Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
The internet makes piracy easy, and that's bad for arists, be they authors or musicians. However: the internet also makes self-distribution and self-marketing easy. There are more and more authors every year. I see many that write fantasy, mystery and crime, and started only a few years ago. Some of them publish eBooks exclusively, by themselves.
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Exactly so, but the thing is... it's not *just* digital distribution that the internet facilitates. The internet also allows for independent printing and distribution of pbooks.
B&N and the department stores may not (yet) carry indie pbooks but Amazon does. And new ventures are emerging to get indie pbooks into indie bookstores and other interested venues.
One thing I've learned is that very small print runs (hundreds to thousands) are affordable to self-publishers (a few bucks a copy). That is why the emerging term to describe the migration of established authors away from traditional publishing is "Indie" publishing, rather than self-publishing: there is an entire support industry of *honest* service providers popping up to assist independent authors. (And no, author solutions and its siblings are not on that list.)