Whose Job is it to Sell the Books?

When I googled  publishers in India last year, my search engine threw up many names, several names I had never heard of. As I waded through the  publishing houses: some new and few old, I was taken aback to see that  one publishing house had a form writers had to fill before submitting their manuscripts online. “What are the things you are going to do to publicize your book?” was the question. It was followed by a condition that the writer had to pick half the books that were printed.

 Assuming that the first print run was a 1000 to 3000 copies for a new author, that would make it  anything from 500  to 1500 copies that  writers had to sell on their own. That’s way too much  to give away free to family, friends and acquaintances, because no one will buy books from the writer, everyone would expect a free copy.

Many times I have seen writers trying to sell books on their own, I would always wonder why. As writers we can and should talk about our books, spread the word around, but carrying the books everywhere we go to dispose of the copies dumped on us by publishers somehow doesn’t feel right to me. In such cases we may as well sit at the street corner and sell our books. 

 

Selling books should be a joint effort,  with the publishing houses undertaking major portion of the work ( most publishing houses, with the exception of very small ones, have a wide network of distributors and retailers). Most writers have blogs and websites, so they are already in the marketing/building a platform game. Writers can chip in by attending events organised by the publishing houses, having book discussions  and interactive sessions with readers who attend the events  many large book shops conduct on  a monthly basis. Publishers can even give writers a list of libraries and book clubs in their towns, I am sure most writers would grab the opportunity to publicize and discuss their work.

I have seen atleast in India, that when these events are organized by publishers it carries more weight, than when a writer does it all by himself/herself. At events arranged by the writers, only family members and close friends turn up. Very few people, unless we have a personal connection with the people  in authority,  will  go out of the way to plug  our books.

Do you think its right for publishers to demand that the onus of selling books should fall on  a writer’s weary shoulders. Writing a book is a demanding job, getting it published more demanding, and on top of that expecting writers to take responsibility for selling them is asking for too much. It’s  like asking a sick man to donate blood. Would you  take  the responsibility of selling  half your books? To what extent would you go to help your publisher? Please share your views.