This week I’ve learned some insider information about publishing houses: the hierarchy of authors and how to climb it. There seems to be six levels of authors in a publishing house: newbie, proven, midlist, lead, super lead, and apex. Let’s take a closer look at each.
1. Newbie Author
A newbie is exactly as it sounds. You got your first book sold to a publisher. Congrats! You made the first level. Unfortunately, not many people are going to take you seriously at this point.
A lot of people can write a book. The publishers are waiting to see if you can do it again…and again…and again… You get the idea. At this level, your job is to put out books at a consistent rate. They must be good quality so you get decent sales. There is no value in putting out ten books a year if they are all trash.
2. Proven Author
A proven author is one who has consistently produced good quality books. These authors are less risky for deals as they have proven stable at their jobs. You must keep consistent and on top of the deadlines, which builds good rapport with your publishing team.
The goal at this level is to keep a steady output and work on improving your craft. It may be a monotonous time in your career as you struggle to grow as a writer. But keep going. It’s doing something.
3. Midlist Author
Once you prove you can deliver good books on time, you will graduate to a midlist author. This means that your work is considered publishable. You can approach any editor, and he will listen to your proposal for a book. The editor will see from your history that you can do it.
The biggest goal for a midlist author is to build a wide audience. You should be working at this all along, but, now that your craft is honed to a fine tuned machine, you can devote more time to marketing and publicity. Create an audience of readers who produce a high demand for your books. You won’t get any advertising or special push from the publishers at this point so you have to do it yourself. Despite already being discovered by the publisher, you still need to get discovered by the world. There are a lot of books put out each year, and you’re fighting against them to get noticed.
4. Lead Author
At some point, if your audience is growing like it should, the publisher will consider you for lead author. This is where one author’s book is selected for a marketing push the month it’s released. The publishers will put a little money into advertising the book’s release, giving it a more fancy cover and paying the bookstores to place it on the shelf with the cover showing instead of the spin. This should greatly help widen your audience. There is usually only one lead author which rotates by month; therefore, you’re book only gets a little push—but it’s a push nonetheless.
There isn’t much else to do at this point in your career except keep writing good books and keep growing your audience. The new people who see your recent book release may go back and buy some of your older books. Then they might tell a friend. Over time, your audience will widen even more.
5. Super Lead Author
You reach super lead author when you can produce very high quality books consistently. You have a huge audience and are the money maker for the publishing company. They pick one author every season to designate funds to for advertising. This author gets all the front bookstore spaces, wide publicity campaigns, and any other big push the team can conceive. When you reach this level, you have a wide enough audience that you pay for most of the publishing house’s expenses. They are going to do what it takes to keep you selling.
It’s important to note that generally this opportunity doesn’t come along often. Usually, the super lead only changes if an author passes away. It can also be if they fall out with the public, but that doesn’t happen very often from what I’ve heard. Authors like Dan Brown, Danielle Steel, and Brandon Sanderson are a few super leads. They have been holding their spots for quite a while with no sign of slowing.
So what do you do at this level in your career? Write. Like crazy. There will be high demands on you. If your books tank, it’s not just your income that’s at stake. It could be the publishing house as well. For this reason, write the best books you’ve ever written. And maybe pick up some new strategies for de-stressing.
6. Apex Author
If you reach the apex author level, I applaud you. This is the level of authors who only write big books. James Patterson. JK Rowling. Stephen King. If one of these names is on a book, it’s going to sell. No major advertising necessary (though there still will be from the publisher).
At this point, there’s nowhere to advance professionally. You’ve reached the top. Just your name sells the book. Unfortunately, that sometimes makes the author think he can slack off. While the books will sell, I see it as a disservice to the readers. If you ever get the chance to be on this level of author success, please remember who put you there. Your readers. For their sakes, always strive to write well. Just because you can’t advance professionally doesn’t mean you can’t advance personally in your craft.
Final Thoughts
I heard someone say something near the beginning of my writing journey, and it’s stuck with me.
The best book you have ever written is not the best book you’ll ever write.
Unknown
Write your best, my friends, and then do better.
Thanks for reading!
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