I've been looking into the viability of bypassing agents and publishers altogether and am now wondering why the publishing industry is so worried. If your self-published work becomes successful, you either have to sprout three extra pairs of hands and develop several hind brains or delegate to professionals. It is not remotely possible to run a successful publishing company for your book and continue writing, so you would have to cease to be an author and become those you have striven to avoid.
What might be coming to an end is the discovery of talent by agents. I fear they are about to become the ambulance chasers of the literary world, chasing every new thing in self-publishing to strike it lucky saleswise. That would mean they no longer asked themselves if it was well-written and simply asked if they felt they could continue the sales momentum. That's an horrendous thought and I find myself actually wanting to support the agents and publishers' right to select the very best work instead of what just sells, even though I have the connections to easily self-publish real books and my own book lends itself quite nicely to self-publishing. (When I say that, I'm referring to the content. I don't mean that it's total s**t that couldn't possibly hook a publisher!)
The only possible advantage is that as a new writer I might secure a better deal if I were able to rack up my own sales first. I'm not usually the sort of person to think about what is financially better, but the odds are against so the question must be asked: Is self-publishing the more lucrative option for new authors, both in terms of an initial return and with the possible offer from a later agent and/or publisher, and if it is is it the right thing to do, or in our quest for a reasonable return are we creating the monster agents and publishers fear - an industry driven entirely by sales with no consideration of talent?
Take your time - it's a knotty one!
I think sound would be quite annoying, for the reader and those around them. And when you consider some e-readers get used on the beach, it wouldn't take long to get sand in the speakers etc. But I suppose if it just had a headphone socket so you could change your sandy headphones... hmm, maybe, but I still don't think I would use sound.
Do you remember those books in the nineties where you chose which way you wanted the plot to go? I think they were teenage fiction. They would be so much more effective on an e-reader. I wonder if anyone's thought to revive them.
I don't think I would read 50 Shades of Grey, unless someone personally recommended it and actually handed it to me. She stated several times it was a romance, but when she said it was about a rich older man and a much younger girl, I remembered Indecent Proposal and it just put me off. It being inspired by Twilight isn't exactly a great thing in it's favour either. Not that I've read Twilight, but the films leave me cold. I love movies, but I've never been so completely untouched by anything like the first two Twilights. Although, if someone handed me one of the books, I probably would read it just because I'm fascinated as to how it became so popular. Is it just a really accessible writing style perhaps? Dan Brown gets criticised left, right and centre (by me as much as anyone else) but I think part of his success comes from a complicated plot written in such a way that everyone just 'gets it' straight away. It's no accident that the first billionaire author wrote a children's book. The accessibility of bestsellers to not just the average reader but the average person is what makes their success.
Although I believe 50 shades has a different allure!
Hey Victoria,
Missed Newsnight I'm afraid - sounds interesting. I haven't read 50 Shades Of Grey either. Perhaps it's worth a go to see what all the fuss is about? Nothing like a hullabaloo to generate some publicity, eh? ;-)
The whole issue is very interesting, so articles such as the above catch my eye and when I read it I immediately thought of your question. These are interesting times and I am very curious to see how it all develops.
What is starting to dawn on me is that digital publishing can become a medium in its own right. In the above article one interviewee mentioned that publishers don't "get" digital and are simply transferring paper books to Kindles.
Made me wonder what a "pure" e-book could look like in the future. More graphics, sound, interactive plot lines (the reader chooses which way the tale will go from various options for example), crowd sourced story lines/books..... Perhaps the role of author will become more "multimedia" in the future?
Whatever happens, it's sure to be different!
For someone not considering SP, Jennifer, you know and read an awful lot about it. Thanks for that article. Did you see the author of 50 Shades of Grey on Newsnight last night? The presenter seems to be determind to slur her work as porn (not that I can really comment because I haven't read it.) She did well, though - fought her corner. What was really surprising was that she just published an ebook and really didn't set out to create the storm she has. Interesting stuff.