online retailers. These factors have irrevocably changed the way
books are published, marketed, reviewed, purchased, and read.The New Order versus the Old
z As a result of these changes—the corporatization of commercial
publishing, the rise of online bookselling and the e-book, and the
consequent decline of brick-and-mortar bookstores—the traditional
agents and publishers don’t have nearly as much power as they used to.
o Today, there are essentially no barriers to getting published;
anyone with a broadband connection can publish a manuscript
online through any number of self-publishing platforms, and
for a little more money, a writer can even provide readers with
physical books through print-on-demand services.
o Self-publishing is much more widely accepted, even by
authors who have previously published in the traditional way.
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writers sell their work via the Internet directly to readers, who
can download e-books in the space of a minute or two.z There are also downsides to this new, more democratic order. The
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Breaking into the traditional system is hard, but once you’re in, you can
at least count on your publisher to send out review copies and possibly
even to arrange interviews and appearances. Further, most readers
understand that a traditionally published book has at least been edited
for spelling and grammar. Self-published writers have to do all their
own editing, proofreading, design, marketing, and publicity, or they
have to pay people to perform these services.
z On the whole, it seems that the odds of success in the new system
aren’t all that different from the odds of success in the traditional
system. The midlist writer who publishes in the traditional way is not
likely to get much more attention than someone who self-publishes
an e-book. In both the old and new orders, there are a handful of very
successful authors; a large number who sell books only to their friends
and loved ones; and a group of midlisters, who write the best books