jeriendhal | The Self Publishing "Bubble"

daveamongus wrote an entry commenting on an article in The Guardian about the supposed gloomy prospects of the ebook self-publishing industry. I wrote a reply to his original journal entry that went on a bit about my own experiences, which I thought I might reproduce here.

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There's some good in that article and some fairly fanciful speculation, but the main point is sound. With the advent of Amazon KDP and Smashwords, there's a lot of self-publishing going on right now. It's going to taper off once people get it out of their system and realize that no, they aren't about to become the next Stephen King all on their own, and settle into an equilibrium. But I don't think it's a bubble about to pop and drag people down with it like the financial and housing bubbles. It's not like the initial investment is all that great, especially if you avoid "How to Publish" self-help books and seminars. [1]

The argument that established publishers act as gatekeepers to make sure what a reader is getting what they're paying for is more questionable. Editing is important, but even professional editors get it wrong, as your example of the e-edition of Ready Player One proves. And the most professionally edited, professionally published book can still be a steaming load, as ~~Twilight, Piers Anthony~~ [your favorite hobby horse] proves.

Speaking as a self-published author myself, I'll admit it's harder than it looks to get something nice out there, and that the profits aren't great. My best seller averages about ten sales a month, and combined with sales from my other books I get a whopping $15-20 dollars of profits monthly. In other words, I'm not getting rich off this, but I get some pocket change for something silly I wouldn't normally indulge in. I knew that was probably going to be the result when I went in for this game, so I'm satisfied, especially given it's with zero self-promotion.

Oh, and that best seller? It's a "furry, science-fiction take on an Age of Sail romance novel." In other words, it's not something that any conventional publisher would even think about touching, even if the prose could make Shakespeare weep. But for a work that's written for an extremely small genre it sells pretty well for me, and I'm working on a sequel right now.

One additional note: You might want to check out Micah Hogarth's The Three Micah's blog, which she uses to detail her own insights into self-publishing and self-promotion. I don't know what her sales figures are (she doesn't discuss them), but I know her publishing efforts form a significant portion of her income.[2]

[1] Bringing back the old adage that the ones making money in a gold rush aren't the prospectors, it's the shopkeepers supporting them.

[2] Of course she has the advantage of being able to produce her own cover art, which is my personal bugaboo. I'm convinced most of my sales from Captive of the Red Vixen is because of the lovely cover that Meg did for me gratis.