6 ms·

"they sift through all of that crap to find the few good stories." Wouldn't customers be a better sifter than the publishing industry? Word of mouth and discov

"they sift through all of that crap to find the few good stories." Wouldn't customers be a better sifter than the publishing industry? Word of mouth and discovery? Samples and free reading demos (like Barnes and Noble does when you go into the store with a Nook)? And, for every published nugget, there are tonnage worth of published muck and runoff polluting the shelves; their filter isn't so great either. "If you want to disrupt the publishing industry, you need to develop an alternative solution for helping people figure out what is worth reading (probably not too difficult) and and alternative solution for developing the skills of writers (much more challanging)." The publishing industry is plenty disrupted by the fact that eBooks are now 30% of their entire market in copies sold and is the format with the biggest share (2nd place is mass market paperback). Amazon sells more eBooks than paperback and hardcover. And, an increasing number of self-published authors are finding their way to the top 100 on Kindle and Nook paid eBook charts. Some self-pubbed authors have multiple titles in the Amazon top 100, meaning they sell at least several hundred of each of their titles per day. As far as developing professional writer skills, you're ready for the business the minute you've made a sale and perhaps a fan. The idea of the minimum viable product (MVP) in the professional writer's world is akin to the dime novel or "penny dreadfuls" of yesteryear, where some of the greatest genre writers (Raymond Chandler, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, HP Lovecraft) started their craft with generally bad writing. Believe me, nothing says "welcome to reality" like getting a godawful review or even a return (which you will see when you self-publish through markets like Kindle, Kobo, and Nook).

lucasjung 15y ago
Most of those eBooks are still being published by the big old publishing houses. Of the authors who are successfully self-publishing, most started out publishing through traditional channels, built up large fanbases that way, and then broke out on their own once they had sufficient popularity to sell books without help from the big publishers. People who jump right into self-publishing and experience dramatic success are way out in the narrow part of the tail. The dime novels you mention were not just an entry-level publishing platform: their more important function was to let the editors and publishers work with new authors, mentoring them and helping them grow. A guy with "one sale and one fan" is still missing the most important part: regular, constructive feedback from successful professionals.
- pedrocr 15y ago
  >People who jump right into self-publishing and experience dramatic success are way out in the narrow part of the tail. The same is true for traditional publishing. Both mediums are very hard to break into, it's just that in the dead tree version you don't get to see as many of the failures.
  - lucasjung 15y ago
    There's another difference: in traditional publishing if you are almost (but not quite) ready for prime time, you have a chance at getting the help you need to get your work into a saleable state before it's published. As long as your potential exceeds the current quality of your work, traditional publishers will work to help you develop that potential. If you are self-publishing, you'll take that same not-quite-ready work and publish it, and it will fail miserably. You'll get plenty of feedback telling your work isn't good enough, but little or none telling you what to do about it. Also, you will have established yourself as a second-rate self-publisher, decreasing the chances that anyone will bother trying any of your subsequent work, so even if you do manage to improve it won't matter because nobody will take the time to read your newer, better work.
    - pedrocr 15y ago
      Self-published authors will get more and more frequent feedback from their actual customers. They can build direct relationships with fans. And it's not only about the support for individual authors it's also that more of them will try and a smaller number of sales will support each of them as their cut is now much bigger. Given the economics and the extra favorable dynamics in connecting with the audience it seems like a tall order to me that a publisher can add enough value to justify itself. For feedback on writing being mentored by other writers sounds much better, and to figure out what sells a direct relationship with your audience sounds like a much better deal. This is especially true as the number of books isn't artificially limited by the logistics of paper and everyone can be shooting for a niche of readers.
      - 15y ago

lucasjung 15y ago

Most of those eBooks are still being published by the big old publishing houses. Of the authors who are successfully self-publishing, most started out publishing through traditional channels, built up large fanbases that way, and then broke out on their own once they had sufficient popularity to sell books without help from the big publishers. People who jump right into self-publishing and experience dramatic success are way out in the narrow part of the tail. The dime novels you mention were not just an entry-level publishing platform: their more important function was to let the editors and publishers work with new authors, mentoring them and helping them grow. A guy with "one sale and one fan" is still missing the most important part: regular, constructive feedback from successful professionals.

pedrocr 15y ago
>People who jump right into self-publishing and experience dramatic success are way out in the narrow part of the tail. The same is true for traditional publishing. Both mediums are very hard to break into, it's just that in the dead tree version you don't get to see as many of the failures.
- lucasjung 15y ago
  There's another difference: in traditional publishing if you are almost (but not quite) ready for prime time, you have a chance at getting the help you need to get your work into a saleable state before it's published. As long as your potential exceeds the current quality of your work, traditional publishers will work to help you develop that potential. If you are self-publishing, you'll take that same not-quite-ready work and publish it, and it will fail miserably. You'll get plenty of feedback telling your work isn't good enough, but little or none telling you what to do about it. Also, you will have established yourself as a second-rate self-publisher, decreasing the chances that anyone will bother trying any of your subsequent work, so even if you do manage to improve it won't matter because nobody will take the time to read your newer, better work.
  - pedrocr 15y ago
    Self-published authors will get more and more frequent feedback from their actual customers. They can build direct relationships with fans. And it's not only about the support for individual authors it's also that more of them will try and a smaller number of sales will support each of them as their cut is now much bigger. Given the economics and the extra favorable dynamics in connecting with the audience it seems like a tall order to me that a publisher can add enough value to justify itself. For feedback on writing being mentored by other writers sounds much better, and to figure out what sells a direct relationship with your audience sounds like a much better deal. This is especially true as the number of books isn't artificially limited by the logistics of paper and everyone can be shooting for a niche of readers.
    - 15y ago