|
I agree that self-publishers who go into e-books hoping to get rich are deluding themselves. But I think more people who go through the trouble of writing and publishing a novel are perhaps more savvy than the article gives them credit, and have more realistic expectations.
I wrote fiction for 20 years before I self-published my first book. I did it for fun and not out of any expectation of ever making it big as an author. Before that I posted stories on forums and the like, and before that I collected rejection letters from agents and publishers. I don't see the changes in the publishing industry wrought by the rise of e-publishing as the potential disaster that the writer of the Guardian piece describes. It will take some time to shake out, and for the new model to develop, but I think that the "long tail" and the decline of a centralized publishing model will be good for both writers and readers in the long term.
|