Would you publish it the old fashioned way (obtain a literary agent and have them sell your story to a publishing house)?


or


Publish it yourself digitally on the internet?


Just curious how you all see the future of publishing headed.

 

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Its much easier to self publish digitally than it is to get a publisher to pick your work up and publish it. I think the trend is going to be people will self publish their first book, or first few books, as ebooks and then when its proven itself take it to a publisher to get print copies done. As much as i dislike the move to digital i think anyone who only goes one way or the other at this point is only hurting themselves. Both need to be used to get the most out of publishing your work and its easier and faster to gain some interest in your work with digital publishing. If you have digital sales numbers to show a publisher i think that would significantly increase your chances of getting a decent publisher behind you.

All that said i would still submit to a print publisher first just to see if i could get one of the big publishers to pick it up before making the digital move myself and then hopefully have a dual ebook/print book release at the same time. Popularity of ebooks or not most of the best authors and sellers are still the ones who have print books on the shelves.

Self publishing in print on the other hand is mostly futile as your books will have very limited availability and cost you more out of pocket so i wouldn't even consider it as an option.

 

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Disagree to a point. I think that most authors will try to get their books published the old fashioned way first, then, if they're rejected, go digital. THEN if they're successful, try to get them published again by a publisher. It is still vastly more profitable and respectable to get published the old fashioned way than it is to be self published. Hell, just a few short years ago self publishing was scorned.

thats actually kinda what i was trying to say but i said it really poorly.

 

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There aren't very many Larry Correia's out there and I don't think than will change anytime soon. Self publishing is what you do when you can't get published the traditional way.

 

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i just read an article about some bitch that published through amazon and became mad famous for her work and was making upwards of $1,000,000 a year because of it. a big publisher couldn't even come close to touching the deal she had with amazon's self pub deal. she gets to keep something like 70% of her sales.


edit: to answer your question, i'd probably try to self publish if i had any friends capable of helping me market and i could pay an independent editor to catch typos and grammar errors.

 

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^i read about the same person a couple months ago too.

its not common though, about as common as hitting it big in print like meyer did with her twilight books.

 

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I work in publishing. I strongly recommend new authors try the traditional route first. If your writing is outstanding, the turnaround is worth it. Unfortunately, electronic publishing has the reputation of being full of . . . well, crap.

That's not to say there aren't some very successful authors who went that route. However, once they caught the attention of mainstream, most of those authors then went traditional as well. The Shack is an example of this.

Also, traditional publishing houses are slowly taking over the electronic medium as well. So, there'll be no escape from them if you intend to enter publishing as a career.

This business is brutal and not for the thin-skinned. Most new authors don't understand it takes years to develop a successful career as an author. Most believe they'll write a book and the world will come bashing down their door to buy their work. In most cases, that never happens. Rejection letters bash down their mailboxes instead.

The road to success is paved with the broken dreams of wanna-bes who gave up after the first hurdle.

Just know this now if you go into this business. It ain't for wimps.

 

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Publishing is far from dead but they most certainly have to change, I know a certain very successful indie author that recently turned down a 6 figure publishing offer because it wasn't completive with his Amazon revenues. I also know that half his books got delisted by Amazon a week later because of technical blunders on Amazons part, I suspect he is having some reconsiderations.

Amazon is by far the big player for indies, don't quote me on numbers but I believe they return about 70% of revenues to the authors, Current publishing standard offers are not even close - that has to change as well as their pricing models - I would note that over half the top sellers in the Kindle store are by Indies - I can't fathom any other reason but pricing - publishers need to wake up here - there is no way ebook pricing should be anywhere near the cost of print.

On the flip side - To answer the OP's question - if I was to write a novel today - and it would be awful - I would call it "Vampires vs. Elves or the Evening Redness in the West" with a product description highlighting some kind of post- apocalypse time travel theme and hire a cover artist to make an awesome picture of a scantily clad elf with big boobies and a glowy sword. Then make a dozen fake accounts and give it all glowing 5 star reviews. I bet you it pulls in 20 grand by the time readers figure out it's horrid - highlighting everything that is wrong with Amazon.


See the child, he is pale and thin, he wears a thin and ragged linen shirt, he has pointy ears....

 

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