[Writing Post] OMG! The Publishing World is Gonna Die!

This week, the online writing/publishing world has been all a-buzz with the news of best-selling author, Barry Eisler, joining JA Konrath in self-publishing. What made this story so buzz –worthy was that Eisler reportedly turned down a $500,000 2-book deal with a traditional publisher to self-publish his projects on Kindle like JA Konrath.

The story hit all over cyberspace. The story is here, as linked by John Scalzi. Scalzi makes a comment on this whole brouhaha with some good points in his blog this morning. Because there’s a flip side to the freak outs, the writer going the other way. Amanda Hocking, who’s made a following and money being self-published, is now considering a traditional publishing contract. She is in “auction” for a 4-book deal.

Everyone is seeing both of these things as the END OF THE PUBLISHING WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Traditional publishing is dead. Long live self-publishing. OR… Self-publishing is dead. Long live traditional publishing. Yeah. Right. Both and Neither. Scalzi’s post is a breath of…well, take a breath.

What’s my take? Much like Scalzi’s. Why not take advantage of multiple options to your career? IF you can put out a professional-looking product yourself (i.e., edited well, professionally laid out, quality product), then why not self-publish in order to help build an audience or increase your audience. There are options now, why not take advantage of them?

What am I going to do? I’m going to try to use my options. I will continue to pursue Traditional Publishing (both small and large press). Why? Because:

1) I’m a paper snob. I want to hold my book in my hand and sign them with a pen.
2) I have a typical writer’s vanity. I want to go into Barnes and Noble or a really cool indie bookstore and see my book on their shelves. I just wanna. I see friends of mine on the shelf, I want to be on the shelf, too.
3) I want the corporate support. I want the editors, the layout artists, the accountants, and the marketing department. That’s a lot of work (I know, I’ve put out something on my own). I want someone to help take on the financial burden/risk. I don’t necessarily want to do this on my own.

What are my tradeoffs? Simply put, money. I would make more per book sold if I did it myself. But I would also have to pay for everything myself, too. I wish those who do it all on their own a lot of luck. Though part of me (very selfishly and overly-optimistically, I know) thinks the more these established guys go out on their own, the more slots there are for me to sneak into in Traditional Publishing. I think JA Konrath and Barry Eisler are taking a huge risk. So far, it’s paying off for JA Konrath. We’ll see if it works for Eisler – though if it were me, I don’t think I could’ve walked away from $500,000.

Publishing will change. It always does. But I try to remember, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And NOTHING, but NOTHING, is a substitute for a good story, cleanly written, edited, and edited again. Self-publishing may be “easier”, it doesn’t mean it’s better if you can’t put out a good product. Choose carefully and wisely.

Tags: Amanda Hocking, Barry Eisler, e-books, JA Konrath, publishing, Self-Publishing, traditional publishing, Writing