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Originally Posted by BookAdmin
..., so we can say that Amazon is profitable for beginner writers and not for famous ones.
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No.
Indie publishing (it's *not* just Amazon) is not just for beginners.
In fact, the biggest beneficiaries of indie publishers are long-time established authors with deep backlists. Look at the names of the biggest sellers among indies and you'll find dozens of authors with decades of books behind them. Some keep a foot on both camps but many have tried doing a few indie titles, compared the two modes, and switched to indie.
It is a matter of control, revenues, and actually getting some promotion behind them.
Traditional publishing at the BPHs works very well for the Kings and Pattersons of the world (and the occasional friend or relative of an editor) but less well for everybody else.
The Randy Penguin, for example, is projected to publish 12-14,000 titles this year. Of those, they will buy front table space at B&N for maybe 4-6 every month. A dozen or so will get stocked cover-forward, and the rest of each month's 1000+ titles is on its own. They will be listed on the distributors' lists and on the online retailers' websites. Maybe they will garner some attention, maybe they won't. But whatever promotion and traction they achieve will be due solely to the author's own efforts.
Well, many authors have concluded that if it is up to them to do most of the work, they might as well get most of the money and go Indie. And now we have authors making six and seven figure annual incomes off books that never earned out 4-digit advances. And we have even more authors making four and five figure incomes off books that never would have bern published at all, not for being bad books, but for being "too niche", or "not what we're looking for right now".
For many *established* authors, the choice is going indie or going hungry.
Edit: here's a rough example of the math an informed author needs to look to understand what a tradpub contract really offers, moneywise.
http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblin...hts-are-worth/
It comes down to the present day value of a lump sum vs a steady recurring stream.