

The Rise of Self-Publishing - joubert
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02FOB-medium-t.html

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drallison
The article takes an overly positive view. My friends who write books are all
having a hard time making a go of it, whether they write novels or non-
fiction. The money they make is being driven to zero by dilution fed by the
large number of wannabes who self publish. It doesn't help that there is a
lack of people who buy books.

While we have managed to make the publication side of things easy, we have not
managed to increase the quality of the content. Good writers who don't write
blockbuster books are lost in the noise.

Nor have we found a way to increase the number of readers. Most people don't
read much. The Washington Post reported (2007)that one in four people read no
books and that most people reported reading four books per year. Publisher's
weekly reports that "A staggering 764,448 titles were produced in 2009 by
self-publishers and micro-niche publishers, according to statistics released
this morning by R.R. Bowker. The number of 'nontraditional' titles dwarfed
that of traditional books whose output slipped to 288,355 last year from
289,729 in 2008. Taken together, total book output rose 87% last year, to over
1 million books, one title for every 300 people in the US.

Bottom line, writing has become a hobby, even for professionals. Don't quit
your day job to write the great American novel.

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joubert
As a sales channel, you could perhaps point your friends to Fifobooks?
<http://fifobooks.com>

