Tag: publishing

Rebecca Black, self publishing, and the rise of the eBook

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.

Self-Publishing: The Way of the Future?

Today I came across this article in Newsweek about the recent rise in self-published titles:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/30/who-needs-a-publisher.html

The basic gist of the article is that some authors have been lucky enough to hit it big with self-publishing.  What the article doesn’t mention, however, is that, when you self-publish, you usually get little or no promotional support, which forces you to take sole charge of marketing your book.  Stephen King could probably market a book on his own, but I doubt that most first-time authors would be as successful.  Without industry connections or PR experience, they’re basically adrift.  It’s hard enough to sell books with the backing of a publisher’s publicity machine.  I can’t imagine how much more difficult it would be to go it alone.

The other major problem with self-publishing is that there’s little or no quality control.  This was vividly proven a while back when a group of (published) sci-fi and fantasy authors got together and wrote an intentionally awful book entitled Atlanta Nights.  And when I say ‘awful,’ I mean it.  This book had characters who changed from scene to scene, duplicate chapters, and an entire section written by a text generator.  They submitted their work to a well-known self publishing company and, lo and behold, Atlanta Nights was accepted (though the company later dropped it when they realized they’d been duped).  Sadly, Atlanta Nights is only a little bit worse than a lot of the sample chapters from self-published books that I’ve read on Amazon.com.

It has been argued that self-publishing is The Great Leveler that allows John Q. Public to compete with J. K. Rowling on an even playing field.  But there’s still the issue of talent to contend with.  If no one is interested in John Q. Public’s novel (and I’m assuming he’s queried widely instead of just contacting five agents and calling it a day), it’s entirely possible that it’s not as polished as it should be or else it’s just not marketable.   Of course everyone has heard about how Harry Potter was rejected by numerous publishers before it was picked up by Scholastic.  But, ultimately, it was picked up by someone.  Maybe I’m just a Pollyanna, but I believe that good books will eventually get published, albeit later rather than sooner in most cases.  Self-publishing may allow you to get your work out there, but if the writing’s not good or there’s no market for it, you’re still going to be out of luck.

So while more and more people may turn to self-publishing, I suspect that traditional publishers will remain an author’s best shot at turning their hobby into a career.