The self-epublishing bubble

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by pigeonweather

Absolutely. The major publishers are just subsidiaries of gigantic multinational corporations. No one should cry over them.

You might shed a tear or two over those who become unemployed when they fall...

[teh603]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

You might shed a tear or two over those who become unemployed when they fall...

Well, ideally if you shear out enough big businesses, small ones will be able to sprout up to fill the voids. Nature and business both loathe a vacuum and all that. The trick is keeping the new businesses from becoming as big and bad as the old ones, without drawing the ire of the "ZOMG COMMUNISM" group.

[Gorgonseyes]

Lets face it, we are writing to get some sort of feedback.... Money, fame, or just the amazing feeling you get from knowing that the work you published is being read and making people think...

I don't believe you have to have an agent or publisher to get ur works out there and read by people.

I had shared my book with ten close friends last week. A book that took me a year to write (I have a full time job). Having them give me their feedback was amazing. I was so terribly nervous, but in the end I got a buzz from them discussing something that I had created...

Right now I believe ebooks are a great way to share our creations!

Skevi

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

You might shed a tear or two over those who become unemployed when they fall...

Lots of industries have been destroyed by the internet, what makes this one so special?

[pigeonweather]

Lots of industries have been destroyed by the internet

As the old saying goes, 'when one door is closed, another is open'. The rise of ebooks is already opening up new opportunities for editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, marketers, reviewers, and all other sorts of ancillary freelance publishing jobs. It's up to the people with those skills to make these things happen.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by pigeonweather

As the old saying goes, 'when one door is closed, another is open'. The rise of ebooks is already opening up new opportunities for editors, proofreaders, graphic designers, marketers, reviewers, and all other sorts of ancillary freelance publishing jobs. It's up to the people with those skills to make these things happen.

It seems to me that publishers, by offloading so much of their once traditional work back to agents and authors, have stopped providing the same value-add that they once did. By reducing that value-add they are also reducing their importance to the process. If they wanted to become simple printers of pbooks they've gone the right way about it.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by gmw

It seems to me that publishers, by offloading so much of their once traditional work back to agents and authors, have stopped providing the same value-add that they once did. By reducing that value-add they are also reducing their importance to the process. If they wanted to become simple printers of pbooks they've gone the right way about it.

Exactly, they have farmed out virtually everything other than rights management and distribution.

This is at least a major part of why they are in such a dire position.

There is a great yahoo discussion of this sort of thing captured in book form (free) "Be the Monkey" here: http://www.barryeisler.com/ebooks/ebooks-buy.php
It's available in a zip file that includes mobi, epub and pdf.

[MCoorlim]

Adapt or die, blah blah blah...