Mid-list Authors Find Homes At Indie Presses After Being Shut Out From “The Big Six”

As major commercial publishing houses (the “big six”) continue to ditch their midlist writers, some of these writers, many of whom have sold a lot of books and have mainstream(ish) name recognition, are publishing with independent presses instead.

In her piece, “Smaller Presses, Bigger Authors,” in Publishers Weekly, Rachel Deahl looks at the reasons behind the disappearance of midlist authors and the good and bad things that happen when they must move on.  While most of the news is predictably grim, an upside is that now smaller presses have a chance to work with writers and books that were previously out of their league.

Deahl writes,

“Munro Magruder, publisher of New World Library, believes presses like his have become the beneficiary of this trend. In the past few years, Magruder said he’s seen an influx of midlist authors who had spent years at the big houses. He cited two books NWL published in October—Alice Walker’s poetry collection Hard Times Require Furious Dancing and Michael Krasny’s Spiritual Envy—as books he thought he might not have gotten years back. (Walker wrote the megaseller The Color Purple, and Krasny is the host of KQED’s Forum out of San Francisco.) NWL considers both books to have been successes—Krasny’s title has already sold out its first printing of 8,500 copies, and Walker’s collection sold out its 7,500-copy first run.”

The fact that major houses won’t publish Alice Walker is scary, and it indicates just how high the bar is being set by the industry and how few people will be able to reach it.  This is a problem.  If this trend continues, what does end up being published by the big houses will be safe, predictable and probably redundant.  However, it will also make indie presses even more important.  Publishing established writers might get them more credibility and attention from the average reader and bookseller, which might get them more money, which means they might be able to pick up where the big guys left off. Here’s hoping.