by Michelle Gagnon
I
feel like there's been an increasingly acrimonious discourse lately on
traditional vs. self-publishing, and frankly, I'm tired of it. I'm
seeing it at conferences, online, and everywhere in between. Both camps
are equally guilty here, in terms of snide comments and blatant
put-downs. Those who are under contract with traditional publishing
houses sniff at the fact that self-published authors skipped over
hurdles to publish what they suspect (but rarely say publicly) must be
drivel, or what one writer friend of mine referred to as a "tsunami of
swill."
In the other camp, the
self-published authors extol the fantastic revenue returns they're
receiving, a far greater percentage than what they would have gotten
from a standard publishing contract. They make lots of references to an
archaic business model, implying that anyone who still partakes in it is
a fool.
Enough already.
I don't really care how someone is published, or how many
books they sell, or how much money they're making. But the overall
nastiness that's becoming commonplace is off-putting. The prevailing
attitude used to be, "we're all in this together" among writers, whereas
now there's a schism. And that's a shame, because both models have
their merits.
To those (like me) who are still publishing with the
major houses: I've read wonderful novels in the past few years that
failed to find a home. Sometimes the reason for that was clear--the book
was aimed at a very niche market, one where publishers couldn't
envision making a profit. Other times, I was at a loss to know why a
particular book didn't sell. One was an amazing YA novel written by a
friend of mine, who ended up self-pubbing on Wattpad. After reaching an
extraordinary amount of downloads, she moved it to Amazon and started
charging for it. And it's doing well- IMHO, the publishers lost out on
this one.
To self-published authors: The traditional houses aren't
going anywhere. People frequently point to the music industry, which is a
fantastic example. What they fail to take into account is that
musicians still aren't, by and large, self-producing music. Eighty-five
percent of the music sold worldwide is still produced by the same music
companies that were producing it a decade ago. Many of those companies
have merged and/or consolidated, sure. But they're still around, for the
same reason that the big 6 will still be around in a decade. Like it or
not (and I'm not, personally, a huge fan of this, but so be it), most
of the houses are part of much larger conglomerates. And News Corp and
CBS aren't going anywhere; they're also unlikely to shed an industry
that still feeds into their film and TV franchises. So, no, people who
still follow the old model aren't going to be shoved out, by and large.
The midlist might diminish further, but books will continue to be
released by those companies well into the future.
There are pros and cons to each model. Self-published
authors don't have the benefit and protection of a contract, so if
Amazon decides tomorrow to change those royalty rates, they're well
within their rights to do so. It's also far more difficult to secure
foreign and film/tv rights when you self-pub, and that tends to be the
bread and butter of traditional authors.
Traditional
authors, meanwhile, do lose out on some royalties that they could
potentially be getting. They also have to wait months, and occasionally
years, for a book to finally appear on shelves. And advances are not
what they once were.
But there's no right way and no wrong way. Write your
book. Publish your book, however you prefer. But please, stop with the
mud slinging. At the end of the day, we're all still pursuing the same
dream.
5 comments:
Definitely, Michelle. Well said. The bottom line for me is that no matter how any of us are published, it takes creative juice & drive to write a book, which should make us kindred spirits with the same passion to create. We should celebrate that.
Good job, Michelle.
This is one of the most intelligent posts I've read on the subject. Bravo for standing up like that.
At the end of the day we are all in this together, and mud-slinging is just bad manners.
I agree - enough is enough.
Paula
Great post, Michelle, on a subject that's been bugging me, as well! I do some of both and I agree that there are pros and cons in each.
Hear hear! If we can get past this sectarian squabbling I think we'll see more and more writers doing both, with "big 6" authors self-pubbing their blacklist or special projects and Indies getting recruited for the big show.
Right on. But something to consider, too: when people are scared and stressed, that always adds fuel to the fire. People are freaked, and we're all looking for ways to get our work out there because we're all competing for a limited number of eyeballs. For people to then get strident about it . . . not much of a surprise.
But a great post.
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