Publishers are scrambling to adapt to shifts in the industry as an increasing number of authors turn their backs on the unreachable world of professional publishing. Instead, these authors are becoming business-people in their own rights by choosing the self-publishing route.
The widespread acceptance of e-books and the accessibility of publishing resources and platforms, like Lulu or Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform (KDP), has given these authors a better chance to carve out their own place on readers’ shelves.
A quick Google search for “self published books” brings up a range of these resources, as well as many success stories. When writing about the trend, Wall Street Journal reporter Heidi Mitchell observed, “the cost of producing a paperback has gone from thousands of dollars—from editing and jacket design to printing, distribution and warehousing—to free”.
Mitchell’s article goes on to list a number of successful self-published authors, including former stay-at-home-mum Theresa Ragan, who has seven novels to her name and personal revenue that reached over US $1 million in February 2013.
While Mitchell has stayed on the self-publishing path, other authors, like E.L. James (Fifty Shades of Grey) or Hugh Howey (Wool series) have used it as a platform to be “discovered” by publishers.
Howey, in particular, had a lot of success as a self-published author, raking in six-figure profits for many months before signing on with a publisher (as outlined in the first part of this report). Even then, it was still on his terms.
These success stories have inspired a slew of other authors to do it their way, particularly in the US.
Publishing industry analyst Bowker has reported the number of self-published books produced annually in the U.S. rose to 250,000 in 2012 – more than three times as high as it was in 2006. The opinion and perception of self-publishing has also started to change as a result. “Self-publishing used to be the end of your career, but for me it’s been just the beginning,” author Theresa Ragan said in an interview about her successes.
Making Money Off Authors
Publishers may be struggling to keep profits above water, but a handful of other companies are flourishing as a result of the self-publishing boom. Amazon, in particular, has taken up the change enthusiastically by heavily promoting its services for authors.
As well as the two publishing platforms, KDP and the print-on-demand outfit CreateSpace, Amazon has services like the KDP Select library and Kindle Worlds for people who want to write fan fiction.
In the first full year of KDP Select, Amazon paid authors more than $7 million from the KDP Select fund and boasted that over 500 KDP Select books have reached the top 100 Kindle best seller lists around the world.
Kindle Worlds, on the other hand, launched in May 2013 with secured licenses from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Alloy Entertainment division. The deal means fan fiction writers can now publish stories based on best-selling series including Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries.
“At Kindle, we’re not only inventing on the hardware and software side of the business, we’re inventing new ways to create books,” Philip Patrick, Director, Business Development and Publisher of Kindle Worlds said at the launch of Kindle Worlds. Alongside Amazon are companies like e-book publisher Smashwords, Penguin Books’ Author Solutions and Lulu Enterprises, all of which charge just a few dollars in exchange for access to complete publishing systems.
With all of these opportunities now firmly established in the publishing world, authors are then free launch books on their own terms, helping the companies above profit in the process.
Self-Publishing Pitfalls
While there is no doubt that all of these choices benefit authors and put fear into the hearts of traditional publishers, there are other stakeholders that may not be so enthusiastic about the change: readers.
The ease with which people can now publish books has left many people wondering how they will be able to sort the good from the bad when finding things to read.
Criticism from potential readers of self-published works abounds on blog posts, social media updates and the comment sections of articles about the trend.
“There are a lot of options out there for writers now,” notes one commenter on the WSJ article mentions above.
“Unfortunately, I’ve read some self published stuff from Amazon which really should never have seen the light of day. There’s some good, or even just ok stuff being self published (sic), but a lot of writers have no idea what good writing is.”
The commenter goes on to point out that traditional publishers also act as “gatekeepers” when it comes to bad or good writing, which often makes it easier for readers to figure out the standards of books before they buy them.
With the self-publishing boom still in its infancy, perhaps there are some new gatekeepers yet to be appointed.
But regardless of these bumps in the road, self-publishing is a trend that is becoming an entrenched part of the industry, and affecting everyone that engages with the literary world.
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