MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - This is how much a writer makes with a traditional publishing house

jaxx6166 · 02-06-2010, 10:53 AM

What Kemp said.

The marketing machine sells more product than quality. Look at Dan Brown. Multi million unit seller. Writer of absolute dreck. Do you think it's the high quality of his work or the sensationalism and press that moves copies?

Same thing with Twilight.

Remember Oprah's thing with James Frey? HE WROTE A FAKE MEMOIR!!! OMGZ NONONONO...Hrm? He wrote fiction? Made it sound like his own life!? Let me buy!

The Kite Runner, would that have been as big of a success were it not for review copies that the NYT praised, ARCS that all the other big name publishers send out? All of which culminated into Oprah saying READ THIS BOOK! And people did..

Indie authors unfortunately are limited to blogs, which work great for genre fiction. But if you want to break out and be the next Hemmingway or something else literary, you're kind of stuck on your own. Traditional media tends to turn up its nose at "self published works" or "independent publishers." They're buzzwords that equate to crap in the big ivory towers.

If you have the backing of a marketing machine, you can self publish and probably do quite well. Look at Jeremy Robinson. He was a self publishing marketing genius.

And he designed his own cover and layout. Made his own trailers and viral games. Created an eye catching website and whored himself out everywhere he could. I don't know about editing, I'm sure he had some help with that.

Scalzi built his following on blogs and articles that he wrote for different websites and newspapers. Sanderson wrote ten novels that no one wanted to touch before Elantris broke him out.

With that said, how many actual SALES have self pub's generated? I think I read somewhere that the "best selling" author on smashwords sold somewhere in excess of 250 copies. Then on the same token, there are people who put stuff up on smash for free and have thousands of downloads. Does that equate to actual sales? I don't know.

Tobias Buckell is one of the few "big name" midlist writers who lost money from his free release of Crystal Rain. I was reading on his blog that the series was put on indefinate hiatus because he didn't earn out his advance. So the Cory Doctorow formula of test the waters and tease the crowd doesn't always work.

02-06-2010, 10:53 AM	#15
jaxx6166 Wizard Posts: 1,222 Karma: 769316 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Eternal summer Device: 350, iPad, PW	What Kemp said. The marketing machine sells more product than quality. Look at Dan Brown. Multi million unit seller. Writer of absolute dreck. Do you think it's the high quality of his work or the sensationalism and press that moves copies? Same thing with Twilight. Remember Oprah's thing with James Frey? HE WROTE A FAKE MEMOIR!!! OMGZ NONONONO...Hrm? He wrote fiction? Made it sound like his own life!? Let me buy! The Kite Runner, would that have been as big of a success were it not for review copies that the NYT praised, ARCS that all the other big name publishers send out? All of which culminated into Oprah saying READ THIS BOOK! And people did.. Indie authors unfortunately are limited to blogs, which work great for genre fiction. But if you want to break out and be the next Hemmingway or something else literary, you're kind of stuck on your own. Traditional media tends to turn up its nose at "self published works" or "independent publishers." They're buzzwords that equate to crap in the big ivory towers. If you have the backing of a marketing machine, you can self publish and probably do quite well. Look at Jeremy Robinson. He was a self publishing marketing genius. And he designed his own cover and layout. Made his own trailers and viral games. Created an eye catching website and whored himself out everywhere he could. I don't know about editing, I'm sure he had some help with that. Scalzi built his following on blogs and articles that he wrote for different websites and newspapers. Sanderson wrote ten novels that no one wanted to touch before Elantris broke him out. With that said, how many actual SALES have self pub's generated? I think I read somewhere that the "best selling" author on smashwords sold somewhere in excess of 250 copies. Then on the same token, there are people who put stuff up on smash for free and have thousands of downloads. Does that equate to actual sales? I don't know. Tobias Buckell is one of the few "big name" midlist writers who lost money from his free release of Crystal Rain. I was reading on his blog that the series was put on indefinate hiatus because he didn't earn out his advance. So the Cory Doctorow formula of test the waters and tease the crowd doesn't always work. Last edited by jaxx6166; 02-06-2010 at 11:02 AM.