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As I explain in my blog post, Big Chain Bookstore Deathwatch (http://aprillhamilton.blogspot.com/2008/06/big-chain-bookstore-death-watch.html), I believe brick-and-mortar, chain bookstore presence is no longer a necessary prerequisite to success in authorship. The blog post is too lengthy to easily summarize here, so if you’d like to know my rationale, please follow the link.

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Simply not true. I lay out my own books and design my own covers, and have received nothing but compliments on how indistinguishable they are from mainstream-produced books—even from booksellers. You can see the covers of my books for yourself by searching on my author name at Amazon: April L. Hamilton. As to the criticism I so often see levied against indie books, that publishing-industry professionals will know at a glance a given book was self-pubbed because it doesn’t meet industry ’standards’ for layout, typesetting, etc., I say the opinions of publishing-industry professionals are irrelevant to me. Those people are not my intended audience, and the average reader is totally unaware and unconcerned about the minutaie of pica, serif vs. sans serif, and so on.

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Yes, but while that market may not be large enough to support the huge overhead of a megaconglomerate press, it may be quite adequate to support one writer.

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See my point immediately above.

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Again, simply not true. I’m earning author royalties of 30% or greater on every one of my books, and I price every one of them the same as a typical mainstream book of the same approximate dimensions, page count and type. This issue is addressed in-depth in another of my blog posts, on Choosing A Publisher (http://aprillhamilton.blogspot.com/2008/07/choosing-publisher.html).

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Meaning no disrespect, I’d say this is only because the majority of would-be indies still believe the kinds of assertions you’ve posted here. I’m doing my best to dispel the myths and outdated beliefs circulating around out there, but I’m just one person. =’)

Answer: through the burgeoning indie movement. Here in Canada, for the first time an indie (i.e. self-published book) has just won a major literary award, the Stephen Leacock Medal. Indie writers are producing some of the most exciting and ground-breaking work out there, releasing their efforts on-line or by utilizing POD publishing, beating traditional publishers at their own game. Meanwhile, the authors control content, cover art, promotion AND instead of collecting a measly royalty rate, they keep the lion’s share of the profit. Traditional publishers take note: the chimes of freedom are ringing out and your time is nearly up. Indie writers will address the imbalance of power and out-write your corporate hacks and derivative scribblers. Watch for us, we’re COMING…

I expect the trend in authorship will follow the trend in music and film. In the mainstream, at any given time there will be a small group of artists enjoying short-lived stints of huge financial success at the top of the sales charts, to subsequently sink into obscurity. Also in the mainstream, a tiny group of artists will have huge financial success AND career longevity (the U2s, Ron Howards and Stephen Kings of the world). Outside the mainstream, a larger group will have long-lived careers of only nominal financial success in art while earning their living at day jobs. But theirs will be the voices of originality and dissent, and the best among them will attract a core audience. Occasionally one of them will cross over into the mainstream, but this will be the exception to the rule.

The editors at big pub houses reject many, many manuscripts solely because they don’t expect impressive sales for the titles, and I’m not saying they’re wrong in those judgments. Rather, I’m saying the fact that a given book isn’t likely to earn sales that look impressive by big publishers’ standards is no indication that the book is no good, or wouldn’t be greatly enjoyed by a smaller audience.

Another aspect not mentioned is time. Do you want to spend 5 years hunting for a publisher and agent? Or do you want to publish now? There are opportunity costs to consider. From a big publisher’s point of view, it seems easier to let self-publishers publish and then buy the ones which were actually well written and edited.

I think the e-book will alter the landscape, especially if a single, universal standard is agreed upon. Whether authors will get Rowling-rich with e-books is questionable, but I think indie authors can do well.

2. I think the problem has to do with publishers being conservative about author brands. Better to have Ann Coulter or Cory Doctorow or Rachel Ray in your spring catalog than unworthies like Stephen Dixon or Michel Houellebecq or Alvaro Mutis.

3. As I see it, self-publishing is already the norm. The role of NY publishers is to skim the most well-known and profitable brands from the Indies. That’s not going to change. On the other hand, I am bothered by the huge advances given to untested authors (and the media blitz given to them). All right, some media blitzes have been for worthy authors (I’m thinking John Kracauer, Amy Tan, Scott Turow). But the 4 hour work week guy? What the hell was Random House thinking?

BUT — self-publishing fiction is very hard to do well, and even harder to do profitably. There are very solid practical reasons that this is true, and not one of them has to do with some sort of conspiracy or collusion.

Transaction costs: It’s too expensive for the tens of thousands of bookstores to buy directly from the 84,000 small presses in the US. In fact, it’s too expensive for Ingram to do so. Even Amazon is trying to reduce transaction costs with its “Booksurge/Createspace or else” initiative.

Preparation costs: In order to produce a book that is able to compete with the output of the large corporate houses, an indie publisher must devote significant resources to the design of cover and interior. (Yes, I know you can get cheap designs from some of the “online publishers,” but they’re rarely of a better quality than their price would suggest.)

Market: The reason that publishers are abandoning the midlist in droves is that those books are defined by their low sales. If that same mid-list author publishes with a smaller press or on his/her own, that market isn’t likely to be larger. Usually the reverse is true. And fiction is much harder to market and sell as an indie than non-fiction is. The audience is less easily found, and less easily defined.

The Size of the Pie: Indie musicians can do quite well for themselves, even if they garner proportionately tiny audiences. The total audience is so very large, that a tiny fraction of it is still significant. That’s not as true for books. And the difference between the cost to print a book and the price at which you can sell it, particularly if you are trying to sell it through any retail channel, is not very large. Selling a thousand copies of your book won’t buy you groceries for very long.

In short, the time when multitudes of indie authors make a living may be coming, but it’s not here yet.