Long ago, in a time far past, publishing houses were interested primarily in publishing good books because, realistically that generated their profits. But, with inflation and rising production costs those profits dwindle. Facing this, the larger publishing companies concentrated on the infamous and well-known authors to make their big profits. As it stands now, a first-time author, with no previously successful books under their belt, has very little chance of being picked up by any of the traditional publishing houses. It has become so hard for anyone to take a new author seriously that most agents won’t handle them unless the author has an established writing career. The writing business has become the proverbial catch 22 for most new authors.

Why Don’t the Major Houses
Want New Authors?

Over the last 25 to 30 years there has been a push by the major publishing houses to swallow up their competition. Some major houses, like Doubleday and Harcourt Brace, have gone so far as to acquire book clubs, bookstores, paperback subsidiaries, radio stations, and other entertainment properties so they can control the market and the profits. Even major film studios and other  communications networks, like CBS, RCA, and Warner Brothers, have bought up publishing companies.

It’s because of their quest for financial security that major houses are unwilling to take the chance on an unproven author. And with those authors they do handle, no matter how good the book is, after the initial sales period, usually 90 days, they remainder (or shelve) the title, and the book goes out of print. So, most authors who aim their books at a selective audience are forced to seek out the dwindling entity of the University Presses.

The whole thing boils down to MONEY. If the publishing company cannot make huge royalties off selling a property to the screen, or off a sensational true-life event, they shy away from wasting their time on the project. So, with all the small avenues that used to be open to new authors clogged by the big houses that will only take on proven authors, where does the first time author go?

Self-publishing is the practice of an author choosing to take their completed manuscript directly to the public. This option bypasses traditional publishing houses that would have rejected the author’s manuscript or those publishing houses mainly interested in properties that have movie script or other blockbuster potential.

To give you hope and to lighten the load of this information, here is a list of a few first-time books and the authors who took a chance and self-published:

Betty Zane                                        Zane Gray
Elements of Style                         William Strunk
Huckleberry Finn                         Mark Twain
Lady Chatterley’s Lover              D. H. Lawrence
Leaves of Grass                            Walt Whitman
Tarzan (1931-1948 series)     Edgar Rice Burroughs
Legally Blond                                 Amanda Brown
Riding the Bullet                          Stephen King