Books

I received this email from Chuck:

I read on your blog some comments about Westerns going the
way of the buffalo. However, I’ve come across some data that
indicate otherwise. Nielsen BookScan, which covers about 70% of U.S.
book sales, says Western sales have increased by 9% in 2005 and 10% thus far in
2006. Books in Print says the number of Western titles produced
has increased from 543 in 1995 to 901 in 2005. Would you or your knowledgeable readers have any idea
why these numbers contradict the prevailing opinion that the market for Western
literature is dying?

Good question. So I asked three western writers I know. Here are their responses:

"My understanding is that all but two or three publishers have folded
their western lines. I assume this is because that westerns don’t sell
well enough to make them worth the trouble.
"

"This contradicts all I’ve heard. Does Books in
Print include vanity-press titles? I believe it does. I do know that a flood of
self-published and vanity westerns have been pouring out of XLibris, iUniverse,
etc. (Spur Award judges are telling me that they’re getting mostly vanity press
westerns now.) This also says nothing about sales per title. Are
more books slicing a thinner market? I do know that most western lines have died
off, or have radically cut back. Even Forge is cutting its western line to the
bone. I would need a lot more data than raw numbers of
titles before coming to any conclusions."

"This is interesting, but I think those numbers are
deceptive.  Kensington has been pumping out the William W. Johnstone
reprints by the truckload, and they’ve been selling very well. Throw in
the continued popularity of L’Amour, the Ralph Compton books actually written by
other authors, Leisure’s reprints of Brand, Flynn, Horton, and other pulp
authors, and I still think the market is pretty bad for living Western authors
who want to publish under their own names.  I know two or three guys who
were publishing regularly under their names a few years ago who are now just
doing house-name books because those are the only contracts they can get. 
And with only four house-name series left and sales on those dwindling,
prospects don’t look good for any of us."

Tico Publishing  is no longer pitching themselves as both "a publisher and literary agent,"  limiting manuscript submissions  to "non-agented" writers, or selling reviews and editorial services. The publisher, Arnold Tijerino, took this action today in response to criticisms leveled against his company here  and on other forums. In his comments to me, he wrote, in part:

I appreciate the positions and assumptions that are being made about TICO Publishing, based on the "services" we offer, both here and the aforementioned thread on another website. I assure you, had we been aware that by offering such services, we would be lumped in with "scammers" and "vanity presses", we would never have offered them in the first place. TICO has never accepted, nor will it accept, any money to publish a book we’ve contracted. […]I also understand that perception is reality. While we don’t agree that offering those services was wrong, we do now see how it could lead people to the wrong impression about our organization.

Some of the other services we offered have led to misperceptions about Tico’s philosophy, and thrown our reputation into question.  As a result, we’ve cancelled those other services. Our exclusive focus will be on receiving submissions from aspiring authors and finding the best new voices to put into print.

All publishing companies were small at some point in time. We’re just the new guy on the block.

He also concedes that he has no previous experience whatsoever as either a publisher or literary agent. His background is in sales and marketing. Even so, I would think that experience would have taught Mr. Tijerino that it’s necessary to learn about the ethical standards and accepted business practices in your field before starting to do business.  That said, I applaud his efforts to make things right at Tico and to repair the negative image of the company that presently exists. It’s honorable and encouraging.