Indie v. legacy recap…
[Note 1. Like all my blog posts, this is op-ed, even though it’s about the writing business. As such, I get first crack at expressing my opinions on things—I have lots of them, but you can only write so much! But, because they are only my take on a current event or news topic, you might not agree, so anyone can comment. Note 2. I apologize to my friends on Facebook, where I usually share these posts. Facebook has made it impossible to share. You can follow me on Google+. I recommend cancelling your Facebook accounts and creating Google+ accounts, if you haven’t already.]
A few days ago, I read Joe Konrath’s report on a debate he had with Scott Turow. Joe’s a brave soul, not because he faced Turow (well, that too), but because he played Daniel and walked into legacy publishing’s lions’ den, New York City. The results of that debate were predictable. The audience, more there to support Scott and legacy publishing, decided that Amazon is NOT the reader’s friend. Exit polls (I’ll call them that) said that Joe won in a landslide—Amazon IS the reader’s friend.
It’s more debatable whether Amazon is the author’s friend, though, and whether it will continue to be if it is now. That came up in the debate too. We know which sides Scott and Joe are on, of course. Scott’s made his millions with the old publishing paradigm we call legacy publishing; Joe started out there, became disgusted, and pursued indie publishing, making plenty of money too. Amazon opened up the gates to hell, in Scott’s opinion; it opened up the gates to opportunity in Joe’s. Both have had successful writing careers, unlike most writers, whether they be in the legacy or indie camp.
But forget Joe and Scott. They both have agendas. We should go above the fray, we readers and writers, and look down on the current publishing landscape with an eagle eye. Fact One: indie publishing allows a writer to make his own choices about everything from the actual writing at the beginning of the process to the PR and marketing at the end. He can control costs as much as he wants, and he can achieve incredible savings. He, not some company in New York City, is in control. He’s not shielded from his readers; on the contrary, he also has great opportunities to approach them in many ways. The reader-writer relationship is emphasized; the legacy publisher, the eight-hundred pound gorilla of the business, that money-grubbing Mighty Joe Young in the middle, is out.
Fact Two: Indie ebooks average from one-third to one-half the cost of legacy ebooks because the latter’s price structures are designed to maximize profit for legacy publishers, not legacy writers (Scott and other one-percenters don’t mind that because they sell so many books that, even with the small margins, they just get richer as they become more formulaic). Indie publishing writers pass their savings on production to readers; legacy publishers just gouge readers as well as their writers. Which one is the reader’s friend? Which one is the writer’s friend?
Of course, Amazon, and later appearing online retailers like Smashwords, have made it possible for indie writers to write, produce, and sell their own ebooks. They allowed indie publishing to come out of the dark woods of vanity presses onto this bright lea of our marvelous digital age, a veritable democratization of the publishing process where anyone can write a book and try to sell it (that doesn’t mean that everyone should—some people can’t write, just like I can’t do a cold weld or invent a new cancer treatment). Readers have more to choose from; writers have more places to sell their books. Everyone wins because online retailers like Amazon are helping both readers and writers; when they no longer do so, we must move on, but right now they’re a good thing for both.
To be sure, even indie publishing has evolved. Like Joe Konrath, I started out years ago (more than ten, a long time in today’s tech world), querying agents and publishers and receiving more than a thousand rejections (more than Joe). Some agents asked for my MS; they would sit on it for months and then say something like “sorry, just not for me,” or “no one was interested” (funny thing, they would never send a list of the publishers they approached). I discovered POD (you can still buy some of those early pbooks from Infinity, but be forewarned that Full Medical and Soldiers of God already have second editions in order to get around the contracts even POD publishers have). It was the ebook revolution that provided me infinite horizons and a brave new world of opportunities.
Unlike Joe, I haven’t had much success. But I do have sixteen novels (that counts Silicon Slummin’…and Just Getting’ By, just released) and two short story collections. I’d never have arrived where I’m at with legacy publishing (I’d probably still be looking for an agent!), and I’d never have had so much fun offering my readers quality entertainment at a reasonable price (those prices, except for the Infinity books, are all less than $5). I’ve benefitted from indie publishing; so have most readers. And, as a reader and reviewer, I’ve benefitted from indie publishing too. My Kindle has a few legacy ebooks (bought via gift cards, or when a legacy publisher came to his senses and offered a reasonably priced ebook), but the vast majority are indies because they’re quality products at reasonable prices.
Back to whether Amazon is the reader’s friend. The question is moot. Indie publishing is the reader’s friend. Healthy competition is one positive characteristic free enterprise has over state-run enterprise (a key word is “healthy,” of course). Mega-monopolies hurt consumers; competition helps them, giving them quality products at reasonable prices. Indie publishing provides competition for the mega-monopoly of legacy publishing—publishing’s no longer just legacy, with its exploitation of most authors via royalties and contracts; its bloated bureaucracy of agents, editors, and so forth, standing between readers and writers; and its egregious price structure designed to support that bureaucracy. The reader gains because he can now enjoy a quality product at reasonable prices. Moreover, indie publishing will drive legacy publishing’s prices down eventually too; if that doesn’t happen, the legacy publishers will eventually go the way of the book barns they co-opted for so many years.
Last week I reviewed an excellent ebook. The “publisher” was Thomas and Mercer, an Amazon publisher. The book was typically indie, though, and a little more—clearly the author hired people to help him produce the book, emphasis on “author hired.” I do that too. But the amount of DIY that goes into an indie book is up to the author, not some fat bureaucrat sitting in his ivory legacy publishing tower in Manhattan. Consequently, that ebook I read was a bargain. I played the role of the reader here, and I’m going to say it again, it’s the best novel I’ve read this year—a quality product for a reasonable price. Legacy publishing can’t provide that anymore. That’s where readers benefit. It has nothing to do with Amazon, Smashwords, or any other online retailer—it’s all about indie publishing. Those online retailers are just enablers, and today’s readers should consider themselves lucky to be so enabled, right along with some of their favorite authors.
In elibris libertas….
