Hmm, this might belong in its own thread, but it does address the writer-as-marketter aspect:
Forbes: "
Publishing is Broken, We're drowing in indie books--and thats a good thing."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvin...-a-good-thing/
Among a detailed look at the Grafton outlook with (excellent) comments from both sides of the debate, he brings up the subject of mid-list author/self-promoters:
Quote:
Once upon a time, publishers had relatively small lists of new authors whose books they distributed to independent bookstores and small-format mall chains like Waldenbooks and B Dalton. Publishers fought vigorously for limited shelf-space and display.
Then in 1985, Border’s open the first superstore and by the early 1990’s Barnes & Noble followed suit. The new format dramatically increased both shelf space and display opportunities. Superstores also incorporated cafes and comfy chairs to allow consumers to evaluate books at their leisure.
On the publishing end, this allowed publishers to make bets on a more authors. But these expanding advances and production runs put real financial constraints on publishers because overall book sales weren’t exploding. Beyond that, profits were being squeezed by the increasingly popular practice (pioneered by Barnes & Noble) of steeply discounting bestsellers. This strategy assumed that bestsellers would draw consumers into bookstores and that turning the most desirable books into loss leaders would fuel more profitable sales. The net effect was to financially strain both publishers and booksellers. Then came the Internet and with it Amazon. Margins plummeted.
The publisher reaction was to cut staff and costs. Marketing support to lesser authors was one of the first victims. As a result, most new authors who make it through the arduous process of finding both an agent and a publisher are surprised to learn that it is the author who is responsible for marketing and promoting his or her own work. Trey Ratcliff’s story on GigaOm illustrates this brilliantly.
An entire generation of traditionally published authors has come of age learning to self-promote. Particularly for mid-list authors the burden of writing and marketing a book a year without much assistance can be crushing. Some publishing houses have trimmed back even further, limiting editorial assistance to new writers to proofreading and line editing rather than structural editing.
These authors feel less beholden to publishers and more independent. They have been forced to become entrepreneurs, but are not rewarded commensurate with their contributions.
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Italics are mine)
From where he is sitting, the traditional publishers *trained* midlist authors that if they wanted to make a living at writing, they had to do their own marketting and self-promotion.
These are also the folks who most stand to gain from self-publishing; the folks who *are* good enough writers to sell books in the 5 figures but whose style or interests don't appeal to the masses enough to draw full BPH support (and marketting money).
And, they also are the same people that most rational self-publishers see as viable role models.
(A rational self-publisher being one who does *not* expect to become the "Next Amanda Hocking".
)