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Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

publishersweekly.com

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Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#41

Post by navigatesol »

vfc1 wrote: post #38

No wonder with Amazon taking 70% of the sales price if the e-book goes even one cent above $9.99. If the e-book is sold below that it's "only" 30% - those are absolutely exploitative conditions! I'm glad that more books are being self-published, I don't trust publishers. I don't know how many times I was aproached on Linkedin and invited to write a book on a topic, just because I've listed it on my profile. If that's…

>If that's how a lot of technical authors are chosen, that could explain a lot about the quality of a lot of books.

I agree, but I don't see how self-publishing makes that problem better and not worse.

>meaning that less books get written.

I have a hard time believing this, in the age of the internet. For one, there's more content produced than ever, and it's still accelerating. Second, do we need more "books"? Why not essays and papers and blogs? Not every idea needs to fill 256 pages; most are best served with a less lengthy medium.

But yes, writing a book is a form of art, like making an album or producing a painting. It's very hard to make a living doing so.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#42

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

m463 wrote: post #3

I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…

Because reputable publishers noticed that people were still buying the self-published ebooks in spite of the lack of solid copyediting or quality typesetting, reputable publishers, too, are starting to cut back on such things.

I am a translator who occasionally translates literature for some big-name publishers, and I find that the onus is sort of on me now to ensure a high-quality final product, because the publisher no longer provides a real hands-on editor to work on the manuscript after me, only a young and inexperienced (and sometimes downright lazy) copyeditor/proofreader.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#43

Post by patio11 »

vfc1 wrote: post #38

No wonder with Amazon taking 70% of the sales price if the e-book goes even one cent above $9.99. If the e-book is sold below that it's "only" 30% - those are absolutely exploitative conditions! I'm glad that more books are being self-published, I don't trust publishers. I don't know how many times I was aproached on Linkedin and invited to write a book on a topic, just because I've listed it on my profile. If that's…

One of the wonderful things about the Internet: if you don't want to pay Amazon 30% there is a universe of people out there you can sell to for 3~5% or so through your own web presence. You just have to go get them.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#44

Post by williamdclt »

avian wrote: post #39
mrfusion wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One counter example is “Harry Potter and the methods of rationality”. Possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read.

I liked reading HPMOR and it's certainly among the best fan fictions I've read, but in my opinion it has all the usual benefits and shortcomings of fanfics: It's based on fascinating ideas and a new perspective on the known world and characters, it has an unconventional story that the author obviously tells in the way he wants. On the other hand it shows a lack of editing. There are whole chapters that don't move the…

I see what you mean but don't really agree, the chapters that do not move the story forward allow to dig into characters, to get a better image of the universe we're reading about. I enjoy reading it, so I appreciate it's here, it helps immersion as the book is not only a specific storyline.

I've always been frustrated in Harry Potter that there's not more writing about the lessons for example. There's quite a bit about it in the first book, then it's more and more scarce.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#45

Post by shantly »

csande17 wrote: post #13
AtomicOrbital wrote: post #2

As an avid reader + book buyer I see little value add coming from the publisher other than marketing which should be available separate from the publisher or lack thereof ... As with other media like music the author/artist should cut out the middle man and reap the bulk of retail costs using print on demand ditto for academic publishing

Publishers can help with a lot of book-related things--typesetting, printing, cover design, and so on--that authors don't necessarily know how to do themselves. Automated print-on-demand services get you most of the way there, but professionals can still do a better job a lot of the time.

The real problem is the money to pay for it all. Most authors can’t afford to gamble four or five figures editing, proofreading, promoting, and distributing a book that may show nearly zero return. Think of publishers as VC for books.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#46

Post by ghaff »

shantly wrote: post #45
csande17 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Publishers can help with a lot of book-related things--typesetting, printing, cover design, and so on--that authors don't necessarily know how to do themselves. Automated print-on-demand services get you most of the way there, but professionals can still do a better job a lot of the time.

The real problem is the money to pay for it all. Most authors can’t afford to gamble four or five figures editing, proofreading, promoting, and distributing a book that may show nearly zero return. Think of publishers as VC for books.

Publishers don't necessarily do a lot of structural editing. Copyediting (proofreading), yes. But that's more like three figures to pay someone to do (which you really do need to do). Non-fiction editors will often also pay for someone to do a technical edit.

Promotion. For the average book, not much. The main promotion/benefit for, say, technical non-fiction is that you're in their catalog and will be on display in venues like trade shows.

Generally speaking, publishers aren't paying for book signing tours, publicists, etc.

Distribution these days isn't a big deal. Everyone can be on Amazon.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#47

Post by vfc1 »

navigatesol wrote: post #41
vfc1 wrote: post #38

No wonder with Amazon taking 70% of the sales price if the e-book goes even one cent above $9.99. If the e-book is sold below that it's "only" 30% - those are absolutely exploitative conditions! I'm glad that more books are being self-published, I don't trust publishers. I don't know how many times I was aproached on Linkedin and invited to write a book on a topic, just because I've listed it on my profile. If that's…

> If that's how a lot of technical authors are chosen, that could explain a lot about the quality of a lot of books. I agree, but I don't see how self-publishing makes that problem better and not worse. > meaning that less books get written. I have a hard time believing this, in the age of the internet. For one, there's more content produced than ever, and it's still accelerating. Second, do we need more "books"? Why…

For example, for web development, there is a lot of introductory content but there is very little in-depth advanced content published by editors. Advanced content is usually self-published.

And not because people are not looking for that, but because it's not profitable for editors to do several books on the same topic at different levels of difficulty.

What they want is another introductory book on another topic, as they know that is what sells better.

An author getting royalties from advanced books would not be able to make a living, but by self-publishing this becomes much more feasible.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#48

Post by sb8244 »

AtomicOrbital wrote: post #2

As an avid reader + book buyer I see little value add coming from the publisher other than marketing which should be available separate from the publisher or lack thereof ... As with other media like music the author/artist should cut out the middle man and reap the bulk of retail costs using print on demand ditto for academic publishing

I've gotten a lot of benefit from Pragmatic while writing my book (went in beta back in August)... Probably more than I thought I would get.

The biggest benefit has been the specific technical editor that I work with as well as the tooling that saves me a lot of time. I think this has led to a much better book that should (hopefully) be felt by readers.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#49

Post by n4r9 »

Retric wrote: post #34
m463 wrote: post #3

I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…

Reputable publications put out less than 1% as many books as are self published, and they still spew a lot of terrible junk. Do you include say Tor etc as reputable? If not that percentage drops further. What self publishing provides is a closer match for your personal interests. That’s only useful if you have unusual tastes, but I have personally given up on published fiction. PS: What recent good reasonably hard sc…

"Children of Time" is fantastic and "Three Body Problem" is good. I haven't read the rest of the Three Body series but it seems popular.

Re: Number of Self-Published Titles Jumped 40% in 2018

#50

Post by qwerty456127 »

m463 wrote: post #3

I have found kindle books that come from a reputable publisher are MUCH higher quality than self-published books. I just don't think many self-published books have the meaningful rejection, editing and proofreading that a publisher provides. That doesn't mean that there aren't good self published books. And things might change over time, if teams form. I think publishing a book requires a team. Meaningful reviews and…

I believe it is probable that an independent individual would be able to provide a useful advice and interesting speculation on the subject of philosophy, psychology, ways of living etc. Everybody is exposed to significant amount of life experience and information and given just that + sufficient intelligence and a habit of analyzing that can come up with something interesting and useful.

At the same tile it probably is much less probable that an independent individual has writing skills necessary to produce a high-quality work of literature.

So we have to choose if we would like to limit our inputs by only considering well-written literature. I believe what I'm actually looking for has high chances of occurring outside that filter. Perhaps we should not insist on getting a pleasurable and a practically valuable reading at the same time.

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