5 ms·

So, am I correct to assume that authors mainly need publishers for printing, distribution, and marketing? Will we see more self-publishing as a result of the K

So, am I correct to assume that authors mainly need publishers for printing, distribution, and marketing? Will we see more self-publishing as a result of the Kindle/Nook/etc?

msg 17y ago
The main benefit I receive from publishers is filtering. Even the worst publisher printing unbelievable shlock is light years ahead of the garbage in the publishing anteroom, the slush pile. With that, the greatest blog post on publishing of all time, "Slushkiller": http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html
- tjic 17y ago
  > The main benefit I receive from publishers is filtering. The main benefit I receive from my friends is filtering. Now, the question is: do publishers or my friends do that job better?
  - msg 17y ago
    Or a deeper question, are the publishers making your friends' lives easier by doing it first? Do your friends read thousands of self-published books to provide you with recommendations? Or is all their action applied after the mainstream publishers' filter? I'm sure there is self-published stuff out there that is worth my time. Unfortunately, I don't want to read the literary equivalent of MySpace to find it. A good publisher has a quality bar I can trust, and they've taken on the burden of reading unsolicited submissions. And as the blog post says, 75% of it is unreadable crap, 24% is readable but not worth your time, and 1% or less is quality and publishable. That's a lot of hours you and your friends would have wasted.
- andrewcooke 17y ago
  that's true for me (using publishers as filters) when i'm in a bookstore. but i don't think i've looked at who the publisher of a book is when buying from amazon for ages - typically i read amazon's comments and then google around for what other people are saying.
travisp 17y ago
We'll probably see more self-publishing, but marketing will still be extremely important for authors.
vaksel 17y ago
i think they need them more for editing. All the kindle-only books I've read, had a ton of spelling errors.
- aaronblohowiak 17y ago
  Freelance editors are pretty cheap. I don't know about their quality, however.
  - runevault 17y ago
    Actually that's an interesting side point, might this improve/increase the business model for freelance editors? The potential is rather interesting, though would that just be line edits or something more substantive?
    - aaronblohowiak 17y ago
      If you're really interested in this, you could look into the editor market on lulu
      - runevault 17y ago
        I'm not sure if Lulu gives the same effect, because you have a higher cost per book that isn't going to you, since there is a flat cost per book (unless you wanted to charge a lot, of course). But if you want to sell a $5.00 book this will let you, pretty sure there's no way to do that w/o losing money via Lulu.
        aaronblohowiak 17y ago
        You can publish ebooks through Lulu with a base cost of 1.49 http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/?cid=publish_portal http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/?cid=publish_portal I've not gone through their tutorial to see what the minimum cost is, however. Their comparison suggests how a 13$ ebook can earn you more as a writer than a $20 physical book, but once again I dont know what the minimums are.

So, am I correct to assume that authors mainly need publishers for printing, distribution, and marketing? Will we see more self-publishing as a result of the Kindle/Nook/etc?

msg 17y ago

The main benefit I receive from publishers is filtering. Even the worst publisher printing unbelievable shlock is light years ahead of the garbage in the publishing anteroom, the slush pile. With that, the greatest blog post on publishing of all time, "Slushkiller": http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html

tjic 17y ago
> The main benefit I receive from publishers is filtering. The main benefit I receive from my friends is filtering. Now, the question is: do publishers or my friends do that job better?
- msg 17y ago
  Or a deeper question, are the publishers making your friends' lives easier by doing it first? Do your friends read thousands of self-published books to provide you with recommendations? Or is all their action applied after the mainstream publishers' filter? I'm sure there is self-published stuff out there that is worth my time. Unfortunately, I don't want to read the literary equivalent of MySpace to find it. A good publisher has a quality bar I can trust, and they've taken on the burden of reading unsolicited submissions. And as the blog post says, 75% of it is unreadable crap, 24% is readable but not worth your time, and 1% or less is quality and publishable. That's a lot of hours you and your friends would have wasted.
andrewcooke 17y ago
that's true for me (using publishers as filters) when i'm in a bookstore. but i don't think i've looked at who the publisher of a book is when buying from amazon for ages - typically i read amazon's comments and then google around for what other people are saying.

travisp 17y ago

We'll probably see more self-publishing, but marketing will still be extremely important for authors.

vaksel 17y ago

i think they need them more for editing. All the kindle-only books I've read, had a ton of spelling errors.

aaronblohowiak 17y ago
Freelance editors are pretty cheap. I don't know about their quality, however.
- runevault 17y ago
  Actually that's an interesting side point, might this improve/increase the business model for freelance editors? The potential is rather interesting, though would that just be line edits or something more substantive?
  - aaronblohowiak 17y ago
    If you're really interested in this, you could look into the editor market on lulu
    - runevault 17y ago
      I'm not sure if Lulu gives the same effect, because you have a higher cost per book that isn't going to you, since there is a flat cost per book (unless you wanted to charge a lot, of course). But if you want to sell a $5.00 book this will let you, pretty sure there's no way to do that w/o losing money via Lulu.
      - aaronblohowiak 17y ago
        You can publish ebooks through Lulu with a base cost of 1.49 http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/?cid=publish_portal http://www.lulu.com/publish/ebooks/?cid=publish_portal I've not gone through their tutorial to see what the minimum cost is, however. Their comparison suggests how a 13$ ebook can earn you more as a writer than a $20 physical book, but once again I dont know what the minimums are.