Many of you have no doubt heard about Rebecca Black, the thirteen year old singer whose debut song “Friday” has become an object of near universal mockery on the Interwebz. With lyrics like this:
Fun, fun, think about fun
You know what it is
I got this, you got this
My friend is by my right, ay
I got this, you got this
Now you know it.
it’s not hard to see why some people are calling “Friday” one of the worst songs of all time.
Black’s parents paid $4,000 for her to make a video with ARK Music Factory, which makes “Friday” the musical equivalent of the many self-published books churned out by vanity presses like iUniverse and AuthorHouse. Since these companies get their money upfront, they don’t have to worry about pesky things like quality or marketability.
Recently, it has become something of a fad within the publishing world to forecast the imminent demise of literary agents and traditional publishers. Pundits point to people like Amanda Hocking (who has become a millionaire by selling her self-published eBooks through the Kindle store) and claim that authors will eventually self publish all their work in eBook form. It’s not hard to see why some authors find self publishing platforms like the Kindle to be an appealing alternative to traditional publishing. Not only are you free to publish your story exactly how you want it without any editorial interference, but you can also get royalties of up to 70%.
While eBooks will eventually relegate paper books to the status of collectors’ items, literary agents and traditional publishers still have a valuable role to play in ensuring some basic level of quality. They’re actually making an investment in the author, so they have a vested interest in making sure that the author’s work is good, or at least marketable. Granted, Amazon doesn’t charge you anything to publish via the Kindle, but they’re not exactly making an investment in you either, which is why they’ll still accept almost anything under the sun. A traditional publisher also provides basic publicity services to help market your book. If you’re self published, you have to do all that on your own and, contrary to what some people seem to think, social media isn’t a magic wand that you can wave and guarantee your book a vast readership.
As long as self publishing continues to be associated with the literary equivalent of Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” there will be a place for traditional publishers. The switch to eBooks may provide a second chance for authors who were bypassed by traditional publishers, but easier distribution won’t automatically level the playing field.
Codex Lochianus 
I think it does level the playing field. Not completely, but it does level it some.
I don’t think publishers will go away with the rise of e-publishing. I think they will just adjust. As you said, the biggest hang up for self published folks is the marketing aspect. Publishers will continue to fullfill this role.
Yeah, there’s a lot of crap in e-publishing (nice analogy about Rebecca Black, btw). IMO, though, there’s a lot of crap in traditional publishing too. I’m baffled sometimes how some of these guys make it.
Here’s the thing, imo, about e-publishing vs. traditional. For a potential author, I would ask “what is your goal for your writing?” Most would say to make writing a career. Unfortunately, the chances of that are very slim (I’m not sure what the stats are on that, but I’m pretty sure its probably close to the chance of someone making a living as a musician or actor). If this is the goal, it doesn’t matter which route you take—making writing a career via traditional route or the e-publishing route is going to be difficult.
However, if your goal is just to get an audience, its e-publishing all the way. If you have talent and make sure you give your story a professional quality, you will find a readership through e-publishing. It may not be a big readership mind you, but you will have one.
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You’re right that the chances of making a career out of writing are extraordinarily slim, but I think it still matters which road you take. Although I don’t have any data to back this up, my guess is that traditionally published authors have a slightly easier time making a living from their writing than their self published colleagues since the marketing opportunities afforded by traditional publishing are much greater than what most people can do on their own. So if someone wants to take a stab at being a career author, I think it still behooves them to try to land a traditional publisher.
But if someone is primarily writing for the enjoyment of it and they don’t care about the size of their readership, then e-publishing is probably the way to go since they won’t have to worry about overcoming the many obstacles that block a prospective author’s path on the road to traditional publication.
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I might agree with that. Maybe. I think it would depend.
I don’t have the stats either, but for shits and giggles, though, lets say one author decides to go traditional and another goes self published. The traditional guy takes five years to land his first book and gets $10,000 out of the deal. Let’s say the self-published guy gets an average of $2,000 a year for his book. So, in that scenario, they’d both make about the same.
It will be interesting to see how the novel world will look in a few more years.
BTW, here is a no-bones-about-it post from someone who claims to work for a traditional publisher and how the money breaks down when you go the traditional way. Its not pretty. I can’t say if she knows what she is talking about or not, but she seems to know a lot of details that would seem to indicate that she is legit.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080707215832AAz4ZWw
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One definite advantage of traditional publishing is that it makes it easier for authors to sell their work in foreign markets. I don’t know how a self-published author would go about doing that. Presumably they could hire translators to translate their work, but that’s likely to have a huge upfront cost. Also, I wouldn’t want to have to try to evaluate the merits of a given translation of my work. I *might* be able to do that for a German-language translation, but I’d have no clue about any other language.
I think that the lady who answered the question is legit, but I think she overgeneralizes (which is understandable given the general nature of the question that was asked). Some of the statements she makes are in conflict with what I’ve come across in doing my own research on the fantasy genre. For example, in fantasy, first-time authors DO sell series right off the bat. Of course it’s not a bad idea to make sure that your first book can stand on its own, but I think she’s wrong to claim that a new author should never mention that they’re working on a series. Ultimately, I think it’s very difficult to give a straight answer to the question “how much does an author make” since there are so many darn variables.
I guess my personal view is that, since it doesn’t hurt me to try to go the agent/traditional publisher route, I might as well go for it since it has the potential to open many more doors for me.
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