Nathan Bransford has an excellent post breaking down the Kindle Millionaires, the prices, and some of the debates.
READ IT HERE.
This is a topic I want to explore more. Not just because it's the topic of the moment, but because I'll be looking to publish by the end of the year. I'm not sold on the idea of self-publishing. I've had some negative experiences with Indie books, and it's not a top options.
But I'm realizing more and more that traditional publishing with an agent and an editor is not the only other option.
There are small presses, and e-publishers, and all the rest.
Once I have some hard data, I'll let you know. In the meantime, if you're an author who wants to sit down and talk sales, numbers, and facts I really want to hear from you. Click the E-MAIL button on the right side of the blog right under my name.
I read both of Nathan's posts when they came out - fair assessments, I think.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to talk sales/numbers anytime, of course, but I don't think authors should ever self-pub as a last resort, because you need a certain mindset to do what it takes for successful self-publishing...and if you don't truly believe that it's the best thing for you & your work, you won't convince anyone else of that either. So I'm probably not what you need. I think most authors will still be more comfortable in the long run with trad. publishers (whatever form they eventually take), even if they make less money. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to publish your own books.
I hope you can find some small press authors (e-publishers are small presses...epub is just another method of publishing) that will talk figures, but some (most?) of them are bound contractually not to discuss it, and many simply don't have the sales numbers to talk about, so might be hard to come by. One thing you're insulated from with traditional publishing is that daily sales flux - you probably won't know how well your book is doing from day to day, you'll just get your quarterly (or whatever) reports. That's not necessarily a bad thing. ;-)
Good luck deciding...there's a ton of information out there if you go digging around.
Jamie- I like numbers better than hysteria, it's just the way I think. But I've tracked down someone and I'll post that later this week. :o)
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