It's no secret that there has been a lot of high emotion between traditional publishing and Indie publishing lately. The Indie publishing movement has thrown a bit of a wrench in the works for traditional publishers, who are losing some of their best writers. Even longtime traditionally-published authors are abandoning ship in favor of better royalties and creative control.
It only makes sense that traditional publishers are not very happy about this. They want to strike back. They want Indie publishing to stop. Well, it's not going to stop unless we let it. (Are you planning on it? I'm not!)
I give you today a petition from Change.org:
This is a petition to Hachette, regarding a push to raise eBook prices, that would translate to eBooks becoming expensive and thus inaccessible to many customers. This is a change that could be a huge blow to Indie publishing. I won't explain the whole issue-- it is explained if you follow the link-- but suffice to say, we probably don't want this. Check it out, read what it's about, and decide as an Indie author or Indie reader: are you on board? As of the time I am writing this, 338 more signatures are needed. If you believe this is an important issue, please share with your Indie author and reader friends. Go on, rock the petition. :)
Now, let's be fair about this. Traditional publishing is a huge industry, and it would be a shame to see its downfall as well. Personally, I wish there was a better way. I wish traditional publishers would see where they have gone wrong. I wish they would pay and support their authors better, because yes, I think there could be a place for traditional publishing. I believe we could all have a happy future where traditional publishing and authors skip happily through the flowery fields of book-making together, and stuff. It's just... right now that's a long way off.
I would love to hear some comments on this issue. What do you all think? What needs to change? Is there a way for everyone to be happy?
The biggest problems with traditional publishing is lack of marketing for the authors (we are still doing all the work) and little reward for all our hard work ( the average pay per book is about 50 cents). I for one didn't want to wait years either for my book to become published. I think the big five need to realize they are on their way out if they don't change their ways.
ReplyDeleteYes! Marketing was a big thing for me when I was deciding between Indie and traditional. When I realized I would still have to do all the work if I went traditional, the choice suddenly became a lot clearer. It was like... "Well, *why* exactly would I be giving them so much of my royalties???"
ReplyDeleteExactly! Not to mention having to wait, sometimes two years just to get your book published. It took me 4 and a half years to get that book ready for publishing I was not about to wait and get a bunch of rejection letters to boot lol!
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