not the result of her sons publishing her books. What spells success for a writer (in the monetary sense) is for their books to sell, not the fact that they are published. If that were true, legions of authors would pay to have their books published by the millions so they could enjoy successful careers. Publishers can print books all day long, but the product only becomes a bestseller if it… well, sells.

The only way to “buy” a success is to do just that, literally buy it. The Scientologists did this for L. Ron Hubbard’s Battleship Earth. Publishing the book meant nothing, but thousands of Scientologists buying hundreds at a time made it a best seller. Publishing novel after novel that doesn’t sell would not make an artist’s career successful, but it would bankrupt the publishing house. So, even if Rinehart wasn’t successful at the time when her sons founded the publishing firm, her books would have to sell for them to remain in business. Clearly they did sell so her sons could hardly be said to have made her career “successful”, she did that for herself.

2

This may be a “chicken or egg” thing, but your book can’t sell unless it’s published.

As you said, a bookstore is unlikely to publish a book that is self published, and your book won’t sell to the end user until the bookstore buys your books. Basically, selling to a bookstore is usually only possible if you are published by a publishing company.

So when you say, “What spells success for a writer (in the monetary sense) is for their books to sell, not the fact that they are published,” since you almost have to get published by a publishing company in order for your books to sell, isn’t the fact that your books are published a big part of what spells success?

Again, it’s a chicken or the egg thing, but you can’t dismiss the “getting published” thing - and if you can get a good discount on getting your books published (say, a family discount) that probably makes book writing a whole lot more profitable.

3

Link to Cecil’s column, please?

4

Link to the column: In whodunits, it’s “the butler did it.” Who did it first?