Changes, Changes, Changes

So here I am, watching the changes going on in the publishing industry by reading upwards of a hundred blog entries a day. I just know I’m going to have to dip my toe in. It’s not logical to do otherwise. Judging from what I’ve been reading over the last six months, it’s not logical for a number of reasons:

1. All signs are that independent e-publishing is the slush-pile of the future. Publishers and agents appear to be watching the e-lists of Kindle and Nook and offering contracts based on an author’s success on those lists. The next few months will confirm if this is the case.
2. Traditional publishing is in the midst of re-form. Until it decides on how it’s going to cope with the changes brought about by the new technologies, it will remain in this state of upheaval and instability. It’s not fun to be contracted with a publisher or agent, only to have your contract nullified when their business closes or they have to make cut-backs. It might be better to wait until the market re-stabilizes, before committing months of work and months of waiting to a market that might not survive the current turbulence, and might not notify its content providers of its inability to continue in a timely manner.
3. Earnings from traditional publishing do not compete with earnings from independent publishing. This is borne out by figures provided by writers just starting out, as well as by writers who have a tradition of success in traditional publishing.
4. Earnings from traditional publishers, under the current system, are limited and so is the published life-span of anything they publish. Earnings from self-publishing continue to grow steadily as long as the writer continues to write and produce quality content.
5. Traditional publishing limits the amount of content a writer can make available to the reader. Self-published content is only limited by the author’s ability to write and make it available to the reader.
6. Traditional publishers limit content to what they perceive is viable for ‘The Market’. Independent publishing allows the author to experiment with different material to see what the readers might be interested in, and thus allowing them to gain additional audiences, broadening their overall sales potential.
7. Traditional publishing has a history of not treating its writers well, even its best-selling writers. I was disappointed to learn this, even though it did explain a lot of what I was seeing in, and hearing from, published authors. Self-published authors are responsible for how they treat themselves.
8. Traditional publishing cannot, or does not dare to, take the risks on works that an author can take on their own work. Until it can, it does not offer as broad an opportunity as independently publishing does.
9. Traditional publishing takes the control away from the author, while independent publishing gives the author a large portion of the control—as well as a proportionate amount of the responsibility for their own success or failure.
10. Traditional publishing makes contracts that do not always have the authors best interests in mind. Some of these contracts restrict an author’s ability to develop, market and sell their work to as broad a market as they might otherwise be able to. In addition, the publisher may decide not to pursue all available avenues for selling the work, while at the same time preventing the author from doing so. Self-publishing does not limit the author to the markets they could access, EXCEPT where the author decides not to pursue the marketing options available to them.

On the flip-side, however, the following needs to be considered:

1. Traditional publishing provides an editor. Self-publishing does not.
2. Traditional publishing provides cover art and formatting. Self-publishing does not.
3. Um…

So, why have I been hesitating, afraid to dip my toe in the water? What is it I am afraid of? And now I know, what am I going to do about it?

Let me think, just a little more on it… and while I do that, I’m going to write.

A lot.