alt Hacker NewsDo we need to depend on Publishers? Can’t we write books independently? Or is it because of the “Brand” and other perks that come with Publishers?
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Self publishing is easier than ever. But even shitty publishers like Packt still have a huge networking/marketing machine. My skillset does not include marketing, or checking whether a target audience exists.
If I want to write for just myself, I can just journal or blog. A book is a significant undertaking, writing one which no one reads would just be depressing.
I don't know if publishers manage to get better deals from Amazon, but Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing has an annoying aspect that the ebook royalty rate falls from 70% to 30% after $9.99, which gets very awkward for a tech book you'd like to sell for, say, $19.99.
Also, piracy is rampant and Amazon doesn't do much about it. Publishers have more resources to stay on top of it, I suspect.
Publishers add the following:
1. marketing and reach
2. financial risk on paper copies
3. Production services (e.g. editing and artwork)
If you don’t need those or can get them some other way (e.g. hire an independent editor), then you are better off self publishing and not giving the publisher a cut.
I mean in the blog post the author literally open sourced and then self-published his book after being dropped by multiple publishers for taking too long.
Personally my favorite part of working with real publishers is editors. Having a development editor, technical editor, and a team of copy editors really helps making sure the book comes out polished. Additionally, I don't want to deal with all the layout work and the details of printing.
And, depending on the book, yes the distributor the publisher has can be very helpful for sales. It's nice to be able to grab your book off the shelf at Barnes and Noble (and, does lend a bit more credibility to your work).
All that said, if you're writing for purely economic reasons (which I would caution against regardless), you're probably going to make roughly the same if you self-publish for a small audience vs go with a traditional publisher for a larger audience, and if you can get a larger audience self-publishing then there will be no comparison.