From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-publishing is the publication of media by its author without the involvement of an established publisher. The term usually refers to written media, such as books and magazines, either as an ebook or as a physical copy using POD (print on demand) technology. It may also apply to albums, pamphlets, brochures, games, video content, and zines. Web fiction is also a major medium for self-publishing.
In the traditional publishing model, the publisher bears all the
costs and risks of publication, but retains most of the profit if the
book is successful. In self-publishing, the author bears all the costs
and risks, but earns a higher share of the profit per sale.
The $1 billion market of self-publishing has transformed in the
past two decades with new technologies providing increasing alternatives
to traditional publishing. Self-publishing is increasingly becoming the first choice for writers. Most self-published books sell very few copies.
Those which sell large numbers are newsworthy because they are so rare.
The quality of self-published works varies considerably, because there
are no barriers to publication and no quality control.
History
Early examples
Self-publishing is not a new phenomenon. While most novels were
distributed by established publishers, there have been authors who chose
to self-publish, or even start their own presses, such as John Locke, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Martin Luther, Marcel Proust, Derek Walcott, and Walt Whitman. In 1759, British satirist Laurence Sterne's self-published the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy. In 1908, Ezra Pound sold A Lume Spento for six pence each. Franklin Hiram King's book Farmers of Forty Centuries was self-published in 1911, and was subsequently published commercially. In 1931, the author of The Joy of Cooking
paid a local printing company to print 3000 copies; the Bobbs-Merrill
Company acquired the rights, and since then the book has sold over
18 million copies. In 1941, writer Virginia Woolf chose to self-publish her final novel Between the Acts on her Hogarth Press, in effect starting her own press.
Stigma
Five years ago, self-publishing was a scar. Now it's a tattoo.
Until the advent of ebooks and POD technology, most self-published books were published through a vanity press,
so called because such authors were assumed to be egotistical writers,
unable to accept their work was not good enough to be accepted by
traditional publishers. James D. Macdonald claimed that vanity publishing violated Yog's Law which states that "Money should flow toward the author."
Vanity publishing usually required a one-time payment of $5,000 to
$10,000 to do a print run of 1000 books; these books usually ended up in
boxes in a garage.
This modern printing press takes digital files and prints books.
Photographer-turned-publisher Max Bondi said that "investing in a project shows that you believe in it".
Nevertheless, part of the reason for the negative stigma is that many
self-published books are of dubious quality, because they are written by
authors who are still learning their craft, and have never been edited
or even proof-read. For example, in 1995, a retired TV repairman
self-published his autobiography in which he described how he had been
stepped on by a horse when he was a boy, how he had been almost murdered
by his stepfather when he was a young man in Mexico, and how his
ex-wife had clawed his face with her fingernails. The repairman spent
$10,000 to have his 150-page masterpiece printed up, and, for promotion
purposes, he sent copies to a local library, to the White House, and to
everybody with the repairman's same last name. These efforts did not
lead anywhere; today, the book is largely forgotten.
Self-publishing is still seen as a "mark of failure" by many. The image of self-publishing has been improving and some feel the stigma is gone entirely, while others feel it still has a way to go to cultivate respectability. "No, I don't want to read your self-published book", the book critic Ron Charles complained in the Washington Post,
arguing that self-published books lacked quality and were typically
published by authors with little understanding of the literary
marketplace.
However, rare breakaway bestsellers such as Fifty Shades of Grey and The Martian were self-published, helping to lend respectability to self-publishing in general.
Furthermore, with new avenues of self-publishing, there are more
opportunities for authors to break through directly to audiences.
For decades, the literary world
dismissed self-published authors as amateurs and hacks who lacked the
talent to land a book deal. But that attitude gradually began to change
with the rise of e-books and the arrival of Kindle from Amazon, which
gave authors direct access to millions of readers.
Technological changes
In
previous decades, publishing meant going through agents and publishers.
Today, self publishing permits authors to bypass publishers and
bookstores and sell directly to the public.
A huge impetus to self-publishing has been rapid advances in technology, particularly the exponential growth of the Internet and a general shift from analog to digital technology.
The Internet has been described as a "great equalizer" in the
publishing world, since it enables an author to put their books out
there and "stand naked before the world." Costs for printing and distributing a book have fallen dramatically. Advances in e-book readers and tablet computers have improved readability; such devices allow readers to "carry" numerous books in a small portable device.
These technologies make it possible to have a book printed or digitally
delivered after an order has been placed, so there are no costs for
storing inventory. Print-On-Demand (or POD) technology, which became
available in the mid-1990s,
can produce a high quality product equal to those produced by
traditional publishers; in the past, one could easily identify a
self-published title by its lack of quality.
Print-on-demand was easy, since an author could simply upload a
manuscript, choose an interior file format and a cover, and the book
could be printed as needed, avoiding warehousing costs, and reducing the
risk of being stuck with a huge unsold inventory.Further,
the Internet provides access to global distribution channels via online
retailers, so a self-published book can be instantly available to book
buyers worldwide. A Canada-based firm named Wattpad offers streaming video productions based on the stories of self-published authors as of 2017.
An Espresso Book Machine at a bookstore.
Internet transmission of digital books was combined with print-on-demand publishing with the invention of the Espresso Book Machine which was first demonstrated at the New York Public Library
in 2007. This machine prints, collates, covers, and binds a single
book. It is in libraries and bookstores throughout the world, and it can
make copies of out-of-print editions. Small bookstores sometimes use it
to compete with large bookstore chains. It works by taking two
Internet-delivered pdf
files, one for the text and one for the cover, and then prints an
entire paperback book in a matter of minutes, which then drops down a
chute.
Amazon's introduction of the Kindle and its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP, in 2007 has been described as a tipping point in self-publishing, which "opened the floodgates".
It was an "exclusively electronic self-publishing platform" which was
e-book only, free for authors to upload their books, and gave authors
control over how their books were priced as well as access to the same
distribution channels as major publishers.
Self-publishing today
In recent times the publishing industry as a whole has been in a great deal of flux, in a sort of "Wild West" state. The online retailing giant, Amazon,
has had a huge impact on the book-selling industry, driving many
brick-and-mortar bookstores out of business and making inroads into
publishing as well. Amazon has enticed readers away from bookstores and
into an online environment, and its KDP and CreateSpace distribution
channels have spawned a huge growth in self-publishing. As a result, the
numbers of self-published authors are ever-increasing.
There is an anti-establishment aspect to self-publishing, in that
it has been seen historically as a way to defy authority or resist
oppression. The self-publishing movement can also be viewed as a part of the Do-it-yourself culture which "flourishes in environments of communitarian support." A writer who is rejected by the usual system can find solace in self-publishing.
Some struggling authors complained that the traditional publishing
model was too "insular", keeping out different ideas about stories as
well as ones with unusual characters or plotlines, or which dealt with
minorities, and self-publishing was a way for these formerly outcast
writers to connect with readers. Libraries have also become involved with self-publishing; the Library Journal
and Biblioboard worked together to create a self-publishing platform
called Self-e in which authors submit books online which are made
available to readers. These books are reviewed by Library Journal, and the best ones are published nationwide; authors do not make money this way but it serves as a marketing tool.
The dramatic changes have impacted the standard publishing
industry as well, which is controlling a smaller share of the overall
publishing market, forcing many traditional publishers to consolidate to
reduce costs. The squeeze has been applied to such authors, some of
whom have complained that traditional publishers have often asked for
the author to contribute part of the start-up expenses personally, in
effect deviating from the usual model of the publisher providing all
upfront expenses.
Self-publishing is still a "difficult and demanding way to go" but is
increasingly becoming a respectable, if alternative, choice for a
writing career. Self-publishers who are savvy, motivated and hard-working, can build audiences and make money.
Controversies and problem areas
A
few decades ago, in order for a book to reach the public, it had to
pass successfully through various filters or screens, such as agents and
publishers and bookstores, and be approved. Today authors can bypass
established agents and publishers (the filters) and bring their
creations directly to book buyers.
In the traditional publishing model, editors and publishers act as a
filter or screen, weeding out possibly radical, badly written, or
otherwise substandard content. In contrast, self-publishing enables
authors to bypass this filter and sell their books directly to the
public. The wide-open uncensored nature of self-publishing has caused
problems and controversies with pornographic or abuse-themed content.
Amazon has a policy against selling content relating to rape and incest
and bestiality which states "We don't accept pornographic or offensive
depictions of graphic sexual acts", but it is sometimes difficult for
book distributors to distinguish what type of content is acceptable and
what is not. Some retailers have had to remove problematic content.A survey found that self-published erotica
had more extreme themes than mainstream books. Erotica is about one
percent of the mainstream market but 29 percent of the self-published
market, according to one informal survey in 2013.
There have been some controversial self-published books, such as
that of a man who posted a photo of his dead wife, whom he had murdered. Celebrity Kim Kardashian self-published a 445-page book which consisted entirely of selfies, a book described in Slate magazine as having "no literary ambitions at all – it barely has words."
While editors at a traditional publisher would often insist on fact-checking, and doing due diligence
regarding claims made by an author, there are no requirements in the
self-publishing model for this to happen. Self-publishing has attracted
political provocateurs such as Milo Yiannopoulos who was able to publish his tome Dangerous on Amazon despite being dumped by traditional publisher Simon & Schuster as well as Breitbart after a video surfaced of him condoning pedophilia.
As a check on self-published content, and as part of its overall
strategy of empowering consumers by giving more information, Amazon
permits reviews of its products, including books that it sells. However,
it is possible for self-published authors to game the Amazon
review system to make their books appear better than they are, perhaps
by encouraging large numbers of five-star reviews by paying anonymous
reviewers to write fake laudatory comments. According to one view, the system is at serious risk of fraud and deception.
Amazon has responded by emphasizing reviews in which the book purchase
is verified, and it has fought back by, in some cases, suing people and
service firms who sell fake reviews.
A problem for some successful self-published authors is plagiarism.
It is relatively easy for a manuscript to be copied and changed in
superficial ways, but changed sufficiently so that it is hard for
plagiarism-detecting software to catch the similarities between the real
book and the plagiarized copy; then the copy can be uploaded online
under a new title and different author name, which can earn royalties
for the plagiarist. For example, author Rachel Ann Nunes, who wrote A Bid for Love in 1998, found that her manuscript had been plagiarized, with a nearly identical book entitled The Auction Deal. Nunes hired a lawyer to track down the plagiarists.
In the previous publisher-dominated system, a publisher would have been
liable for selling a plagiarized book, but in the world of
self-publishing, there are no liabilities involved if Amazon removes the
plagiarized titles. It is often difficult to catch and prosecute the plagiarists, who can use false identities.
Future trends
| Predictions
|
| Most fiction sales will come from e-books
|
| Indie authors and smaller presses will be dominant
|
| Amazon titles will be the bestsellers
|
| Kindle Unlimited readership will keep growing
|
| Increased competition as market is flooded
|
| Audiobooks will become more popular
|
| Facebook ads will be less persuasive
|
| International sales will spur profits
|
| Increasingly authors will work together
|
| Source: Chloe Smith 2017[31]
|
The publishing industry, including self-publishing, is changing so
rapidly that it is hard to make accurate predictions about where it is
headed. It is likely that self-publishing will continue to grow, and
that authors will demand more and more data about their readers as well
as how well their books are selling. Self-publishing is growing in marketing sophistication and ambition, according to one view.
Regarding the e-book market, there are predictions that
independent authors will be grabbing an increasing slice of this market.
Traditional publishers are losing ground in the e-book market,
according to several sources. E-books published by traditional
publishers declined by 11 percent from 2015 to 2016.
The drop in e-book sales was really more of a phenomenon in which
established publishers were raising the prices of their e-books, and saw
a relative decline in sales compared to their print offerings. In contrast, sales of self-published e-books have been increasing. An increasing number of e-books are being read on tablets as opposed to dedicated E-book readers.
One forecast was that digital sales would continue to increase over
time, and paper-based publishing would become a "niche market" like with
newspapers and magazines.
A report in 2017 suggested that Amazon was working on a system to transform foreign language fiction into English with its AmazonCrossing service. Amazon accounted for 10 percent of all translated foreign fiction books, according to one report.
Main routes to self-publishing
There are an increasing variety of resources for authors choosing the self-publishing route.
Basic pathways to publishing
Publishing guru Jane Friedman breaks out the publishing routes for authors into basic categories:
- Traditional publishing. Authors don't pay any publishing-related expenses.Large well-established publishing firms include the so-called 'Big Five': Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan,
including their dozens of imprints. These large publishers prefer
authors with mainstream appeal, particularly celebrity or "brand-name"
authors, and they bear most of the risk associated with publishing. They
typically offer an advance payment, and sometimes authors can get a
slice of the book profits. Publishers own the rights and control most
aspects of publication, especially the design of the cover and the
choice of a title.
They can get books into brick-and-mortar bookstores and get reviews in
mainstream media. Mid-size traditional publishers are smaller than the
Big Five but often offer the same arrangements. Small and independent
presses are harder to categorize but vary from well-established boutique
presses to "mom-and-pop" start-ups
with little experience. They accept more first-time authors and often
don't require authors to hire agents in order to approach them. Authors
may not receive advances but may get larger shares of the profits. It is
harder for smaller presses to get books into bookstores.
- Hybrid publishers. There are intermediate arrangements
between traditional and self-publishing in which both author and
publisher bear some of the costs of development, sometimes called
"cooperative publishing".In
some of these models, a hybrid publisher may offer selected services to
help an author get a book published, such as story editing, copy editing, proofreading, and marketing and public relations such as promotion through social media and search engine optimization strategies. Many such firms have their own online bookstores.
It is important for authors considering a hybrid approach to fully
understand what services will be included, and at what cost, and to
fully understand the terms of any contract. Some intermediary firms
offer less-than-ideal contracts, which make it hard for an author to get
out of the deal at a later time, and can take a disproportionate share
of profits; one adviser suggests it's "buyer beware" when hiring such
firms.
With this model, the author funds the publication of the book,
sometimes spending thousands of dollars, to get the know-how and editing
skills of the publisher.
Quality of services and the terms of contracts vary widely. Some
professionals who used to work in the traditional publishing industry
work in hybrid firms. As a general rule, royalties are less than true
self-publishing but more than traditional publishing. Books rarely get
into bookstores.
- Assisted self-publishing. These firms charge fees for various
publishing-related services such as formatting and cover design and
copyediting, and make their money from these services alone, but authors
earn all of the royalties and retain control over editing and cover
design and title. Firms that offer help with publicity and marketing are
generally not a good deal, and firms that have pushy sales tactics such
as AuthorSolutions should be avoided. There are books, such as The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine, which can guide would-be authors.
For authors who are serious about making money through self-publishing,
it is vital to have quality artwork, particularly on the cover, as well
as interior formatting, and professionals doing publicity work, so
hiring competent freelancers is critical.
- True self-publishing. The author controls the entire
publishing process from start to finish, and can hire freelancers to
help with wherever the author requires, such as cover designers, copy
editors, and story editors. It is necessary for the author to think like
an entrepreneur and take charge of all variables, and as much as
possible, get the finished book to look like a quality product. All
profits and rights stay with the author but it is nearly impossible to
get the book into bookstores unless it becomes a breakout bestseller,
which is highly unlikely. Authors can sell their e-books through online
platforms, and can distribute them through e-book distributors or
print-on-demand firms.
Process of self-publishing: from concept to manuscript
| Steps to publication
|
| Idea and concept
|
| Writing
|
| Rewriting
|
| Story editing
|
| More rewriting
|
| Copyediting
|
| Layout and typesetting
|
| Cover design
|
| Purchase an ISBN
|
| Select platform(s)
|
| Choose price
|
| Choose distribution channel(s)
|
| Upload
|
| Marketing and promotion
|
The author as a self-publisher also takes on many of the creative
tasks to complete the finished works, which include creative writing as
well as selecting the writing software, editing, marketing, and cover
design. While self-publishing means that the author is in control
of the entire process of production, from writing and editing, to
layout to distribution, and to choosing publishing platforms and
selecting marketing variables such as the price, many of these tasks can
be outsourced to professionals. Professionals can be located through
search engines, freelancing websites such as Reedsy,),
word of mouth, identifying and contacting creative assistants who have
worked on already-published books, and searching relevant forums.
Authors can spend up to $5000 for a variety of services to assist with
publishing.
There is strong agreement that self-published authors fare better
if they are able to employ a skilled editor, preferably one with a
financial interest in the success of the book, and who can bring a savvy
understanding of the market as well as a strong sense of story
development. Self-published author James Altucher describes working with an editor:
Nils and I went back and forth on
more than 15 different rewrites for my book. The difference between the
original version and the final version is like the difference between
chicken shit and chicken salad.
— Self-published author James Altucher in 2013
A liability for self-published authors is that if they can find a skilled editor, he or she is still being paid
by the author for upfront editing work, and may not care whether the
book is successful or not. A big advantage for working with a
traditional publishing arrangement is having an editor and publisher who
have a financial interest in making the book a bestseller.
A self-published author is responsible for the technical aspects
of self-publishing, which include formatting for printing and digital
conversion.
Formatting can be complex and time-consuming but patient people can
learn how to do it by themselves, but often hire this task out to
experienced freelancers.
Unless a book is to be sold directly from the author to the public, an International Standard Book Number or ISBN is required to uniquely identify the title. ISBN is a global standard used for all titles worldwide. Most self-publishing companies either provide their own ISBN to a title or can provide direction about how to get one. A separate ISBN number is needed for each edition of the book.
It may be in the best interest of the self-published author to retain
ownership of the ISBN and copyright instead of using a number owned by a
vanity press.
The direction of the marketing and promotion effort is the
responsibility of the author. Self-published authors can negotiate to
have audiobooks made.
Publishing platforms
The
dominant self-publishing platform is Amazon which controls the vast
share of the market, but there are numerous competitors and platforms in
which authors can upload and sell their books.
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP is Amazon's e-book publishing unit which was launched when the company began selling its Amazon Kindle book reading device in 2007. Books can be published in numerous languages. Amazon's KDP has hundreds of thousands of self-published titles. Amazon's KDP program uses ASIN identifiers instead of ISBNs to identify e-books. Amazon does not release sales figures of its authors. Many authors prefer Amazon for its global clout and reach.
One analysis suggested that Amazon earned $2.3 billion from e-book
revenues in 2016, and 25 percent of these were from self-published
e-books; and Amazon released 4 million e-book titles in 2016, and 40
percent of them were self-published. Another estimate was that Amazon controls 70 percent of the e-book market.
Amazon's Kindle Unlimited service lets readers read any
books in its catalog, provided that the users pay a monthly fee. Amazon
tracks which books are selected and read by subscribers. An author who
wants to have their book included in this program enters into Amazon's KDP Select
program, and as part of the agreement, the author promises to make
their book exclusive to Amazon. The author can opt out of the KDP
program every ninety days. An estimate in 2017 was that of Amazon's
Kindle Unlimited market, about 60 percent of the books read and borrowed
were self-published.
Amazon initially began the program by paying authors whenever their
book was chosen, but then it switched to an arrangement in which it pays
authors based on pages read. Each month, Amazon establishes a fund from
which to pay authors, based on Amazon's accounting of which pages are
read. Amazon has been criticized for short-changing authors by paying
them out of this monthly fund.
As a result of the program, many Amazon authors found that their income
decreased substantially when the company switched to the pages-read
basis.
The collective fund for KDP authors in August 2017 was $19.4 million
which was the "largest ever" of the monthly funds, but overall authors
received the lowest amount, which was $0.00419 per page for that month.
Some authors tried to compensate for less income by slightly altering
and republishing their work, to try to increase the total of pages read. The change to the pages-read model was criticized as being a "huge pay cut" for authors. None of the big 5 publishers contributed books to Kindle Unlimited as of 2017.
IngramSpark
IngramSpark
lets authors publish digital, hardback and paperback editions of their
books. It distributes books to most online bookstores. Bricks-and-mortar
stores can also order books from IngramSpark at wholesale prices for
sale in their own venues. It is run by Ingram Content Group.
Apple
Apple sells books via its App Store which is a digital distribution platform for its mobile apps on its iOS operating system. Apps can be downloaded to its devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch handheld computer, and the iPad. Apple pays authors 70 percent of its proceeds at its Apple iBookstore where it sells iBooks.
Smashwords
Smashwords
is a California-based company founded by Mark Coker which allows
authors and independent publishers to upload their manuscripts
electronically to the Smashwords service, which then converts them into
multiple e-book formats which can be read on various devices. Authors
control what price is set.
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble pays 65 percent of the list price of e-books purchased through its online store called Pubit.
Kobo
Kobo
is a Canadian company which sells e-books, audiobooks, e-readers and
tablet computers which originated as a cloud e-reading service.
Scribd
Scribd is an open publishing platform which features a digital library, an e-book and audiobook subscription service.
It began as an online sharing site for books, and evolved into a store;
books published there entitle an author to 80 percent of the sales
price.
Lulu
Lulu is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing and distribution platform.
PublishDrive
PublishDrive
is an online firm which helps authors with every stage of the
self-publishing process, including design of their books, distribution
and marketing.
Print-on-demand
Print-on-demand (or POD) publishing refers to the ability to print
high-quality books as needed. This is usually the most economical option
for self-publishers who expect sales to be sporadic over time. An
alternative is to hire a printing press to do a print run in which a
large number of books are printed at one time, such as a hundred or a
thousand copies, which can result in a slightly lower per-book printing
cost, but risks holding onto unsold inventory for an extended period.
Print-on-demand means that a book is printed only after it is purchased,
lessening the risk, which eliminates the need for expensive warehouse
space.
Many companies allow single books to be printed at per-book costs which
are not much higher than those paid by publishing companies for large
print runs.
Ingram is the largest book distributor, and it can help self-published
authors get access to 39,000 bookstores, according to one report.
The physical quality of print-on-demand self-published books is
generally the same as that from an established publisher, although
quality can in some instances vary.
E-books
The online retailer
Amazon is transforming the publishing industry.
Generally self-publishing works best with e-books because, unlike
print-on-demand self-publishing, it solves the twin problems of price
and distribution.
There are a variety of e-book formats and tools that can be used to
create them. Because it is possible to create e-books with no up-front
or per-book costs, this is a popular option for self-publishers. When a person buys an E-book, the buyer does not own the book, but owns a license only to read the book.
Formatting standards for e-books continue to evolve; at present, there
have been compatibility problems with some digital e-book readers. For
example, a recent EPUB 3.1 e-book format is not compatible with earlier e-book readers such as the Kindle. E-book formats include EPUB, MOBI and PDF, among others. In 2017, there was a report in the Chicago Tribune that e-books sales are continuing to increase.
E-publishing distributors allow an author to sell on multiple
platforms, often providing conversion and formatting services, usually
charge no fees upfront, and make money by taking a small percentage of
each book sold.
Web fiction
A major development in this century has been the growth of web fiction, on the Internet. A common type is the web serial.
Unlike most modern novels, web fiction novels are frequently published
in parts over time. Web fiction is especially popular in China, with
revenues topping US$2.5 billion, as well as in South Korea. Online literature in China plays a much more important role than in the United States and the rest of the world.
Most books are available online, where the most popular novels find
millions of readers. They cost an average of 2 CNY, or roughly a tenth
of the average price of a printed book. Shanda Literature Ltd.
is an online publishing company that claims to publish 8,000 Chinese
literary works daily. Joara is S. Korea's largest web novel platform
with 1.1 million members, 140,000 writers, an average of 2,400 serials
per day and 420,000 works. Joara's users have almost the same gender ratio, and both fantasy and romance genres are popular.
Vanity press
Users pay to have their books published. While a commercial
publisher's market is the book-buying public at large, the vanity
publisher's market is the author himself or herself. Some authors buy
substantial copies of their own book which are then used as giveaways or
promotional tools. The term vanity press is considered
pejorative since it suggests that a person who hires such a service is
unqualified or unable to have their book succeed in the market, and that
the author is printing the book only out of vanity.
In this business model, there can be elements of fraud, such that some
vanity presses masquerade as legitimate publishers, and pretend to be
selective and choosy in their book selections, and prey upon a would-be
author's desire to be published. If a vanity press charges a higher
amount to print a run of books than a regular printer, it can be an indication of deception and fraud.
Self publishers
Kindle Direct Publishing
CreateSpace
was Amazon's print-on-demand book publishing service. Authors could
sign up for an account, and the online software guided an author through
the steps of publication, such as uploading a cover, selecting
distribution channels and setting prices.
Books uploaded to CreateSpace became part of Amazon's online catalog
and were made available to book buyers around the world. Amazon
collected revenues from book sales on behalf of authors, and then
deposited royalty monies directly into an author's account, usually
after a few months or so after the sale.
CreateSpace offered additional services to help authors, such as cover
design and copyediting ($120+) as well as converting the manuscript file
to a Kindle-compatible e-book file ($70).
CreateSpace offered authors free book identifying numbers or ISBNs
without extra charge, or authors could buy their own ISBN numbers. In
August 2018 CreateSpace was absorbed into Amazon's Kindle Direct
Publishing (KDP).
Smashwords
Smashwords publishes and distributes e-books.
Smashwords authors keep 60 percent of the sale price, and Smashwords
keeps 10%, and the retailer keeps 30%; if a sale is made directly
through Smashwords, the author keeps 85 percent of the sales price. Smashwords provides a list of freelance assistance services.
In 2017, it distributed 250,000 titles for 60,000 authors to most of
the world's e-book stores in exchange for a cut of the author's profits. Smashwords books can go on sale a few minutes after they're uploaded.
I believe every writer is great and
wonderful and has something to share with the world. Readers will
decide if what they're sharing is worth reading.
— Mark Coker of Smashwords, 2013
Lulu
Lulu
publishes print and e-books and offers publishing-related services such
as website design, cover design, editing packages, and strategies for
social media promotions. It was founded in 2002.
Lulu charges nothing upfront, and each time a book is sold, it keeps 20
percent of the profit and pays 80 percent to the author.
Lulu offers additional services such as editing ($450) and cover design
($130) and other services such as design and formatting which can cost
from $700 to $5000. Lulu enables authors to print books not only in paperback form, but in hardcover and comic book forms as well.
Author Solutions
Author
Solutions sells services such as editing, e-book production and
marketing services. According to one report, it served 170,000 authors
who wrote 200,000 titles as of 2017. Penguin Random House, a mainstream publisher, once bought, then sold, Author Solutions.
FastPencil
FastPencil sells editing services, as well as consulting services related to publishing and distribution, for a fee.
Matador
Matador is the self-publishing imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd, a traditional publishing company based in Leicester, United Kingdom.
In the last 19 years Matador has published over 5000 titles in book and
ebook formats, approximately 500 titles a year. The company not only
has print 'on demand' distribution, but sales representation by Star
Book Sales and distribution to retailers via Orca Distribution. It
published Louise Walters second novel, A Life Between Us, in 2017, as well as Polly Courtney's Golden Handcuffs and Ben Hunt-Davis' Will It Make the Boat Go Faster, which sold over 40,000 copies.
Other services
There
are a variety of freelance professionals available through the Internet
who can assist with a wide variety of publishing-related tasks.
The self-publishing market
Some professors self-publish their own textbooks, such as this 1978 textbook written by
Margaret Holtrust- Overall publishing market is expanding. Since 2000, there has been an increase in the sales of digital titles, audiobooks, self-published paperbacks,
including printed as well as e-books. The overall market for all books,
including from traditional publishers, is growing as well.
- Explosive growth of new titles. The growth in new titles has
been strong, particularly in the past decade. In 2002, there were a
quarter million new titles, but since 2009, the number of new titles has
topped 1.3 million each year. In 2010, according to a different analysis, there were 4.2 million new titles published.Much
of the growth in new titles has been because of self-publishing. In
2011, self-published books made up 43 percent of all print titles,
helping to increase overall growth of print production, according to
Bowker market research.
In the middle of the second decade, the growth of print titles seemed
to ebb somewhat, perhaps eclipsed by the growth of e-book titles. For
instance, from 2014 to 2015, print titles grew by 34%; from 2015 to
2016, print titles grew but more slowly by 11%. That is the growth of new titles; book sales increased as well, growing by percent percent in 2016. In 2017, there were reports that sales of physical books were increasing in the United States.
- Strong growth in self-publishing. There has been a "dizzying rise in self-publishing," according to one view. Self-published book titles in production tripled from 2006 to 2012. 2008 was a watershed year; for the first time in history, more books were self-published than those published traditionally.
In 2009, 76 percent of all books released were self-published, while
publishing houses reduced the number of books they produced. Back in 2008, there were 85,468 self-published titles; in 2011, 247,210; by 2012, 459,000; by 2013, 458,564; by 2017, 786,935 self-published ISBNs. During a period of six years, growth of self-published titles was a remarkable 218%.
These numbers don't count titles published by Amazon's KDP which
identifies books by ASIN numbers instead of ISBN numbers. These are
worldwide figures, but the numbers are strong for particular markets as
well; for example, in the United Kingdom, readers bought 18 million
self-published books in 2013, a 79 percent increase from the year
before.
The numbers are strong for particular platforms too; for instance, in
2012, of books sold by Amazon's Kindle KDP service, a quarter of those
sales were self-published.
- A saturated market of mostly junky titles. The self-publishing ecosystem has become flooded with titles.
While self-publishing overall is booming, most new titles are poorly
written or confused or otherwise lacking in appeal. There are a few
dozen self-published books that are winning most of the sales, so for
the others, even quality self-published books seeking to get attention,
it is increasingly difficult to be noticed. Of profits paid to authors
by Smashwords, the best-selling one percent of titles earn half of all
sales money.
Some authors earn modest profits from their work. For example, writer
Wayne Hicks of Arkansas published five titles, spending $700 on editing
and marketing services, and spent a thousand hours creating and
promoting his books; he's sold a thousand copies for a profit of $1,400.
The largest, by far, percentage of
authors are making less than $500 a year self-publishing, because
there's a glut. There's over 350,000 books being self-published every
year and readers are not finding them. There's just no way to expose
people to all of these books.
— Novelist M.J. Rose in 2012
Amazon.com owns about 70 percent of the e-book market, according to publishing guru
Jane Friedman, citing statistics from Michael Cader of Publishers Marketplace, in September 2017.
- E-books expanding. E-books are a relatively new
technology, and growth in the number of e-book titles as well as sales
have been strong since the middle of the first decade. In 2011 and 2012
the size of the market, in terms of trade publisher e-book revenues, was
$2 billion, about 16 percent of the total trade industry. Monthly e-book sales increased 49 percent from 2011 to 2012.
On another measure, based on statistics from Smashwords, the service
had only 140 e-books published in 2008; by 2016, it had published 98,000
e-books. In another measure, from the six-year period from 2011 to
2017, e-book sales on Smashwords tripled.
In the e-book market on Amazon, self-published titles were estimated at
about 40 percent of unit sales, while e-books by traditional publishers
captured about 80 percent of total dollars, because of higher prices.
Several reports indicated that e-book readership and sales among major
publishers had "hit a speed bump" around the middle of the second
decade, from the years 2014 to 2016.
A 2017 survey of 1,200 publishing companies found that the market for
e-books had declined from 22 percent to 18 percent, although the survey
did not count self-published e-books or books published through a single
retailer such as Amazon. From 2015 to 2016, e-books declined in terms of title registrations by −3 percent.
Most likely the decrease was the result of major publishing companies
raising the prices of e-books on average from $6 to $10, which had the
effect of dampening demand. The
"Big 5" traditional publishers include Hachette, HarperCollins,
Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House. These firms
have 37 percent of the overall book market in 2017, but only 26 percent
of the e-book market. Hachette
CEO Michael Pietsch said that one of the reasons for an e-book slowdown
was that readers continue to love the physical form of printed books,
and that the physical book format is "hard to improve on". However
e-books as a format offer numerous benefits, such as the ability to
resize text, to click on a word to learn its definition, to scroll, to
hunt for specific words, and so forth, that it is likely that e-books
will continue to become more popular.
Offices of HarperCollins in the U.K.
- Traditional publishing is losing share. There are major
shifts in the publishing market as a whole, with sales by "indie
publishers", which includes self-publishers, surpassing the "big five"
which includes Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster,
and Penguin Random House.
- More crossover activity. As self-publishing loses its stigma
and its benefits via technology become more apparent, there are more
instances in which new authors choose self-publishing as their primary
route,
as well as established authors leaving traditional publishers and
self-publishing their titles. There are greater instances of
self-published authors selling their books in major retailers such as
Barnes & Noble, Target, and Walmart.
- Rapid growth in all-you-can-read subscriptions.
- Proliferation of devices which can read e-books. These
include smartphones and tablets and laptop computers. As a corollary,
the number of people using single-purpose dedicated e-book reading
devices, such as Amazon Kindles, declined from 30 percent of all adults
in 2013 to 19 percent in 2015.
- Prices being pushed down. Digital piracy, proliferation of
titles, and lower-priced e-books means that there is downward pressure
on prices affecting the entire publishing industry, although the market
as a whole is growing.
- Changing patterns of readership. There are some people who
don't buy or read books, and a few studies suggest that the buying of
books as well as readership are declining for some people. In 2010,
according to one report, nine percent of Americans didn't read a book,
and this increased to 16 percent for 2013.
The same report chronicled a decline in the percentage of American book
buyers, from 21 percent who didn't buy a book in 2010, to 35 percent
who didn't buy one in 2013. In 2016, 72 percent had never read an e-book.
A study in 2017 found that students were better able to assimilate
information when it was read from printed textbooks, rather than online,
although reading online was usually faster than print, and students
thought, mistakenly, that they learned better by reading online.
- Self-publishing is dominated by Amazon. Amazon commanded 70 percent of the self-publishing market in 2014.
There are competitors such as Smashwords and others but the lion's
share of the market is owned by Amazon. An estimate in 2017 was that
Amazon had four million books for sale in its Kindle store.
A report concluded that amazon is the big leader in the e-book and
e-book reader market, owning 80 percent of the English-language market. Amazon has not gotten along with traditional bookstores, many of whom refuse to stock Amazon titles.
Self-publishing
seems to have better chances of success with book genres such as
romance, science-fiction, mysteries, thrillers, and erotica.
- Self-publishing seems better suited for certain genres.
Genres that do well for self-publishing include romance, erotica,
mysteries, thrillers, and science fiction, in the sense that
self-published books in these genres tend to have a more favorable
chance of finding success. A survey in 2014 found that self-publishers made the most money in the genres of romance and science fiction/fantasy. In the past, traditional publishers underestimated the market for erotica in which many self-publishers have focused. Alisha Rai's erotic novel Serving Pleasures, published through CreateSpace, appeared on the bestseller list of the Washington Post. Genres which do not do well for self-publishers include cookbooks, nonfiction and academic publishing.
Generally academics have steered clear of self-publishing, as the
market is dominated by university presses and academic journals which
publish slowly, don't pay much, and subject content to strict peer reviews.
There are reports that some scholars are frustrated with the state of
academic publishing, and while most still choose the traditional
publishing route, there are some who have chosen to start their own
journals or independent presses, or who have expanded into blogging.
Promoting a self-published book
Getting
a self-published book into bookstores like this Barnes & Noble is
difficult, although there are signs that this may be changing.
There is wide consensus that since the market is flooded with titles,
the most difficult task facing self-published authors is attracting
attention to their book.
Some authors have tried unconventional methods to cut through the
clutter. For example, self-published author James Altucher offers to pay
readers if they can prove they bought and read his book; he explained
that people are more likely to value what they pay for, and this offer
entices them to actually read his book. While he takes a small loss each time a reader accepts his offer, overall he feels it promotes sales.
Experimentation helps. One strategist suggested that an author should
have a creative marketing campaign and try one tactic each day, while
studying those tactics undertaken by successful self-publishers.
One author spends roughly $70,000 annually creating and promoting her
books, and hires a dozen freelancers for various parts of her operation. Another self-published author gave 80 books to friends, who told their friends, to generate positive publicity.
A strategy that helps many self-published authors is to write a series,
making the first installment free, and charging for subsequent
versions.
Authors have tried numerous approaches to promoting and marketing their books, including...
- Building a web presence
- Building a mailing list
- Promoting e-books through targeted giveaways
- Offering a limited edition print book
- Promoting books through social media
- Writing a blog
- Having an author website
- Raising funds for advertising through crowdfunding
- Having book signings
- Going to craft fairs
- Hiring a public relations firm
- Generating positive word of mouth
- Joining a self-publishing group
- Adding an audio book
- Becoming an indie publisher
- Entering contests open to self-published authors
- Donating paperback copies to libraries
- Getting books into local bookstores
Most book contests are open only to books published by established
publishers, but there are a few contests open to self-published writers.
One is the Illinois Library Association, in conjunction with
BiblioBoards and with Reaching Across Illinois Library System, which
sponsored a prize for best self-published novel; the contest is open to
Illinois-based self-published writers. The British newspaper The Guardian, in conjunction with selected publishers, has a Self published book of the month
award, which began in 2014; entries are submitted digitally and must be
in the English language, and the contest is open only to residents of
the United Kingdom.
Self-published books which became successful
The self-published book Fifty Shades of Grey became a bestseller and was picked up by a major publisher, and translated into many languages, including German.
While almost all self-published books do not make much money, there
are dozens of self-published books that have broken through to huge
audiences and success, and which get much media attention.
The number of authors who have sold more than one million e-books on
Amazon from 2011 to 2016 was 40, according to one estimate.
- Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James was originally published online as Twilight fan-fiction before the author decided to self-publish it as an e-book and print on demand.
- The science fiction novel The Martian, by Andy Weir, was originally released as chapters on his personal blog, and then self-published as an eBook in 2011.
The rights were purchased by Crown Publishing which re-released it in
2014; the novel went on to become a bestseller and then a major motion picture starring Matt Damon.
- Blogger Alan Sepinwall's self-published book The Revolution Was Televised became an instant hit, winning a prominent review within two weeks of publication by critic Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. Sepinwall hired an editor and spent roughly $2,500 on services to get his book ready for publication.
- Minnesota social worker Amanda Hocking
uploaded several books in 2010 and sold a few dozen copies. She
published several more manuscripts and within a few months was making
enough money to quit her daytime job. She later won a deal with Macmillan publishers, and went to being a millionaire in a year. She sold her series to St. Martin's Press in 2011 for two million dollars.
- Swedish author Carl-Johan Forssen Ehrlin wrote a book in 2010 which helped get children to go to sleep; his The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep
title featured amateurish illustrations with "clunky prose" and a
monotonous storyline, but parents bought it for the catchy subtitle of
"A new way of getting children to sleep". He released it on CreateSpace and it became a bestseller.
- Erotic romance author Meredith Wild sold 1.4 million digital and
print copies of her books, and founded her own publishing company called
Waterhouse Press; she founded the firm in part because she felt that
her novels were "not being taken seriously" as an indie author. An advantage of having her own imprint is that it is easier to get books into chainstores and big-box retailers.
- The breakout hit Wool by Hugh Howey
was self-published originally and garnered more than a million dollars
in royalty monies, and has generated over 5000 Amazon reviews.
- James Altucher's Choose Yourself (2013) sold 44,294 copies in its first month, debuted at No. 1 on Amazon's top non-fiction list, and was a Wall Street Journal bestseller.
- Victoria Knowles achieved notoriety in July 2014 when her self-published book The PA reached the number one spot in the iTunes chart for paid books.
- Matthew Reilly's self-published Contest, the first of his action-thriller novels, in 1996.
Traditional versus self-publishing
Traditional
publishers can offer editorial guidance, marketing muscle, and access
to well-established channels of distribution, and have been the
preferred choice for writers for the past century.
Still, there are increasing advantages for self-publishing, and there
are increasing instances of writers moving between both the traditional
and self-publishing models, for various reasons. Self-publishing is an
increasingly likely choice for authors who are "midcareer, midlist,
middle-aged, more or less middlebrow, and somewhat Internet savvy,"
writes journalist Neal Pollack, who extols the promise of being able to
reach readers directly.
Elizabeth Prybylski, publisher of Insomnia, an indie press, describes
the main difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing
is "who puts up the overhead of production."
If the author doesn't have the
money, time, or inclination to do all of those things for their book and
to pay the costs of production, a publisher's experience and knowledge
can make up for that gap.
— Elizabeth Prybylski of Insomnia Press.
Analyses have been made suggesting that self-published authors'
earnings have been comparing favorably to earnings from established
publishers,
and this may be a factor causing established authors to switch to the
self-publishing approach. While a self-published author can typically
keep 70 percent of the sales price, a typical contract with a publisher
will be payment of an advance sum such as $5000 to $10,000, plus
receiving 25 percent of digital sales and sevent percent to 12 percent
of the list price for bound books, which the author will receive after
the publisher recoups the money paid for the advance to the author.
Authors being published the traditional way have seen their
income from publishing decline in recent years. A survey from the
Authors Guild found that authors with contracts with established
publishers were making 30 percent less money in 2015 than they had been
making in 2009.
Talented writers in traditional publishing, who have won prizes and
awards, are earning less, with some living at or near the poverty line. Some books sell only 5,000 to 20,000 copies, some less than that.
Factors identified as dampening the income levels of such authors
include the online piracy of digital material, major publishing houses
consolidating to focus more on profits, and the rise of Amazon and
self-publishing.
Some
writers have criticized mainstream publishers for emphasizing celebrity
rather than quality writing. In photo: fashion model
Miranda Kerr at a book signing.
Some writers have been dissatisfied with the marketing efforts of a
traditional publisher. One writer got fed up when the publisher made
basic mistakes with a book launch, and so he "decided to take his book
back" and self-published it. He hired the firm Reedsy to redesign his
book The Pink Marine, and went on to form his own imprint. Novelist Louise Walters felt that traditional publishers were "debut-centric" and obsessed with celebrities. David Mamet, whose book The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture had been on the New York Times bestseller list, chose to release his novella by self-publishing. He had been dissatisfied with the marketing efforts of his traditional publisher. There was a report that suggested that traditional publishers have lessened their marketing efforts on behalf of authors.
Another example is romance novelist Courtney Milan who switched to
self-publishing because she wanted to have "more agency over the
background of her characters" and her stories.
Some photographers, who felt hemmed in by the traditional photo book
publishing world, have started up their own imprints as a way to publish
their own books.
Writer Sarah Grimm moved away from the traditional publishing approach
to self-publishing because she wanted greater control over cover design,
publication dates and the story content.
My first book went through so many
different changes that when it released, I no longer felt like it was
the story I originally set out to tell.
— Author Sarah Grimm on why she chose self-publishing.
Novelist Louise Walters explained why she switched to the
self-publishing mode, after her publisher rejected her second novel,
describing self-publishing as an "exhilarating change":
Footing the bill to bring out the
book means the responsibility is on my shoulders, but at the same time
it's incredibly freeing. I can market this book in any way I choose; I
have real input into every decision regarding my work; I'll even earn a
fairer share of the proceeds from each sale … It's only a book, after
all, and self-publishing is a whole lot of fun.
— Louise Walters in 2014
Still, it is likely that when a self-published author creates a
bestseller, that he or she will accept an offer from a major publisher.
Some traditional publishers troll the lists of bestselling
self-published titles to look for new books to sell.
Smashwords president Mark Coker predicted that it will become more
difficult for traditional publishers to entice the best self-published
authors, simply because traditional publishers don't pay as much. Successful self-published authors have been courted by literary agents and publishers offering substantial sums of money.
It's getting harder for established publishers to woo away successful
self-published authors since the royalty structure they offer may not
match the profits to be made from publishing on their own.
Advantages of self-publishing
Benefits include:
- Speed. An author finds out right away whether a book is a
hit with readers; there is not a six-month or longer delay typical with
an established publisher since the usual back-and-forth steps with a
publisher are bypassed. It is possible to release a book within a few
weeks after it is finished. Further, it is possible to avoid the lengthy process of trying to find a literary agent to secure a publishing contract.
- No start-up costs. Manuscripts uploaded to KDP or Smashwords typically do not incur any fees.
- Control on pricing. In self publishing mode author decides the price and can change at any point of time, but it is not possible in case of traditional publishing.
- Freedom to begin the next book. An author can self-publish
and then begin work on the next project, potentially being more
prolific, although this presumes that the first book won't need any
marketing effort.
- A greater share of royalties. Self-published authors earn four to five times more per unit than if an author works with a traditional publisher, sometimes 70 percent of the sale price.
- Pitch books straight to the readers. There is no intermediary censoring what might be shown to the public. The route to readers is more direct.
Authors are no longer bound in
their storytelling by what the traditional publishers think the market
can bear ... Instead, because we can go straight to the reader now, we
can write exactly the books that we want to write and exactly the books
that our fans want to read. We don't have to worry about whether an
agent can sell the book, or if an editor and publisher want to buy the
book, or if a retailer wants to stock the book. Personally, I think this
new open market can – and does – make for much more interesting
storytelling.
With self-publishing you don't
waste your time trying to get published, which can take years of query
letters and agenting, and all this stuff. You go straight to the real
gatekeepers, which are the readers. If they respond favorably and you
have sales, you can leverage that into a writing career. If they don't,
you write the next thing. Either way you're not spending your time
trying to get published, you're spending your time writing the next
work.
Disadvantages of self-publishing
There are significant challenges to self-publishing as well.
- Most self-published books sell few copies. Some estimates are that they sell fewer than 100 to 150 copies; another estimate is that most sell fewer than 250 copies. However, the vast majority of books promoted by traditional publishers fail as well. Still, the overwhelming odds are that any self-published book will be ignored and end up in the "digital slush pile."
- Crowded landscape. There is much competition and it is difficult to get one's book to be noticed in a glutted market. Big publishers have much better prospects for getting attention for a book.
- Lack of prestige. A book from a traditional publisher still
has a lot of cachet in that it has been vetted by editors, which gives
it a "stamp of approval."
- Hard to get into bookstores. Big bookstores rarely take self-published books, often wanting a large percentage of the sales price if they do accept them. Publishers have established distribution channels to make this easy.
- Publishers offer editorial and marketing help. Plus they
usually pay an advance to help the author with expenses at the early
start of the publishing cycle, an advantage which self-published writers
do not have.
You risk looking like an amateur
... Good writers need even better editors. They need brilliant cover
designers. They need imaginative marketers and well-connected
publicists. All these things are provided by a traditional publisher,
and what's more, it doesn't cost you a penny. They pay you! If a
self-published author wants to avoid looking like an amateur, they'd
better be prepared to shell out some serious cash to get professional
help in all the areas where they don't excel. And I mean serious.
— Ros Barber in 2016.
- Difficulty getting reviews in the mainstream press. It is
difficult for self-published books to be reviewed in newspapers and
magazines. The media favors books from traditional publishers before
giving reviews.
- Hiring editors, proofreaders and cover designers can be difficult and expensive.
- Authors must spend much time marketing their books. Authors must work hard to market their books, which is a task that many authors are not skilled at or willing to do. One self-published author in Britain was working "14-hour days", spending months promoting her book Only the Innocent;
while she eventually made it to the UK Kindle bestseller chart, Rachel
Abbott still has difficulty getting the publishing world to take her
book seriously.
Another writer, Ros Barber, thinks self-publishing is a "terrible idea
for serious novelists" since the requirements of marketing and promoting
a book will prevent one from writing, and he continues to recommend the
traditional approach.
You have to forget writing for a
living ... Self-publishing can make you behave like a fool ... The vast
majority of indie authors have tweetstreams that are 90 percent adverts,
perhaps a reflection of the fact that they must spend 90 percent of
their time marketing ... Good writers become good because they undertake
an apprenticeship.
— Ros Barber on the benefits of the traditional approach, 2016.
- Self-published books usually ineligible for prizes. Books
are not eligible for major prizes such as the Hay festival, the Booker,
the Baileys, the Costa and the Man Booker, and literary novels need
these prizes to become a bestseller. However, there are signs that this is changing as more books become self-published.
.jpg)
.jpg)
