Is The Publishing Industry Dying?

July 19th, 2007

One of the reasons I chose Lulu for my book instead of an actual publisher is the shopping process. After you write a book you can spend months submitting it to publishers and waiting to hear from them. I soon learned that most publishers were only interested in talking to you if you a.) had previously published work, or b.) had an agent.

I couldn’t help but chuckle today when I read this article. It’s such a great summary of the problems the current publishing industry faces.

Basically, some young author changed the names and titles of a Jane Austen book and submitted it to 18 publishers. Only 1 caught the plagiarism - the rest flat out rejected the book!!

That’s exactly what I found. Publishers aren’t interested in quality of writing anymore, they’re interested in sales volume. While it sounds like a good short term strategy, it’s going to lead to problems down the road. As more and more new authors are rejected, they’re going to turn to on demand services like Lulu or CafePress.

I was able to not only hit my target release date, but earn an average of $0.75 more per book sold and not have to deal with an agent by self publishing my book. I expect to see these services thrive as time goes on - not just in attracting publishers, but in long tail type sales as well.

Thoughts?

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