Self Publishing: What is the future of publishing?
The digital revolution hasn’t just opened the door to multi-platform publications but also the process of publishing itself. It opened the door which potentially pushed publishers out and made welcoming room for self-publishing.
Self-publishing – spawned from digital disruption – is one of the single most dangerous threats to traditional publishing and Amazon is a leading suspect. Within an industry that’s so rapidly changing, it appears harder than ever to get published in the traditional way, with fewer publishers and more innovative authors the results of the future industry look predictable with the extinction of print (Levine, 2014).
As the digital empire progresses and the printed book is so easily swapped with a virtual library, it’s no surprise that Amazon Kindle sales skyrocket (Ratcliffe, 2012). Amazon is the conventional publishing Grim Reaper, destroying every aspect of the traditional ways. And because of the publishing giants success, authors begin to take their work into their own hands publishing directly by themselves using tools created by Amazon such as Kindle Direct Publishing – the supremacy of all self publishing processes (Ratcliffe, 2012).
A massive success that was surprisingly born from self-publishing was author E.L James, and the famous 50 Shades trilogy. James published via other self-publishing companies but turned to Kindle Direct Publishing, which was quite the success (Lunn, 2012). It appeared that readers preferred to secretly download the raunchy book and save themselves the judgment in the streets and in 2012 50 Shades of Grey became Britain’s bestselling book — and it came all from self publishing (Singh, 2012).
James’ success grew hugely with Kindle Direct Publishing who offers up to 70% royalties meaning that she earned up to £850,000 a week! (Lunn, 2012). The massive success exploded the self publishing market with 65% of all e-book producers for Kindle Direct being dominated by middle aged women aspiring to E.L James, the richest self published author (Brown, 2014).
Since E.L James’ self-publishing success, many other authors such as Amanda Hocking are also experiencing the achievement of this new craze (Lunn, 2012). But this self-publishing craze only omits a future for traditional publishing and the success stars are loosening the grip on the general book market allowing digital giants such as Amazon to rise, shaping our publishing future (Geoffrey 2010). Is this really the future for the publishing industry? Diminishing publishers and the rise in self-published authors? The increasing interest in the digital eBooks are clearly the culprit of the changes within the industry and its no surprise when the self publishing allows authors to push their writing to a wider audience given the Kindle app and huge brand name (Geoffrey, 2010).
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Bibliography
- Brown, M. 2014. The Fifty Shades Effect: Women Dominate Self Publishing. Online: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/09/fifty-shades-of-grey-women-dominate-self-publishing. [Accessed: 14/10/2014]
- Geoffrey, F. 2010. ‘Vanity’ Press Goes Digital. Online: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028?KEYWORDS=self+publishing&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028.html%3FKEYWORDS%3Dself%2Bpublishing. [Accessed: 14/10/2014]
- Levine, M. 2014. The Fine Print of Self-Publishing: A Primer on Contracts, Printing Costs, Royalties, Distribution E-books and Marketing. United States: BASCOM Hill.
- Lunn, E. 2012. At Least 50 Shades Richer: How EL James Made £20 million in 18 Months. Online: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-rich-is-e-l-james.html. [Accessed: 14/10/2014]
- Ratcliffe, R. 2012. Kindle: The Fire to Self-Publishing. Online: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/jan/13/kindle-self-publishing-e-readers. [Accessed: 14/10/2014]
- Singh, A. 2012. 50 Shades of Grey is Best-Selling Book of All Time. Online: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9459779/50-Shades-of-Grey-is-best-selling-book-of-all-time.html. [Accessed: 14/10/2014]