Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
All of these authors were published at one point. You'd almost certainly never know any of their names otherwise (that is, of whatever names are recognizable).
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Agreed. I think self-publishing will benefit two types of people:
1. Famous authors who have the name recognition, as well as the money to pay for marketing on their own etc. They can now get books right to consumers and not have to split revenue with publishers on e-books. At least once their out of contract.
2. Upstarts. If they're good they can make a name for themselves. May not be able to become famous that way, but can at least have more leverage in contract negotiations by being able to show how many people bought their books they self-published when shopping new manuscripts etc.
As for your other comments about self-publishing being nothing new--that's true of course. But it will become more feasible as we move through the coming decades and see digital content become the dominant way people get music, movies, books etc. It's hard to succeed now when the majority of sales are still paper books, cds and dvds/blu rays as you have to be very successful (like a Pearl Jam) to be able to press/print your own material, ship it to stores etc.