I find myself very curious about self publishing. As a musician who has dated an aspiring novelist for 4 years it is often in our discussions. I know throughout history there have been artists, musicans and writers who were not accepted by the mainstream publishing, gallery or music world. They are often the most creative and ahead of their time. The new web world gives them a way to break into the business like never before.
We all know there is a lot of shall we say not good stuff out there getting published in the book and music world. It is often a business more than an art form. As a classical musician my stomach turns when I hear the digitally remastered voices of people who are musically illiterate on the radio. However, I know I have heard some amazingly good music in small clubs, by unknown and highly skilled musicians. It would be wonderful if the masses could also hear and learn to appreciate good old fashioned musicianship again.
In any event I found a neat article about the newest author who self e-published her own book. It is interesting because the article says this often leads to very lucrative contracts with major publishing houses. So the self published book is kind of an attention getter, like Justin Beiber's youtube days i guess ;)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygreenfield/2013/04/17/meet-the-latest-self-publishing-sensation-rachel-van-dyken/
I asked my sweety why he thinks the author would want to go to a publishing house if they could just self publish forever. It has to do with the money, of course, but also the validation from a panel of peers. He thinks that an author would not really feel like they had made it if they were not accepted by the powers that be and their professional peers. The filter of someone else saying it is good enough does mean something to an artist or a professional.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI am also interested in self-publishing.
I have seen so many self-publishing cases in independent music scene.
I am a big fan of Korean Hiphop music, specifically underground scene (independent scene).
Many musicians are publishing their well-made musics for free.
What I want to say is that Korean underground Hiphop scene and culture have been made by them, not by major musician.
Good point. They may never have been signed by a large company, but still got to make and share their music.
ReplyDeleteThere was a break dancing competition at a mall in seoul when I was there ;)
It was very surprising to me that Hip Hop culture was so popular there, I thought it was so American lol
There seems to be a lot of authors self-publishing via Amazon these days (Kindle books), publicizing themselves via blogs and the like. I've not really studied the phenomenon, but have noticed it in genre fiction.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, for most authors there's probably more money to be made via self-publishing. Royalties are not big (I've seen contracts with 6-8% of the net profits, and so you need to sell a lot to make a lot. Much greater control with self-publishing, from choosing the cover, to the length, to the price point. It's appealing.
The benefits of a publisher are mostly their editorial and marketing teams.
I was thinking about self-publishing to translate books, but not for my original work. However, I have not figured out yet how to deal with different publishers who own the original books.
ReplyDeleteOn another topic, one of the best cartoonists in my country these days have left a couple of news papers because they refused or edited his humorous and satirical cartoons about government. So, he is publishing his art on Twitter now and became a celebrity with no career.