Interesting article over at the NY Times today about self-publishing. I have to thank Robert Swartwood for leading me there. The most thought provoking quote:
"Louise Burke, publisher of Pocket Books, said publishers now trawl for new material by looking at reader comments about self-published books sold online. Self-publishing, she said, is 'no longer a dirty word.'"
Really?
If only I could write a "how to" book on some lousy piece of software...
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/books/28selfpub.html?pagewanted=1
And don't forget to check out the comments section of the Times article. Wacky and insightful.
9 comments:
I think I'll give it a miss. :)
Cate - Yeah, I second that. I was just surprised to hear an industry exec say they even read comments about self-pubs.
It's true there are some self-published success stories (take THE SHACK, for instance), but those are so few and far between.
Unfortunately, many writers use that as an excuse, thinking, Well if it happened to so-and-so, it might happen to me ...
Shame.
Interesting. I think I'd rather go the traditional route instead of rolling the dice on self publishing. My balls are only so big!
My old employer and I thought about putting out a book (with advertisements for their products). It would have basically been a 'how to put together yard art' book. They go to trade shows so it might have sold moderately well, but we didn't follow through with it.
I guess this really is shaking out to be the beginning of the age of 'find another way to do it' with music distribution, access to news, and, now, publishing...exciting, I guess, but it adds another variable to an already difficult and often confusing profession.
I do think it means a deluge of crappy, unedited books in the future.
I forgot to say I don't think I would ever try it with a novel. Too much risk. Traditional route much better for that.
I'm still on the fence about self publishing. For novels, absolutely not..but I think for experimental stuff or short story collections, it could possibly work.
I could see a collection of shorts--pieces previously published elsewhere.
I think the world is changing. I'm just not sure how.
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