Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
What are you proving? That an established author's traditionally published backlist books do not magically turn into "amateur rubbish" when later self-published?
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I am simply trying to point out that the whole thing is a lot more complicated than the nay-sayers like to pretend; that there is way more to "self-published" titles than one-person "deluded amateur" projects. Or the backlist, for that matter.
In fact, the terms that are gaining currency are "Indie publishing"--which reflects that the process is independent of the traditional establishment but still involves professioal editors, artists, and (for print editions) formatters--and "hybrid authors"--professionals that work both with and without traditional publishers as *they* see fit, on a project by project basis.
Indie publishing encompasses a whole lot of good writing that cutting yourself off from this (growing) movement is to miss out on a lot of quality material. Yes, there is crap there. But as everybody knows there is crap in traditionally produced content. The only (guaranteed) real difference is in the economics, not in the *process* or the personel.
The economics of indie publishing allows hybrid authors (and pure indie writers) to deliver to market quirky niche books that don't fit in the pigeonholes of the establishment, whether they be genre-blending halflings or narratives that transcend genre or transcend the establised markets. That includes things material like erotica, both hetero and gay, it includes steamy romance, or things like superhero adventure (which makes up a surprisingly large segment of what gets lumped into fantasy and Science Fiction) that only rarely get any attention from the mainstream.
As I've said above, people who prefer to abstain to participate in the indie published market are perfectly entiled to avoid it. But they are not entitled to deprecate or denigate a whole class of working professionals with a blanket dismissal as "rubbish" as mr Franklin pretends to do, sweeping them under the rug as if they don't exist or matter.
They do matter, Mr Franklin. They are a market force and they are going to remain a market force to be reckoned with. Authors both hybrid and indie are contributing anywhere from one out of eight to one out of four books today and you can't handwave them away. And the longer they stay, the more steady success they build up, the sillier the hollow blanket dismisals and overstatements become.
I happen to know indie publishers both online and in person; they are neither deluded amateurs nor hacks. They are simply professional writers getting their publishing services *directly* through freelancers instead of through layer after layer of corporate middlemen that eventually end up hiring freelancers anway.
Middlemen like Mr Franklin.
And therein lies the root of the FUD campaign; fear that these middlemen will continue to be bypassed (they will) and that traditional publishing venues will go away (they won't).
There is room for everybody.
All that is really happening is that readers get to choose from new sources of good material.
And how can more good stories be a bad thing?