Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks
Do the readers really love indie?
Or was it a simple effect of the Trad Pub only publishing-distributing. What made the cut (not that I blame them... It is about making MONEY  ) was what was available to the user. (There were always 'Vanity' presses, but someone had to fund the run)
e-publishing just opened another path to the end user that was previously closed or limited due to initial expense.  |
It's not just the cost that has Indies swamping non-legacy tradpub ebooks: it is also the content and the abundance.
Tradpub typically limits most authors to 2 titles a year per pen-name and don't like it when authors stray too far from the silo they've been pigeonholed into.
Why do you think Nora Roberts, for one, had to use an alias for her "...in death" series? Prolific authors no longer need to limit themselves to the slots the publisher has available and can wander as far afield as their muses and fans allow.
From a reader standpoint Indies deliver more material at a lower cost, more often. Once you find an author you like there's less waiting. Also, the underserved subgenres are really blooming in indieland. There's a whole bunch of categories that Tradpub considered too niche or too risky to tackle that are booming these days. The economics of Indie, Inc allow serving those fans profitably.
So yes, for math-savvy authors, Indie means more money. But only because fans like what they get for *their* money. It takes two to tango, as Shakira used to say.
When you get down to it, the Indie revolution is about readers calling the shots by voting their wallets not some glass tower exec.