The Hachette/Amazon standoff seems to have fanned the flames of the traditional vs. self-publishing discussion. Actually, it’s not much of a discussion any more. As I noted recently, publishing journalist Porter Anderson reported abuse—in the form of comments on a post—for something he’d written. Similarly, publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin notes,
I don’t see the “Amazon versus the publishing establishment” battle as a moral choice, just a tug of war between competing business interests. (There are societal questions at stake, which some might see as moral choices, but the companies involved are doing what is best for them and then arguing afterwards that it is also better for society.) When I wrote what I intended to be a balanced piece about the Amazon-Hachette battle, it brought out the troops from the indie author militia in the comment string to call me to task and accuse me of many things … I expect this post will do the same, which I find an unpleasant prospect.
I worry about this lack of civility directed at people like Anderson and Shatzkin, who are both routinely fair and balanced in their reportage, but that’s a subject for another post.
What concerns me here is the discussion about the Great Self-Publishing Money Tree. To wit: You shouldn’t necessarily believe everything you hear about it. Data is hard to come by. Remember that books with ISBNs (all traditionally published books and some self-published books) can be tracked and counted and sales figures and profits extrapolated; books without ISBNs (a great many self-published books) cannot be tracked in any way. Even if a self-pubbed book does have an ISBN, Amazon doesn’t share sales numbers. And private citizens are not required to divulge their income-tax returns, even if they are claiming in their blogs and elsewhere to be making money hand over fist selling self-published novels. (I’m not naming names, but I’m sure you know who some of the very vocal self-publishing evangelists are.)
Some of them are (making money hand over fist). But—as we discussed earlier this week and as Bob Mayer points out in his commentary “Successful Authors Are Outliers, Not Statistics”—they are outliers. The rest are employing what we might call the Facebook Phenomenon: they are putting a good face on things (their sales figures, say).
Shatzkin makes a similar point in another post (one I highlighted recently):
So far, the commercially successful self-published authors overwhelmingly, if not entirely, fall into two categories. There are authors who have reclaimed a backlist of previously published titles and self-published them. And there are authors of original genre fiction who write prolifically, putting many titles into the marketplace quickly. Successful self-publishing authors are often in both categories but very few are in neither. Those two categories are nearly 100% of the self-publishing success stories but a minority of the books from publishers. (Emphasis mine.)
I don’t write this with the intention to discourage anyone from self-publishing. (Although you know I’m opposed to bad—that is, unprofessional—self-publishing. I’ve written about that quite a bit.) It would be helpful to pay attention to Mayer’s comment—
I know very, very few traditionally published authors whose first manuscript was accepted for publication. But how many indie authors are not publishing their first manuscript?
—and apply it to your own career trajectory. How many times have you heard the story of a new author with a runaway best seller who has one or two or three earlier manuscripts gathering dust in a drawer? Those were the author’s practice novels.
Instead, I write this to encourage you to filter what you hear on the interwebs, kids. Investigate. Look at the data and know what you’re getting into. People can be biased, whether it’s intentional or unintentional. They can be so excited about their good fortune—like Hugh Howey (mentioned in the Shatzkin article linked above)—that they become evangelists for the Great Self-Publishing Money Tree. Remember that Howey is an outlier.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the road is long and the way is hard, but the rewards—though maybe not the financial ones—can be very satisfying. It’s important to remember that building a career as an author takes an investment of time and, if you’re self-publishing, money. If you get a handle on your expectations, do good work, and exercise patience, you may find your dreams fulfilled.
Tweet: What concerns me here is the discussion about the Great Self-Publishing Money Tree.
Tweet: Some folks claim to be making money hand over fist selling self-published novels—but are they?
Tweet: Building a career as an author takes an investment of time &, if you’re self-publishing, money.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”