The guardian: Self-publishers are...

[fjtorres]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...elf-publishing

The success of EL James and her Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy did much to overturn the stereotype of a self-published author. Now academic research further challenges the image of eccentric hobbyists scribbling away in their sheds by revealing that it is middle-aged and well-educated women who dominate the growing e-publishing market.

Alison Baverstock, an associate professor in publishing at Kingston University, Surrey, said her research showed a clear gender split, with 65% of self-publishers being women and 35% men. Nearly two-thirds of all self-publishers are aged 41 to 60, with a further 27% aged over 61. Half are in full-time employment, 32% have a degree and 44% a higher degree.

Baverstock said there was a widespread misunderstanding about who decides to self-publish a book, and how the genre was changing the publishing industry.

Nicola Solomon, chief executive of the Society of Authors, said that self-publishing had “come of age”, was making decent returns for some and was not just for people who want to be published at any cost.

A quarter of self-publishers already considered themselves to be writers. “Publishers are narrowing around safer options, bigger brand names. Lots of middle list authors, with a steady return, are too small for them to engage with,” Solomon added.

Baverstock said that, far from feeling desperation, there was a consistently very high satisfaction with self-publishing. Nor did it necessarily mean going it alone. In current research she is tracking self-publishers’ rising use of freelance editors and marketing and legal experts after discovering in a 2012 survey that 59% had used an editor – removing one of the last distinctions between published and self-published books.

The rising demand for freelance editors means the quality is rising. She said that self-publishers had to take personal responsibility for the management and production, so opening up an understanding of how publishing worked. “This will hopefully diversify participation, widen involvement. The author with experience of self-publishing is empowered,” she said.

More at the source, including this:

Presenting her work to the Westminster Media Forum on the prospects for books, publishing and libraries , Baverstock said there were popular subjects that traditional publishers had ignored, including “respectable soft porn” and “gentle memoirs of everyday disasters, such as losing a child”. Most publishers, she said, were being outpaced by a heady mix of democratisation and digital distribution, because they came from a “very limited gene pool … all agree on what they like … they know each other, and are not necessarily in touch with popular taste.

Ouch.

[BearMountainBooks]

Part of that is that agents already know what a particular set of editors like. I know an author who has been published several times who wants to change genres. But the agent won't even send out some of the material written. Either doesn't know an editor who is interested or insists that it's the wrong genre--not popular right now. And this is common. VERY COMMON. In the past, the only way to get work out there was to have an agent who knew editors. The editors trust the agents to vet the work and only send them what they want to see.

It's not to say that every indie is a great writer, but there are proven writers out there STILL struggling to even get their stuff in front of an editor.

Many of us do have editors--and by that I mean more than one. We've learned as we go along which ones are good, which ones help us get better and which ones are affordable. It's really a great time to be a writer.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

It's not to say that every indie is a great writer, but there are proven writers out there STILL struggling to even get their stuff in front of an editor.

A tradpub editor, I assume.
The thing to look out for is the newcomers who skip the whole agent tradpub merry-go-round to take their chances in the indie world.

Which could lead to things like this:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/1.../#.VGD93-rD_MI

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

A tradpub editor, I assume.
The thing to look out for is the newcomers who skip the whole agent tradpub merry-go-round to take their chances in the indie world.

Which could lead to things like this:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/1.../#.VGD93-rD_MI

Yes, a trad publisher.

Yes, I have suspected that trend because some of the indies who have signed deals had sold THOUSANDS of copies--and I mean 100,000 or more copies already. And the publishers still have to get the word out to buyers who are harder to reach (those not online or who buy more often from bookstores. Or those who buy 10 or less books per year). And those same publishers are not any better than they were about getting that word out. The indie authors have already DONE what they can so when they get a print deal or other deal, they can't necessarily expand to a different audience.

It's hard to find an audience. And it can be fleeting. Some of it is timing, some luck and some of it chance. I think the publishers thought picking up a popular indie was a shortcut. But I also think that PR was still needed. Work to get the word out was still required. And another book to follow those that succeeded...

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

And the publishers still have to get the word out to buyers who are harder to reach (those not online or who buy more often from bookstores. Or those who buy 10 or less books per year). ...

That would be the only reason I can see why anyone who is already successful on their own would want a publisher. Even a print only deal, with the writer keeping ebook control, would be pointless if all they can do is sell it on Amazon at inflated prices.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

That would be the only reason I can see why anyone who is already successful on their own would want a publisher. Even a print only deal, with the writer keeping ebook control, would be pointless if all they can do is sell it on Amazon at inflated prices.

And the problem is *nobody* can reliably deliver that regularly.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

That would be the only reason I can see why anyone who is already successful on their own would want a publisher. Even a print only deal, with the writer keeping ebook control, would be pointless if all they can do is sell it on Amazon at inflated prices.

One of the problems is that indies sell their books for 2.99 to 5.99. A publisher comes along with overhead, takes over and has to charge (or wants to charge) 8.99 to 12.99 for an ebook--to a customer who has been reading that author for under 5 dollars. The audiences may be completely different when you suddenly change the price. They generally become harder to convince.

An example is that a lot of cozy readers just want a simple, happy mystery. They go through them like ... 99 cent bargains. That same reader might not pay 2.99 or 9.99 for even a favorite author.

We had patrons at the library who came in and checked out 15 romance books at a time. They just wanted quick, light happy reads. This type of patron is not going to pay 5.99 for every single quick light read. They go through them one a day--they buy them/check them out partly because they are 99 or free or 1.99.

Everyone has a price range and what is successful at 99 cents may not be successful at 12.99. I think publishers are figuring that out. These authors are popular, but price did play a part in it and the publishers aren't willing (or able) to necessarily offer that same product for the low price. They may not be willing (or able) to FIND an audience for that same book at a higher price.

There are books I've read for free and enjoyed. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed them enough to spend 5 dollars on the next. There are books I've read and enjoyed and HAPPILY spend 4.99 on the next.

Consumers are much more complicated than publishers would like.

[crich70]

Now academic research further challenges the image of eccentric hobbyists scribbling away in their sheds by revealing that it is middle-aged and well-educated women who dominate the growing e-publishing market.Alison Baverstock, an associate professor in publishing at Kingston University, Surrey, said her research showed a clear gender split, with 65% of self-publishers being women and 35% men. Nearly two-thirds of all self-publishers are aged 41 to 60, with a further 27% aged over 61. Half are in full-time employment, 32% have a degree and 44% a higher degree.

And I wager most of those 65% are writing in the Romance genre. Perhaps not all of them but the majority. Romance has always been a big market from what I've been given to understand and it makes sense that as more women than men write Romances that they would have a bigger share of the market.

[Freeshadow]

I think the best part of indie uprising is the overcoming of the "not popular right now" trad pub showstopper because said books can still be "excellent in the genre they belong to" - how many books of superb quality just gathered dust in their authors drawers instead of being offered to the topics' clientele just because said topic just happened not to be en vogue at the given moment?

btw. same goes for translations not being done because of the time lag (no current top seller genre in time that would be required for translation)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

I think the best part of indie uprising is the overcoming of the "not popular right now" trad pub showstopper because said books can still be "excellent in the genre they belong to" - how many books of superb quality just gathered dust in their authors drawers instead of being offered to the topics' clientele just because said topic just happened not to be en vogue at the given moment?

One genre that has really flourished in recent years is straight superhero stories.
(Unlike the occasional litfic ironic deconstruction ala SUPER FOLKS.)
There's a *lot* of those and a lot are real good, too.

And at current comic book prices, the indie novels are a great deal.

If there is one genre the establishment sneers at more than romance it is superheroes but in indie-land it is the reader who decides what it worthy. For this alone, the openess to genre, sub-genre, cross-genre, and outright mutation the indie revolution will endure.

There's a lot of unmet demand out there that tradpub never bothered to even try meeting because their focus is on the next Patterson or King, not the next 25k midlister selling pre-dynastic egypt murder mysteries or romances. (Both of which I hear are pretty hot--we might start seeing some me-too releases from the big boys in a year or two.)

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by crich70

And I wager most of those 65% are writing in the Romance genre. Perhaps not all of them but the majority. Romance has always been a big market from what I've been given to understand and it makes sense that as more women than men write Romances that they would have a bigger share of the market.

I'm not so sure of that. I edit on the side and I have one client who does some romance, but mainly does mystery--because mystery is actually selling better than romance. There are actually two erotica/romance publishers who have mentioned slowing sales and are having sales issues.

If you look at which ads are the most expensive right now, it's mystery/thriller by a LARGE margin. That is what is selling, especially in indie-world.

Now, that doesn't mean that is what is being written, but from what I can see, it's not skewed as much to romance as in the past.

I've also noticed (and read) the superhero genre.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by crich70

And I wager most of those 65% are writing in the Romance genre. Perhaps not all of them but the majority. Romance has always been a big market from what I've been given to understand and it makes sense that as more women than men write Romances that they would have a bigger share of the market.

Also, I fit the demographic in the article and I don't write romances. Of my clients that also fit that demographic, only one writes romance (part of the time). The rest write mysteries or urban fantasy. One of the ladies writes horror part of the time (I don't edit the horror so I can't speak to how well it does or how much is being written).

That's not to say romance isn't being written, but most of the queries I get for editing lean to fantasy and mystery pretty heavily. When I do free short story giveaways on my blog periodically (from various writers) I have only ever had one romance writer participate. I've also taken ads at the blog a few times and none have been for romance. It could be a reflection of my own blog readership though.

[fjtorres]

It could also be other genres catching up to romance and SF/fantasy.
Romance got a jumpstart because it is the largest commercial genre and a lot of authors had extensive reverted backlists and a lot of prolific Harlequin veterans were pumping content into a receptive market.
As the indie revolution moves on authors in other genres are catching on that the water is fine for diving in. Who goes indie and what they put out is going to evolve as more and more people become receptive to indie titles. Even litfic authors will catch on that there already is a market for them in indie-land.

There's room for everybody.

[BearMountainBooks]

There is room for everyone. Although from ad prices, litfic still doesn't sell all that well or people aren't looking for it online at places that take ads!

Maybe romance has fallen off in popularity because so many other genres are now also available for a low price. It's hard to say. I read a lot of romance when I was younger, but it doesn't hold much appeal for me these days. I love HEA stories, but I always leaned towards romances with at least a small degree of mystery and the like. I don't read nearly as much "thriller" as I used to either. But with indie works I can find just about anything for under 5 dollars.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

There is room for everyone. Although from ad prices, litfic still doesn't sell all that well or people aren't looking for it online at places that take ads!

Litfic doesn't sell well.
Period.

For one thing, it isn't really meant to sell well.