Crashing the Party

The digital age of publishing has opened up doors to so many authors, myself included, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. The publishing industry has been bogged down in a system which was unsustainable. Offer an advance to new writers on the chance their works exceeds the advance. Nine times out of ten that didn’t happen. How can a business continue to whiff 90% of the time and expect to succeed? The answer? It doesn’t. So rather than spending recklessly on a first-timer with no name, no marketing skills and no platform, they decide to do the only thing which makes sense. They take away marketing dollars from these newbies and put them into brands we’re familiar with: Lee Child, Vince Flynn, Nelson Demille, Catherine Coulter. And they get return on their investment.
Thankfully digital publishing has opened the door to so many new authors which were never breaking that old business model no matter how good their books were. There’s even instances where publishers are seeking out succesful e-book authors to offer print deals. These same authors whose work never got past the interns in their own office.
Good luck NY. It’s only a matter of time before digital publishing surpasses print publishing (Some say as soon as 2013) and some big name like James Patterson or Stephen King realize they don’t need to pay a publisher to publish digital books. They can upload their own books and sell them directly to their readers without paying a middle man.
It’s going to happen sooner than you may think. And I for one can’t wait.