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A few weeks ago I posted three recent spring transcripts for NPR shows discussing the current paradigm change in publishing.  This has been a very controversial subject on the LinkedIn book and poetry forums recently, especially revolving around these three sticky wickets:

  • eBooks
  • Self publishing
  • Social media marketing

  eBooks & Self Publishing

Simon
& Schuster just made an unprecedented contract to a self-published
author letting him keep his self-published eBook rights. Read the story from The Wall Street Journal: "Authors are snubbing publishers and insisting on
keeping e-book rights. How one novelist made more than $1 million before
his book hit stores."

Here's an excerpt from the story:

It's a sign of how far the balance of power has shifted toward
authors in the new digital publishing landscape. Self-published titles
made up 25% of the top-selling books on Amazon last year. Four
independent authors have sold more than a million Kindle copies of their
books, and 23 have sold more than 250,000, according to Amazon.

Publishing houses that once ignored independent authors are now
furiously courting them. In the past year, more than 60 independent
authors have landed contracts with traditional publishers. Several won
seven-figure advances. A handful have negotiated deals that allow them
to continue selling e-books on their own, including romance writers
Bella Andre and Colleen Hoover, who have each sold more than a million
copies of their books.

Print-only deals remain extremely rare. Few publishers want to part
with the fastest-growing segment of the industry. E-book sales for adult
fiction and nonfiction grew by 36% in the first three quarters of 2012,
compared with the previous year. Mass-market paperback sales shrank by
17% in the same period, while hardcover sales declined by 2.4%,
according to a recent report from the Association of American
Publishers.

It's worthwhile to read the NPR stories to get the real scoop on self publishing as it's happening right now.

And last week I found another interesting article from Blogcritics on how Barnes & Noble may be crashing for reasons related to the success of self publishing, "How Amazon Killed Barnes & Noble, and Why We Don't Care":

An excerpt from this story:

Barnes & Noble had a better product, a better reputation, and a
farther reach than anyone else in the book selling business. The problem
was that [CEO Stephen] Riggio misjudged – very badly – how to handle the burgeoning
business of self-publishing.

With the advent of epublishing, writers who could never hope to see
their books in print could get their work to readers without the
time-consuming, and usually fruitless, task of trying to snare an agent,
followed by the even more frustrating job of trying to hook a
publisher. With epublishing, writers could simply upload a file, set a
price, and voila! Instant publication. What's more they could do it
anywhere, any time. No deadlines, no delays. An equal draw was that
writers who epublished could completely control their work…To add icing to the
cake, writers who epublished got to keep 70-80% of their royalties.
Compared to the measly 10% (and that was on a good day) meted out by
print publishing houses, it was a no-brainer.

This surge in self-publishing, owing in large part to e-books,
represents not just people “living the dream,” but an enormous business
opportunity for anyone with the ability to turn other people's dreams
into their hard cash. Barnes & Noble, with its gentlemanly rules of
conduct and brick-and-mortar mentality, simply had no concept of how to
corner the market. Amazon did.

For writers, and for Amazon, it is a win-win situation…And for those writers who simply must hold their
precious darlings in their hands, Amazon also provides print-on-demand.
Amazon’s CreateSpace took first place in the self-publishing world last
year with 57,602 new titles. Amazon is happy. Writers are happy.
Customers are happy. Everybody is happy.

Except Barnes & Noble. Which is dead.

What's interesting to me about these two stories is how critics will ask you to believe that publishers are making money off people
wanting to self publish. And some self publishing sites do charge authors money to hand-hold them through the publishing process.

However, in the case of Amazon's success, it costs their self-published
authors zero dollars to publish a CreateSpace paperback book and zero dollars to publish their Kindle book. Nada to distribute that book via Amazon and only $25 for extra distribution through Broker. All
that money Amazon made recently at the expense of Barnes & Noble is from
book sales.

And that's a paradigm shift. But one that makes everything more interesting and challenging for both traditional
publishers and self publishers. Because these new successes and changes
don't guarantee a hit for anyone.

Social Media Marketing

Whether you self or traditionally
publish, you need to learn how to market yourself. Most published
authors I speak to are telling me they get little marketing help from
their publishers. Doing your own publicity is a skill you must learn in
today's publishing world in either case.

It's hard for me to dismiss social marketing as some writers seem to want to do. Having worked
in the corporate world and in marketing departments, I've seen how
social marketing is a huge part of every business and artist's strategic
plan. And that's just growing every day. If statistics didn't play out
positive returns, I'm telling you they wouldn't do it.

A lot of people tune out traditional marketing AND new marketing; a lot
of people don't. The brilliance of social marketing is that it works
almost entirely by word of mouth, a architecture that should suit the
way readers buy books. But that doesn't mean it will work for everybody.

They say that writing your next (good) book is the best marketing one can do.