Trad vs. Indie Publishing: A False Dichotomy

[Mythopoet]

That said 50SoG is a best seller - BECAUSE it has a publishing house behind it.

Actually, 50 Shades started as Twilight fan fiction posted free on the internet. Then the author revised it to take out the blatantly Twilight aspects and self published it. It was a huge hit as a self published ebook so a big publisher snapped it up. They didn't make it a best seller. They eagerly cashed in on the success it already had because they couldn't care less about the quality of a book as long as it sells well.

 

[MichaelSullivan]

All in all I thought it was a pretty good post, and mirrors what I've been saying for years. There is no universal right or wrong path, just one that is a better fit than another. Hybrids like myself, Hugh, and Joe can exist in either world, but there are many who don't have such a choice. There are those in traditional that couldn't survive on their own...yes it's unfortunate, and yes they lose more money that could have been theirs if they had the skills / abilities to go on their own, but they don't so they have to take what is left available to them.

Likewise, many self-published authors can't get a contract. It may be that their writing isn't up to a certain level, or they are writing "out of the box" works that don't easily pass the bean counters, or are the gatekeepers are just choosing poorly. But in any case, for them self is the only route and some will prosper and others will fail.

I do think hybrid is the best way to go...but as the % that can do traditional well is slim...and the % that can do self well is slim. The intersection of those two groups is a really small subset. When all is said and done, writers should educate themselves on the alternatives, stay agile, and keep producing. These are the traits that will pay off in the long run.

One other point...the blogger mentioned, "Beyond which, you’ll work your butt off, and I don’t mean writing. Indie is hard, people, trust me on this." Again, having done both I actually find self much easier than traditional. Both require a lot of expenditure of energy ... just on different tasks. During contract negotiations I can't write, at all. When I and my editor disagree on something, it takes much more effort to keep the vision I wanted. When Hachette and Amazon fight - I'm drawn into a battle that I don't have when working directly with Amazon. These are just a few examples but I could go on and on. So I see "different" non-writing tasks, but they both have them. For me, the self stuff is easier, but I'm sure their are others who would rather have the traditional headaches. The original blogger only has seen the self, so they assume that traditional would provide a release and more time to write...it's not true (or at least hasn't been in my case). It's people who have done both that can truly appreciate the color of the grass on both sides of the fence.