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sgannon200 t1_iy5uuin wrote

What does the business model of being an author look like these days? Traditional you'd expect to get a publisher. How much has self publishing changed that market?

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MaxFlorschutzAMA OP t1_iy5wb7c wrote

Very chaotic. I frequently refer to it as an absolute storm of an industry as everything either gets upended or is trying not to be upended. Publishing managed to put off the changes brought about by the internet era for as long as possible, but they couldn't hold it back for every and now everything's crazy.

Trad-pub still exists, the ol' "I'll send a manuscript to every publisher in existence and hope someone bites." But the royalties are a fraction of what they once were, and you give up a lot of control in exchange for less with each passing year (it used to be that if there were signings or promotionals the publisher would pay for them, now it's the author most of the time).

Hybrid-Publishing is rapidly becoming the new force, with authors "double-dipping" into being both indie and traditional. They'll make the trad-pubs bid on upcoming books, or sign a contract that lets the publisher get one book for every 2-3 that the author releases on their own. Publishers don't like this, but it's better than being left out in the cold. Many people would also be surprised how many "big name" authors have switched to this model.

Lastly you've got full indie publishing, like myself. No deals with any traditional publishing house, and selling books either directly or through a traditional middleman without the publisher.

I've written a few pieces about it on my site. Trad pub also spends a lot of money getting pieces written about how the sky isn't falling, ebooks are a fad, or indie publishing will never work for anyone even as they shell out millions of dollars for the rights to publish paperback copies of The Martian, because they don't want the boat rocking.

It's far from over, but seeing as we've gone from the "Big six" traditional publishers down to the 'Big four" and one of the green rooms I've hung out in had a bunch of authors making bets on which would be the next to fall, there's still some shakeup coming.

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