Is it the End of Self-Publishing Success?
North American GC cover art (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Is the self-publishing bubble about to burst? Suspense writer Russell Blake thinks so. Passive Guy (better known as PG) does not, read his post here:
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/05/2012/we-are-seeing-the-not-so-slow-motion-popping-of-the-amazon-self-publishing-bubble/
In my opinion, Blake's post is VERY convincing: the self-publishing bubble IS slowly popping. For once I don't agree with PG's reading of this post (I usually always agree with him...). PG sees it as a cop out in praise of legacy publishers. I don't believe Russell Blake is on the side of traditional publishers in any way. He's just based his conclusions on a series of (in my opinion) very acute observations.
PG disagrees: he says most sales on Amazon occur in the range between the 99 cents and $5.99 and that is where the real volume is. Since this is the favorite price range of self-pubbed authors, he argues this is proof that the self-pubbed bubble is NOT about to pop. But I believe he's mistaken in claiming that legacy publishers haven't noticed. They sure have! Now all of a sudden one can buy recent books of many of the big NYT best seller names in that very range, something that wasn't possible some time back.
This change seems to have started last month and was perhaps linked to the fact that 3 Big Publishers have already gotten out of the Apple-induced price collusion that led to the so-called "agency model" . A DOJ case is currently on-going and as far as I know, at least two Big Publishers are still stuck in the deal and their prices I believe haven't changed. They're still in the above $14 range but this of course would need to be confirmed over time and with more data...
All this suggests we should expect an outburst of real competition for indies on the very terrain where they were acting as kings. To fight back, indies will need to make sure that their books are not only cheaper but tops in quality: no more bad editing, inconsistencies, mistakes, typos... So, unless indies are able to improve their act quickly, I really do think that we are about to see a slow pop in the self-publishing bubble!
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Joseph
(new)
Jun 03, 2012 06:43AM
I think self-publishing is the greatest resource that has hit the writing business. There have always been great books that never saw the light of day because the author couldn't get an audience, for whatever reason, with an agent +/or publisher. Now that author has a way to expose his/her work. It is that exposure which may lead to direct success or to indirect success when an agent or publisher takes note of the author's self-published work. The good writers make sure their self-published works are of a good quality. Sure a lot of luck is neeed, but having a book out there on any platform is better than having a manuscript moldering in a drawer.
reply
|
flag
Definitely, you're right: having a book out on Internet is far better than having it locked up in your computer! But now we're into a new era: as traditional publishers have "woken up" and started to compete price-wise with indies, we'll see a new ballgame. Indies will have to compete on quality not just price (as they've done so far). This is something many of my commenters pointed out (did you go to my blog itself? Because, I believe I'm right about this, you can only see the comments there...and this time, the comments were really good, worth reading!)
I'LL GO TO YOUR BLOG & CHECK THE COMMENTS. I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU ABOUT YOUR POSITION ON THE NECESSITY FOR INDIES BEING OF HIGH QUALITY. THE ONLY POINT I WAS MAKING IS THAT THERE HAVE BEEN HIGH QUALITY BOOKS THAT HAVE NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED BECAUSE OF THE NARROW APPROACH TO PUBLISHING THAT MOST TRADITIONAL HOUSES HAVE FOLLOWED, AND BECAUSE THERE ARE MANY MORE AUTHORS THAN AGENTS AND PUBLISHERS CAN HANDLE.
Ok, I get it! Sorry, I'm a little slow these days, ha ha! Well, yes, you're absolutely right: I'm the perfect example of a sensational writer that publishers haven't noticed (ha ha, really loud LOL!)Oh well...maybe one of these days...But I know you've been doing very well and you certainly deserve it!
I agree with you analysis, Claude, but I don't think self-publishing will go away any time soon. Many writers write because they are compelled to even if they can't make a decent income from it (I'm one of them). Self-publishing is a hell of a lot more rewarding than vanity publishing - just as much vanity without the cost!
