Why traditional publishing?

I get asked a lot if I've considered self-publishing. I have a lot of reserves about it. First of all, I like to work with professionals and I always have, and I'm all too aware of how DIY rarely ends up with the kind of quality you expect from a job done by an expert.

Self-publishing offers the author up to 70% of sales proceeds, compared to as low as 10% in traditional publishing. Some say traditional is on the way out. I say, don't forget what Red Box did to video rental chains like Blockbuster. If you've landed here because you love YA and are in fact too young to know what Blockbuster is, let me explain.

You're nine years old and it's Friday night. Your family loads up and heads to Blockbuster, the real-live equivalent of Netflix. It smells like an AT&T store, sells overpriced candy and single serve popcorn bags, and all the movies are $5 to rent for the night, with heavy fees if you forget to return them the next day. Enter Redbox, which popped up at the convenience store offering all the same great movies for only a dollar, with another dollar charge if you happen to hold onto it for another day. Redbox ran Blockbuster right out of business - and as soon as they did, they started price gauging and their movie offerings dried up like a spilled Capri Sun on a summer sidewalk.

Amazon's self-publishing service might indeed run all the competition out of business, but it will be a sad day when it does. Remember what happened to Youtube? Oh, there I go again. Long story short, more ads, less quality content. More volume, less heart.

I want to write with heart. I want to produce something I'm proud of. I want to support libraries. Not everything in life is about money - I really really mean that. I want us to stop paving paradise and remember that in an industry where people care, greater things happen than a lottery payday.

#reading #writing #lessons