Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
The problem is *all* new authors have to promote themselves, it's just part of the business. Doesn't matter how good they are, or what kind of agent they have, they're going to end up on the treadmill of trying to get their work noticed.
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But they don't all have to figure out exactly how to do that... how to arrange book signings (and where it would be useful), which magazines/newspapers/websites to buy ads in, which review magazines or sites they should contact, whether they should talk to TV producers about a bit on a talk show.
Publishers can manage the promotion process. I'm not saying they do, or do so well--but there's some demand for that skill, and publishers are in the spot to fill it.
I didn't mean that writers can ever expect to not do promotion--but many are, and will remain, willing to pay a percentage to have someone else figure out what can be done and the best way to do it.
Authors who want to manage 100% of their own PR, and want to self-publish (digital or physical) and manage 100% of the editing, doc conversion, and sales aspects, don't need publishers. There are very few of those. I'll happily agree that there will be more in the future--but they're never going to be the majority of all authors.
My favorite authors don't write fast enough; I'm very happy they don't cut their writing time in half in order to manage production, distribution & promotion of their books.