Quote:
Originally Posted by VydorScope
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygr...paign=20131230
Acording to Forbs... Self pubs are beating out some of the Big 5 publishers.
I think the point is that Self-Pubs do sell, and sell lots. The contra point is that most BOOKS (ebook or dtb) do not sell - regardless of how/who published.
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I think that a better point is that Self-pubs can sell lots, not that they do sell lots because most don't. They also don't do better than the Big 5. Even the numbers in that Forbes article say that.
If you compare aggregates, all the BPH bestsellers to all the self-pub bestsellers, you get 899 for the BPH's and 99 for the self-pubs. Given that there are more self-pub books in a year, that means that commercial publishers are more likely to produce a bestseller than self-publishers.
Yes, every self-publisher combined did produce more bestsellers than either Harper Collins or Simon & Shuster on their own, but each of those publishers produced more bestsellers than any single self-publisher.
Self-publishing is hard. It can be very successful, but the numbers are clear and the chances aren't better than with commercial publishing. The big advantage is that because authors make more money per book sold, there's a lower barrier to success. Making some money is relatively easy, making a lot is incredibly difficult.