Business As Usual During Covid-19
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Mar 30 2020
The most ironic blog title I’ve ever written. There’s nothing usual about the times we’re living in, in publishing or otherwise.
Things have changed dramatically since last week’s blog post on Publishing in the Time of Coronoa and things will change dramatically when I go to write next week’s blog post. While I can’t promise it’s business as usual in publishing, I can promise it’s business as close to usual in the new normal in publishing.
The Hard News
In the past week, we’ve received some hard news from publishers making decisions to move release dates of our books. For authors planning, promoting, and excited to see their book come out this has been difficult to hear. For us, this has been upsetting and for publishers, this can be close to devastating.
In all cases, we agree and support the decision the publishers are making and our authors have been incredibly accepting. It’s a hard time to come out with a book right now, especially if you’re a debut author.
The Good News
The good news is that there is truly business as usual. In the past week, BookEnds has signed new clients, offered representation, received offers on books from publishers, finalized deals for both previously published authors and debut authors, and we’ve run auctions. In other words, in the past week, we’ve done all the things we do in normal times.
More good news is that most publishers, especialy Big Five, will be publishing books as usual. It’s just not feasible to push all release dates out and the truth is that people are buying books. Sales aren’t swelling, but they are happening. I know I’ve been reading.
In these times there is no normal, but those in publishing are doing their best to keep doing what we’ve always done–bring great books and authors to readers.
Those books that are being released late will be published. Those authors that are releasing now will find their readers–if not now later. As you know, I’m an optimist and even in these hard times, I know that it will be all right.
So, business as unusual! But how long did “usual” ever last before? Bravo to you and your agency and thanks for this encouraging but realistic update.
We do keep going, don’t we? Even the least among us — the as yet unpublished book authors. So I’ll keep working on my query for my two close-to-finished books, and hope. Thank you, again.
We can’t control covid, and we can’t control the things in the industry affected by covid, but we can control our writing, so no matter what is happening we just have to keep doing what we do best and write. The rest will happen when it can 🙂
Thank you for the encouraging updates. So many things are not business as usual right now, and it’s comforting to know some things still are. Normalcy will help us keep our sanity. Stay safe everybody!