Changing Face of Publishing by Margot Justes

We live in a world where publishing changes almost daily. Every time Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Apple sneeze, something new has evolved. From best sellers going on Amazon.com for a specific sale or Apple allowing the publishers to name their price; the publishing world as we know it, is changing rapidly.

More and more new and established authors are going the self pub e-route, for obvious reasons-there is more money to be made. Let's face it, the mid-list author hardly makes enough for...I was going to say a good cup of coffee...but that would be an exaggeration. Wouldn't it? Still, there are some pretty darn expensive cups of coffee. One cafe in New York charges $10.00 for a brew.
I don't think my palate is developed enough to taste that difference, but I digress. Back to the publishing world.

Morgan Mandel, in her blog last week discussed the self e-pub route and it how makes sense for an author. Amazon pays 75% to the author if price is $2.99 or higher; the money goes directly to the author's pocket. That is not a bad return for a mid-list author.

Consider, Dickens got paid by the word and he certainly used them well, but today that is most assuredly not the case, the mid list author does not make enough to live on. I would hazard a guess and say far from the minimum wage. I might be wrong...but I don't think so.

The stigma of self-publishing is rapidly disappearing for the same reason, more money to be made, it is easier and there is a vast amount of information available on the internet. The how-to-publish process has been taken out of the hands of the few and given to the multitudes, and writers realized that the potential for more money is much greater going the self-pub route.

Of course it goes without saying that it must be well written, and advertising is essential, otherwise no one will know there is anything to sell. Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networks will need to know the author exists and the product is available on Amazon, and everywhere else in the vastly changing publishing world.

I'm doing the same thing, I have two short stories available and will put them on Amazon. The covers have been selected, and I am fortunate enough to have a very creative web designer who will format them for me.

I'll post two travel articles I have written (previously published by Crime Spree Magazine) on travel sites for free just to get my name out. We'll see what happens, but for now, it is fascinating to watch the changes as they occur. It is a publishing revolution and we're here to see it happen..

Next week, I'll introduce fellow Echelon author Sean Hayden.

Till next time,
Margot Justes
A Hotel in Paris
www.mjustes.com