Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Up through the 70's most writers did not make a lot of money writing novels. Most made their money by selling by the word to magazines and newspapers. That's why short stories were so popular. The idea that publishers have never had competition is a bit of a fallacy. For that matter, it's only fairly recently that the big 5 publishers formed.
I've given my view on the future of publishing before here. I think that over time, publishing will go back to the days of having a lot of smaller to middle size publishers rather than large conglomerates as the forces that encouraged the consolidation of the publishing industry dissipate. I think we will see a lot of smaller genre oriented publishers, a la Baen Books, in the future. During it's heyday, Baen Books pioneered using social media to reach out to the fan base and introduce authors to that fan base. I suggest we will see a lot more of this level of marketing via the internet. The major reason that I don't see indie authoring as the big future is I think that most authors would rather have someone else do most of the tasks that one needs to be a successful author. Sure, those willing to do everything can take advantage of indie publishing to keep all the money themselves. But most don't have the willingness or skill to be successful at that. Just my opinion.
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Most indies I know do NOT do everything themselves but hire others to do covers, editing etc.
Now if those advances give traditional authors the freedom not to worry about bills, then why do 95% of the big 5 authors have day jobs?
It is a rare author that gets enough of an advance to live on.
I know one author who turned down a 6 figure advance. She self-published and earned the money offered in less than 4 months. That advance would have been paid in 3 increments over 3 years because it was for 3 books. Her name is Breena Aubrey.
So are you telling me that someone that made 3,000,000 for someone else while making 1,000, 000 for themselves is worth more than someone who made 2,800,000 for themselves and 1,200,000 for the distributor.
My math comes up to 4 million either way.