RE: How You Can Grow a New Account Radically Fast on Steemit Using Multiple Part Posts and What Happened When I Did it
Thanks for your honest reply. I understand what you mean. I do like a lot of indie authors, and I do know that they can make money on Amazon, and some do. I understand that the traditional publishing houses do miss out on some great authors too ... but I just had to bring up the dark side of self-publishing on Amazon. Most people dive into self-publishing with way too high of expectations, and I'm annoyed with Amazon for the way they market themselves as if they're the self-publishing answer for everyone when they take so much advantage of new authors. What other online booksellers take the work of thousands of authors for FREE when they upload their work and profit from it the big numbers of titles they can boast ... when in many cases the authors get nothing? I know a bunch of authors who tried selling on Amazon and got a whopping $7 per year in sales, and others nothing at all. And these were writers I liked who worked at least a year on their books! But because they lacked a big marketing platform before uploading their book, their work just gets lost like everyone else's.
Self-publishing has its place, but it deserves better platforms where authors get paid if they're going to put in the extra work. That's my main point.
And I'm still learning too because this industry is changing constantly...
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@joylovestowrite @dustysharp, this is a great discussion and @dolphinschool, thanks for creating the opportunity for it! :)
I too have a similar opinion to both of you regarding self and traditional publishing. I read a great book on both called A.P.E. by Guy Kawasaki, plus spoke to a couple of authors and heard horror stories from them about the publishing world.
That being said I also found similarly about Amazon, that everyone and their dog can publish a book there (and on iBooks and the other guys. BUT... there are some really good indy writers. The key is that self-publishing has become one of those almost dirty words because of its access and a percentage of its content, just like Youtube. There's great content there, but the access also allows excruciating content, which is probably the majority by sheer volume.
Regarding publishing @dustysharp, I found this site about it and agents (gatekeepers), maybe you've seen it already but if not, have a read if ever you're interested in it. http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/agents-advice.html Very helpful!
But I too would like to publish some fiction here; you don't get the 'prestige' but you can get a following I think and if you're fortunate, some livelihood, and it's a great social-tech experiment. So I appreciate super @dolphinschool for the article above! Definitely on the money!