This topic has been discussed several times on this forum. The Wall Street Journal has this article on the subject: Digital Self-Publishing Shakes Up Traditional Book Industry - WSJ.com
I haven't read the posted article (yet) but I'd have to say that in my own experience as a reader there is a much, much greater appreciation of self-published work out there in the world right now. Blogs alone have revolutionized the industry.
I highly recommend the book "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher" to anyone considering going this route. It's a treasure trove of information and makes a darned good argument against going with a traditional publisher. How To Publish A Book? Self-Publish It, Learn Book Promotion, Keep the Book Publishing Profits, and Avoid Mainstream Publishing Companies Just a few of the issues you run into with a traditional publisher... - The publisher owns the rights to your book. Want to update your book....or create a 2nd edition?.....you have to get their approval. - Anemic royalties....The bookstores (both online and traditional) get a cut, the publisher gets a BIG cut, your literary agent gets a cut. You see where this is going? You end up making a very small profit on your books. It's not unheard of for an author to make no more than $1 for each $20 book sold. Crappy deal, if you ask me. - You are expected to do the majority of the marketing for your book...Traditional book publishers have publicity departments but they are trying to publicize many books at once....not an ideal situation. They still depend on the author to do a lot of book publicity work. And after a year or so the traditional book publisher will move on to other books...leaving your in the dust. I read most of the article referenced in this thread. The author makes a HUGE mistake right from the beginning. The author refers to self publishing and vanity publishing as one and the same. They are not. Vanity publishing has gotten a bad name because there are so many scammers behind it. With vanity publishing, an author will pay a company a ton of money to print the book and market it. The scammers take the money and do little to no marketing. True self publishing is when the author hires a book fulfillment company, like Book Masters (BookMasters Book Manufacturing Company - Book Printing & Distribution Specialist) to do all of the book printing and warehousing. The author usually hires an independent editor, book cover designer and type setter. In other words, the book will be indistinguishable in quality from any other book you see at the book store. The author then promotes and sells the book himself. The advantages of self-publishing are many. Through Book Masters it's possible to get your book productions costs down to $3 per copy. If you sell your book for $20 each, well, you can see what a difference the proceeds will be from a traditional publisher. I'm not trying to sound like a commercial for "The Well-Fed Self Publisher," but the info in the book is that good. It even tells you how to get your book reviewed, in traditional bookstores (if that's your goal) and put on the list to sell to the thousands of of libraries all across the nation.
