So You Thought Publishing Ruled...

I spent some time yesterday talking to a friend about how lousy her great publication was doing the current lousy years. It was so bad that she was thinking about shutting it down.

Add to that her husband was having to accept a cut in his pay. About 15 percent. They also cut his number of hours to less than 40.

Like it or not almost every publisher is getting whacked --- some are shutting down.

Believe it or not that’s a great thing for the publishers who are making money. They’re facing less competition and understand how the system works.

It’s the same way with so many businesses. Actually making money in publishing is something most of us ever thought of. I mean, editiorial quality runs EVERY publication, right?

Yeah right…

Consider this; almost every publication has at least one page telling you who runs the thing and why. You probably don’t read it because it’s a lousy looking and boring reading thing.

The biggest list of people is often a complex set for sales folks. Not writers and editors – people who are out pimping the book.

There’s often a list of important managers who can’t write. They are business folks.

The next groups of people are distributing or doing the printing of a publication. Hey, it’s hard work, don’t put them down. Publications usually need a bunch of folks who move around hundreds of gallons of ink every day. Add to that huge amounts of paper.

Things have started to change these days I’ll note. Almost every serious publication or newspaper is putting out a web version. The computer folks are different in what the do than the ones who handle paper --- but that’s a story that’ll have to come on later.

The editorial folks are at the bottom of the list.



One thing you probably don’t realize is that it isn’t unusual for an editorial place to carry fewer staffers than anywhere else in the company. And the folks are often mostly making sure copy reads well.

Scary too is that the biggest population of writers are freelancers.

Most of them have lousy pay for writers. It’s often great stuff, but hey, America’s a place to compete financially.

All this in mind, remember this;

--Magazine leaders are often not folks who know anything. They are paid the most and could care less about making money.

--The staff of writers and photographers has the worst chance of surviving company cuts. If you think it will be the sales people who are laid off you are seriously wrong. The whole survival of publishing is based on them.

As for the editorial staff, it’ll probably take a serious whack on the editing folks. I already told you how freelancers are paid lousy or well, these folks cost the publishers a great deal less.

No matter who you do legally – in almost anything -- you’ll usually pay a huge percentage in taxes. You usually are happy to make, say, $40,000 per year without realizing you personally pay a huge percentage to state and federal taxes.

It’s a different thing with a publisher. They can cut taxes based upon what the pay out writers and photographers. They don’t have to buy offices for them, pay for vacations, pay for medical… etc.

The whole point is you should take a hard look at being on the editorial side of publishing.

Damn it’s great. It can be fun. It can be rewarding in a lot of places.

Now consider that editorial payment often sucks compared to every other part of a winning publication. It’s also a real pit if you turn down working as a writer in a publication that pays lousy. The fact is that at least a dozen other people will accept lousy pay.

And the real bitch is often those new folks may be better than you. Your ego may suck on this, but the new fantastic folks are coming – just like the greats have done through history.

Welcome to the editorial business.