YOU ARE KILLING THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY!

{Image of Victor's Mother courtesy of the talented Leonora Roy}

 

YOU ARE KILLING THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY!!

If you are a self-published author, you are!  At least in some quarters:
http://indiereader.com/2012/10/are-self-pubbed-authors-killing-the-publishing-industry/

Our weapons:

1.)  99-cent price point for ebooks.

2.)  Free ebooks via KDP Select program.

3.) Unedited work.

4.) Kindle giveaways to get attention and bulk up sales. And lastly ...

5.) Nasty reviews from other authors with the sole purpose of driving down customer ratings.

THE SADDEST PART OF THAT?

Amazon believed it and re-worked their system to destroy the value of 99 cent books and made it impossible for authors to review other author's works.

OUR ACCUSERS ARE TOP AUTHORS, TOO:

Listen to the 32-time bestselling author Sue Grafton (as interviewed by Leslea Tash for LouisvilleKY.com):

"To me, it seems disrespectful…that a ‘wannabe’ assumes it’s all so easy s/he can put out a ‘published novel’ without bothering to read, study, or do the research.  

Self-publishing is a short cut and I don’t believe in short cuts when it comes to the arts.

           I compare self-publishing to a student managing to conquer Five Easy Pieces on the piano
       and then wondering if s/he’s ready to be booked into Carnegie Hall."

     Gee, I feel like taking a bath in Listerine.

     Of course, Indie authors like John Locke, who was outed by THE NEW YORK TIMES for buying 50 reviews at a time and pumping up the sales of his books, haven't helped either.

     (You see, those bought reviewers purchased 50 books within a single day to write those reviews, sending his book up the rankings over-night.)

     Are our critics in publishing and in the ranks of print authors right?

      Bestselling authors who are talented and hard working – like Grafton – are inclined to believe that publishing is a "meritocracy" where the best work by the most diligent writers gets represented, acquired, published and sold.

       The most famous counter example is that of John Kennedy Toole.

       Many people know that Toole had his great American novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces” rejected by publishers and that he committed suicide at 31.

        They may not realize that Robert Gottleib at Simon & Schuster recognized Toole’s talent but believed Confederacy to be structurally flawed. Gottlieb did not think there was an audience for The Confederacy of Dunces without major revisions –

revisions that would have changed the character of the novel. Toole refused to comply and eventually committed suicide.

     One of the newer Indie stars is Hugh Howey, the science fiction author whose brilliant, dystopian novella Wool has sold more than 200,000 copies in the U.S. alone, sold overseas rights in fifteen countries and was recently optioned by Ridley Scott for a movie.

     Howey in his response to Grafton says:

"Tell me this:  

why is self-publishing antithetical to “honing one’s craft?”  

Who ever received writing advice in a rejection letter as sound as the worst 1-star review out there?  

There’s far more to learn from engaging the market with your product than there is in form letters that tell you not-a-single-frickin’-thing. What’s wrong with testing the waters? Instead of wasting one’s time writing query letters, why not work on that next manuscript instead?"
 

What do you think out there?
{For more on this subject see:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidvinjamuri/2012/08/15/publishing-is-broken-were-drowning-in-indie-books-and-thats-a-good-thing/ }