Indie Publishing - The Way Authors are Trending
Back in the day Indie (Self) Publishing was considered the realm of the desperate
…the final act of a drowning writer…. on rare occasions… like akin to the chance of a meteor dropping through the roof of your house… a self published book would catch fire and a traditional publisher would swoop, buy up the rights, give the author a chunk of change, and keep most of the profits for themselves.
Publishers have always held the key to getting a book Into Bookstores.
For authors … Traditional Publishing was very much like the Forbidden City surrounded by impregnable walls.
There was no real hope for those who wanted to write for a living…especially for the author of fiction. Most writers suffered through years of rejection….very few ever made it past those walls. So many authors went to their graves leaving behind boxes of manuscripts and shattered dreams.
How times have changed..
Recently it was reported that EL James author of Fifty Shades of Grey … is the highest earning author in history…. the series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, with book rights having been sold in 37 countries, and set the record as the fastest-selling paperback of all time… and a film adaptation is currently in the works with a release scheduled for August 2014. Fifty Shades of Grey started life as a self-published book.
This book is proof that Indie Publishing is here to stay and needs to be taken seriously.
With the explosion of Indie Publishing there is no doubt that Traditional publishing is facing huge challenges… and while I doubt that paper books will disappear anytime soon, there is no doubt the market for these books is shrinking and will continue to shrink as the current generation…. schooled and raised on use of tablets and ereaders … enter the book buying market.
But to me, it seems that the biggest challenge to traditional publishing is the closing down of Bookstores…. this decline is already well established… and as readers become more and more wedded to their eReaders… this trend is set to continue.
While I’m sure I will never reach the dizzy heights of E L James, I am really enjoying the flexibility and the choice of having so many avenues to print and market my books… a choice that comes with the very enjoyable bonus…. money being paid into my account at the end of every month. . . to me this is the culmination of a dream…
One question that intrigues me… and one that I feel is not being addressed is this….without bookstores where will Traditional Publishers sell their books? On line through Amazon?
Tags: featured, fifty shades of grey., indie publishing, Self publishing
Published on Thursday, August 22nd, 2013, under Latest News
interesting post in indie publishing, thanks Shirley
Nick thanks for stopping by. It is a really interesting time to be an author. The scope and range of books available now has never been equalled. Books that would normally have to go through the channels of Traditional Publishers and would never have seen the light of day are now freely available…. but this freedom of choice does have a downside and I’ll address this in my next post.
I know a guy who tried for years to get published.. he eventually gave up and is now a movie writer. I liked hearing of 50 shades..
Rob,
This story is all too common, but now that has all changed. I’ve heard that for every book accepted for publication 5000 are rejected. I remember a few years back when Jane Porter had her first book accepted by Harlequin Mills & Boon there was a huge fanfare that that publisher had accepted a new writer to their stable … out of how may books were submitted to that publisher world-wide? (Insert eye roll here) Big Deal. They freely admit they receive more than 1000 manuscripts a week.
Well now the balance has well an truly changed and Publishers realise they actually need authors. One thing that bears repeating is that Publishers have built their empires and New York Real Estate on the backs of writers…authors need to remember this.