Quote:
Originally Posted by SleepyBob
I wouldn't call these counter-examples, though. All of those authors established themselves via the tradpub machine, which is exactly what many people are saying is a key benefit of that system. Whether they decided later to do some indie publishing as well/instead has no bearing on the quality of works produced by people that go straight indie, or that couldn't get tradpubbed.
It's apples and oranges that just happened to be packed in the same box.
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Sorry, but that is exactly the point: the self-publishing "box" isn't for just losers and wannabes or newcomers but for *everybody*.
It is simply an extra way to bring stories to market open to everybody.
And each author gets to do it their way: some do it all tgemselves, some hire established professionals. Some do everything via selfpub, some do select pieces that don't fit in the tradpub "box".
It's freeform publishing.
Some established authors that control their own international rights tradpub in the US and selfpub outside the US. (Diane Duane, for one. She sells those from her own website.)
I already mentioned Eric Flint whose GRANTVILLE SAGA shared world series is so big BAEN can't publish everything so he directs the overflow to Indie ebooks. Same standards as the rest of the series, just a separate anthology channel for standalone shorts, whereas BAEN publishes the ones with recurring characters.
I also mentioned how a whole lot of authors selfpub their reverted backlist and even extend those older series via selfpub. Joe Konrath being a prime example of that. There's tons more but the Indie world has matured past evangelizing and most of them are settling down to writing, publishing, and making a good living.
Terry Goodkind is another example: he used selfpublishing as a lever to get a better tradpub deal.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ext-novel.html
He self-published to big sales and then got a tradpub to take over.
Other authors have self-published to use Amazon's SCOUT program (soon to end) to try to get a tradpub contract with AmazonPublishing. It's a kinder/gentler tradpub (50% of net instead of 25%) but it's still tradpub.
Self-publishing is just a publishing strategy. A business decision. A process that can be used in many ways to many purposes. It's just a "box" if you like the term.
It says nothing about the author (other than being aware of the current realities of publishing) and nothing about the content. Blanket dismissal of it just blinds you to good authors., both old and new. But most especially, the new. Because, in today's reality, a newcomer is *demonstrably* better off learning to do Indie right that spending years trying to get noticed by the "tradpub machine" you mentioned. It's a purely statistical fact: the odds of launching an enduring and *profitable* writing career are higher on the Indie side. Just ask the Author's Guild about declining tradpub incomes.
https://www.authorsguild.org/industr...es-of-writing/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...ty-line-survey
https://www.npr.org/2016/01/09/46243...rs-pen-demands
Some IndiePub is new, some is rereleases. Some is good, some is bad.
It offers some advantages to established authors and different ones to newcomers. It also comes with some disadvantages, like not being able to get into B&N stores.
The same can be said about traditional publishing.
(Again: Sturgeon was talking tradpub. And he was right. In fact, 100% of everything is crap...to somebody, somewhere.)
The publishing path is something that should only matter to authors, not well-informed readers. And mostly it does: for the vast majority of book buyers outside Mobilereads Indie vs tradpub is a non issue.
They see a book they like, they buy it regardless of how it got to market.
It's all about finding a story to your taste.