Well, they have to do *something* to delegitimize the new age before things get out of hand. Put an end to things like small presses growing instead of selling out to giant multinationals, authors taking books to readers without giving up control of their copyright, readers getting to read what they like as often as they like, niche authors actually making a middle class living out of storytelling...
This, for example, is their greatest fear:
http://moirarogers.com/2013/12/the-m...quiet-success/
Quote:
This is not a post telling you that you should self-publish. I don’t know you, and therefore I don’t know if you should self-publish. I don’t know if you like details. I don’t know if you are obsessed with knowing every part of the publishing process, if you have experience selling & marketing ebooks, if you understand all the different devices, ebook formats and retailers. I don’t know if you’ve got skills that will make the process run more smoothly, like experience in cover design or editing or book design. I don’t know if you could whip up an HTML template in your sleep, or if you’d have to pay someone to do all the stuff I do for myself, thus increasing your risk.
I don’t know your goals. I don’t know if validation matters, or if you only have time to steal a few hours every night to write and can’t stand to sacrifice those to the tedious details of being a publisher. I don’t know if your only dream is a New York editor working with you to create a mass market copy of your words, and nothing else will make you happy. I don’t know if you’re writing a genre that is hard to move in ebooks. I don’t know if you know how to answer that question yourself.
I don’t know you. And since I don’t know you, it would be reckless for me to give you advice based on my skills, my goals, my dreams and my experience.
But I know myself, and the facts of my career. That is the most useful thing I can offer.
Fact: We have never signed a contract with any of the Big Six/Five publishers.
Fact: We have never hit the USA Today or New York Times bestseller lists.
Fact: We split just over $100,000 in 2012, and our money was divided pretty evenly between books published by a digital first publisher (mostly Samhain Publishing) and books we self-published on our own.
Fact: We’ll each make that in 2013, which is our fifth year as published authors.
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Two authors under a shared pen name, making $50k a year each, selling short stories in ebook form? Growing to $100k each? No agent, no NYC glass tower gatekeeper, no NY press reviews?
Heresy!