Allaboutwriting

A provocative look at publishing by guest blogger David Chislett.  Is he right? What do you think? Should you go indie, go digital or is  first prize still a mainstream publishing deal?

Isn’t the internet amazing? You can find just about anything, read at your leisure and download whatever you want. Sometimes you pay, and sometimes you don’t. It was realised some time ago that the internet was going to change the way we did business. Like about 25 years ago. Trouble is, somebody forgot to tell publishers and record labels that.

The record companies were the first to fall. Anyone who loves music is all too aware of declining CD sales, the woes of the major companies and the new and interesting ideas to share and distribute music that have sprung up in the last decade or so. The newspaper and magazine industry are currently undergoing that re-birth process and enduring their own share of growing pains, revenue loss, business model confusion and general upheaval.

But that last bastion of ivory tower elitism and privilege known as publishing seems to have been slow to take their cue from their business cousins. The result is that, like the music industry, it has taken a technology company to invent a device for electronic books and an online retailer to invent a new distribution system and various websites to come up with an e-book standard. Where have the publishing houses been during all of this? On the sidelines wringing their hands!

The beauty of this situation is that, like with the music industry, the implications for the individual artist are pretty good. It will require a lot more work but you can massively expand your profit margins, exercise greater control over your product and actually enjoy an international footprint if you go independent and go digital. The longer the formal publishers delay in really getting into this water the fewer authors will be keen to deal with them when they do. The question will be, what can you really do for me that I cannot do for myself? How will you make me more money than I am making right now?

Currently not everyone is making good money from DIY books. And no doubt it will stay that way for some time to come. But what is happening is that more people are making more money and they are getting more control and more satisfaction. And these are big factors when talking about publishing.

Of course this does leave the marketing of the book up to you. Publishers are notorious for being bad at marketing anyway. You can hardly do any worse than they do. Most publishing marketing departments seem to adhere to the adage that good products will naturally float. Going digital at least puts control over that firmly and knowingly back in your hands.

Advice to authors looking for a deal? Don’t. Go DIY. Go indie, go digital. Establish a track record and a reputation and then go get an agent so you can negotiate effectively. You have the tools, use them. And then when you have some power on your side, get a deal that works for you.

But mostly, just keep writing!

David Chislett is the originator of the Urban series of short fiction and author of “A Body Remembered” and “1,2,1,2”. He is an experienced workshop facilitator and speaker and well-known entertainment journalist and publicist. http://www.davidchislett.co.za/

On November 3 in Johannesburg, publisher, Wesley Thompson will show you how you can produce the best-possible quality product, define your target audience, and successfully market your book in his Self-Publishing Workshop.

And on December 7 writer and speaker, David Chislett, gives his take on publishing, its perils and its opportunities. David’s Getting Published Workshop will be available online from January.

Each costs R500 – but if you’d like to attend both the cost will be just R750. Email Trish, trishurquhart@gmail.com, to book your place.