The Self-Publishing Dilemma

Forbes:

Technologically driven unemployment is really hardly new: we’re pretty much out of buggy whip makers now just as we’re pretty much out of buggies that need whipping.

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Comments

[Bill Dodds]

05:47 PM on 06/21/2011

One advantage of Kindle publishing is it's possible to get a book out there that just didn't "fit" a publishing house. That was the case with my novel, "Pope Bob." Catholic publishers shied away from a book about a drunken pope who finds himself on Skid Road and commercial publishers weren't thrilled with a "Catholic novel." It was a Catholic publisher who advised me to self publish it and he was right. It's been enjoying brisk sales and good reviews.

On the other hand, it was the pits having to cover all the bases in getting the book published. I missed what a publisher does for an author . . . but not the percentage the publishing house takes to do it.

www.BillDodds.com

[BlackJAC]

09:05 AM on 06/22/2011

You should've mentioned the comic book series Battle Pope as a comparison point: http://www.comicvine.com/battle-pope/29-42322/

[garyd63]

05:32 PM on 06/21/2011

Only go to publishers who have given up on the self-and author-defeating strategy of pushing blockbusters. If you can find a publisher like that, usually one not part of some bean counting conglomerate, you may get service and support for your work. Make your agent understand this. S/he may want you to be the next Rowling or Hocking, but it's not in the lottery cards. Publishers are now following the movie formula and it's not working--big time. And, a major point, go to publishers who support reading at all levels. Publishers and literary agencies should be swamping the NEA with support for the Big Read. They're not. Why not? Does everyone out there feel we have enough readers in this country?

[s h1]

04:20 PM on 06/21/2011

I've read a couple of self published books. A Good Editor is worth their weight in Gold! Publishers who provide their authors with good editorial and publicity services provide me with a better product. The plot is tighter, the work flows better, the grammar and writing style more polished. And they can make their book stand out. It can separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. I do now look to see if the book is self published before I buy regardless of the format (e-book or physical book). I'd rather pay a little bit more to read a book that reads like a final draft than a cheaper book that reads like a 1st draft. This is a service which makes a book more valuable to me, the reader. Brand it. Market it. Readers will come.

[SF TKF]

01:35 PM on 06/21/2011

That job is already taken by book publicists (which an author can already hire, for a far more reasonable sum than a permanent percentage of their profits). IMO, as someone who is currently NY published, publishers are going to have to do one of two things: 1) accept a diminished role with print-only rights or 2) offer writers MUCH better terms than they are now. 70% vs. 6%-17% is just not going to cut it much longer for any of us. But if publishers offered something more equitable and still provided editing, cover art, and paper distribution, I think they’d have a shot at survival. But I think they’ll have to offer authors MUCH higher royalties (40-50%).

[NancyPeske]

02:18 PM on 06/21/2011

My clients often find that freelance publicists, who will typically charge $5000 per month with a 3-month minimum, achieve absolutely no results--that is definitely an expensive problem. The advantage an in-house publicist has, in theory, is that the editorial board has weeded out the dreck so that what she's pitching is a quality book. When someone figures out how to solve the niche marketing problem, and authors can have at least some faith in ROI, I think the industry will wake up and develop workable, sustainable business models around that. Unfortunately, with the collapse of print book reviews and the competition for the attention of lifestyle and other editors on blogs and in newspapers, book publicists' jobs are quite challenging.

I agree on the difference in royalty rates--if you have access to quality editorial help, book design, cover design, and marketing and enough cash flow to invest in those services, and you don't need your book in brick-and-mortar stores, then it makes sense to self-publish.
Publishers can't offer higher royalties to authors until they get a wider profit margin and that means changing the business model--that has been true for decades. When the megacorporations gobbled up or drove out the little guy who wasn't in it for ever-increasing profit and profit alone, the model that evolved was based on low risk and low advances/payments to authors--and too much overhead.

http://www.nancypeske.com

[BlackJAC]

01:00 PM on 06/21/2011

Self-publishing doesn't come with the qualifying-introduction cachet that real publishing does. The self-published person didn't have to convince an agent and/or an editor that their stuff is worth spending money on; they just paid someone else to run off a few copies or store it on their Internet server.