You make a great point about the target audience for PW. The majority of e-book readers have probably never read a single issue of PW; it would be a complete mis-targeting of resources for indie authors to buy into this scheme.

I don’t want to buy into the traditional publishing vs indie publishing paradigm, because I do believe that writers need all the options they can get. In addition, I certainly don’t believe that the vast majority of individuals who work in the publishing industry are evil, in fact the agents who I have had dealings with were very helpful, and I have always assumed that most people who went into editing did it because they were committed to getting good books out, not for the money.

But…I do believe that the publishing industry (with an emphasis on industry) has become increasingly corrupted as publishing houses became part of large corporations, and that this is an example. This move by Publishers Weekly is so cynical, so condescending, so blatantly profit driven, that I hope that everyone within traditional publishing speak out against it and will call for a real change in attitude.

To them such things can be a make-or-break deal. Well, for me, it is too. From a business point of view. I put a lot of time and effort in this. I want an audience, but at the same time if there is money coming in then I want a decent share of it.They are in it for the profit, why shouldn’t I be?

The nice thing with the Indie phenomenon it means I have a choice. This includes concerning the one thing the Big Publishers once held a strangle-hold over: the distribution. With the ebook market growing by leaps and bounds, it’s evened the playing field. I can get into almost all the exact same online stores as the big guys. I don’t need them to get there. No one really does. So, what else do they have? Marketing. Uh, not unless you hit the lottery. Otherwise it’s up to you for almost all of it. Brick and mortar bookstores? The two biggest bookstores are on the verge of financial ruin. Not a good thing. Meanwhile, ebooks are explodingn.

The big guys aren’t the only the game in town anymore. That’s what I hated before, and found so depressing. If I found the terms not to my liking I didn’t have a whole bunch of other choices. I do now, though! Horrah!

Oh, and one last point I jump up and down over. I write what *I* want, not what the editor or publishing house wants. No matter if I had to go traditional or indie, the marketing would be on me. I would much prefer to go out and find the audience for books I loved to write, rather than the stuff the big guys want written that I might not have wanted to write at all. Oh wow, the possibilities.

All this means is that no matter what point of view a writer approaches this business, there are now choices that weren’t there before. This is a good thing no matter what side you are on. It means both you and I can proceed in a way we feel makes sense for us. In that, I think we agree, is a good thing.

As storytellers, we crave an audience. And yes, most of us (me included) *are* willing to give our words away for a pittance. I don’t think I would turn down a publication offer from a big NY publisher–even if the advance was low and the royalties pitiful–because that’s the best chance my stories have to be widely distributed. So, I’m part of the problem. *wry smile*

I don’t think it’s viable to draw a line between the business-like writer and the hobbyist. A hobbyist has as much right to seek publication on the merits of his or her own story. Some writers have different goals for their writing (ie: not to do it as a fulltime job). Other writers may not (physically or creatively) be able to write fast enough to make a living at it. What really matters, though, is their ability to write a story readers want.

I do think publishers are shooting themselves in the foot by always chasing the Next Big Thing, dropping their midlist writers instead of nurturing them, and spending their marketing dollars unwisely. Ditto with bookstores and their ordering to the net. (Side note: I was at a bookstore yesterday and saw the last three books of a series I used to follow. I’d have picked it up again if they had the previous books I hadn’t read, but of course they didn’t. Why would you have books 5, 6, and 7 of a series and not books 1-4? You really think new readers will start a sf&f series in the middle? In which universe does that make sense? ). But all this is a discussion for another time.

Thanks for the comment!

And one note: Publishers can afford to pay lower advances and royalty rates because too many people truly do this as a hobby and are willing to literally give away their work. In that environment it makes it hard for someone who is trying to make a living. Why should we be paid appropriately when there are so many around us who do not approach this as a business and are willing to sign any piece of paper shoved in front of them?

The publishers haven’t had an incentive to change. I really don’t blame them for that. They are not in this for the art. Not at all. They are in it to make money and please their shareholders in the next quarter. They can do that more easily when so many writers are so bad at business. The writers are so much easier to be taken advantaged of.

As a writer trying to make a living, this makes it all the harder to proceed in their writing career.

Ditto. If it’s truly going to be only a hobby, then I might as well go the whole way and make it a hobby. By doing it myself. If those who yell and scream that traditional is the only way are right, then I’m not going to make even part time wages anyway. If I’m going to make that little, then why put up with the aggravation of traditional? No way I look at it does it make sense. At all.

Less aggravation, more money, more control? Yep, Indie all the way.