Tag: traditional publishing

Indie publishing as a gateway to traditional publishing

Amazon recently published their 2012 best-seller lists and it revealed something interesting: four of the authors on the adult top-ten list originally went the indie route (i.e. self-publishing or publishing through a small press). However, each of them ultimately had their work picked up by a traditional publisher.

So what might this tell us about the future of publishing? For one thing, I think it suggests that traditional publishers aren’t quite as moribund as many people might think. Given their strategic advantages, they will probably dominate the best-seller lists for the foreseeable future.

But at the same time, traditional publishers will likely become more and more receptive to the idea of acquiring successful indie works. Indeed, there may come a day when indie publishing becomes a semi-official alternative to the industry’s traditional gatekeepers.

After all, relying on literary agents and the slush pile can be a risky proposition, which is why so many books never earn out their advance. But with indie publishing, a lot of that risk is borne by the author. That means that traditional publishers can sit on the sidelines and see who’s winning before they have to pony up any of their money.

Still, I don’t think indie publishing is going to completely supplant literary agents and slush piles. As I’ve mentioned before, the indie route is a difficult one, and you need to sell a lot of copies if you want to catch the eye of a traditional publisher. But if all you’ve done is taken your unedited NaNoWriMo manuscript and uploaded it to the Kindle store, you’re not going to find your inbox flooded with offers from traditional publishers.

Professionalism and self publishing

You may already know David Kazzie through his YouTube videos “So You Want to Go to Law School” and “So You Want to Write a Novel.” Even though he has an agent, he chose to self-publish his debut novel The Jackpot. I stumbled upon his blog this evening and found this interesting piece on self publishing.

The moral of the story is that a self-published book needs to be just as polished as a traditionally-published one. That means no covers that look like they were done by a kindergartener using MS Paint and no text that looks like it was typed by drunken howler monkeys. Unless you’re lucky enough to have the right friends, you’re going to have to pay for professional editing and cover design, and it could cost you a sizable chunk of change.

Unfortunately, it may be difficult to recoup that initial investment since most self-published ebooks still sell fewer than 100 copies. Even when one becomes a hit, it usually endures several months of sluggish sales before it starts to sell well. For me, that uncertainty is one of the biggest drawbacks to self publishing. Traditional publishing certainly doesn’t guarantee success, but at least you don’t have to pay money upfront.

Interesting perspectives on indie publishing

I came across two interesting pieces about indie publishing on agent-turned-author Nathan Bransford’s blog.  The first is by Nate himself:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/05/why-i-chose-traditional-publisher.html

The second is a guest post by Tracy Marchini, self-published author of  Pub Speak: A Writer’s Dictionary of Publishing Terms (a guide to the publishing industry) and  Hot Ticket (a novel):

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2011/05/real-skinny-about-indie-publishing.html

It was interesting to see both Nathan and Tracy discuss the amount of work involved in self publishing.  For me, that’s one of the main reasons why I’m NOT going the indie route.  Writing is enough of a time sink by itself.  I think I’d go insane if I had to assemble my book and do all of the marketing for it, too.