On the other side of things, when I’m searching for something to read I get very leery of where I place my time and my money. Even if its only a dollar, I will still invest my time reading it and do not want to be disappointed. This is true whether it is through a publisher or being self-published. As a writer I know that people aren’t going to purchase a piece of work just because its up on the web. I also know that a blog won’t help you sell books if people aren’t reading, or finding that either.

If internet publishing is an option, shouldn’t that be a discussion between the writer and their agent? Publishing houses never used to use agents. People created a career where there was none by recognizing a need and utilizing talent. Wouldn’t a literary agent be able to take what they know and do and tweak it for better internet publishing? I’m sure there is a danger of severing relationships with publishing houses, but I don’t think they will be going anywhere and I don’t think the agents will be going anywhere either, as long as the writer wins and the readers trust.

As a mid-list author who has self-published some backlist, the money I’m making from that means I have to very seriously consider whether it makes sense for me to continue with my print publishing. If I elect to self-pub those front list books instead of re-sign with my pub, there is every indication I will make a LOT more money. On the order of 3x more.

I’m not the only mid-lister looking at the numbers that way, and I won’t be the first, (should it happen) to walk away from a print deal.

Amanda Hocking was offered major money. Her decision makes sense.

The traditionally published mid-lister, who gets essentially little to no support from his publisher is already doing on his own pretty much exactly the same promotion that has to be done for an eBook.

In my opinion, this is a major shake up headed in the direction of the Big 6 who, I believe, are going to see their mid-list shrink not because they’ve dropped them, but because those authors can now make more money without them.

Maybe those publishers will instead end up getting their new authors from the DIY self-pubbers — but they’ll have to offer more money than they currently do and probably under much different terms.

The point of the current process – impress an agent with your book, together you hone it, when it’s honed you impress an editor, you hone it, then when it’s ready you publish – isn’t the *impressing*, it’s the *honing*. You don’t do it to feel awesome, you do it *to make your book better*.

If I’d not been published before – ever — I suspect I’d probably seek validation through agency representation. But I don’t need validation. The reason I’d prefer to work within a traditional model is because I don’t want to take care of all of the time-consuming minutiae. Right now, I’m weighing my options while I do one more round of revisions. I’d like to see how things pan out in the publishing world in the next six months or so before I make my decision. Self-publishing should be for writers who know with a fair degree of certainty that they have a marketable product on their hands. ☺

Agents should be fine – navigating that and making sure the contracts authors sign are a good deal is going to be *more* complicated for authors in the future.

Readers should be fine – more choice, and there will be filtering and gatekeeping, but post-publication. We’ll all gravitate to the ones we’ve heard are good. But, well, don’t we do that already? It’s not as if every single traditionally published novel is the height of awesome now.

Traditional publishers … well, they’re the ones that need to adjust. The deal at the moment seems to be that to adapt to the new reality, they want more rights and fewer obligations, they want the author to do it all and aren’t fast enough to exploit success. The deal for a novelist was never exactly brilliant – if you’re meant to do all the marketing work but get none of the marketing budget or decision-making power …