Is self-publishing a career killer?
Posted by Maya Smart on Tue, Dec 08, 2009 @ 07:28 PM
by Maya Payne Smart
Q: My friend keeps suggesting ebooks and says they can be super short and about as much work as magazine stories but royalties can be much higher. He suggests puttin
g them out through dedicated ebook sites. However, I've always shied away from doing them because of I wasn't sure if mainstream media publications would take them seriously as parts of our portfolio if they're put out by these small ebook sites.
Do you think the site where you put out your ebooks matters and do you think we lose credibility by writing these things since it essentially seems like self-publishing?
A: I'm a proponent of self-publishing books, ebooks and anything else you want to because they have great upside potential if you have strong marketing and distribution.
Here's an example: Bob Bly wrote a trade paperback book that earned him 72 cents in profit per copy. He later repackaged the content as three ebooks, and earns a whopping $87 each time he sells the downloadable pdfs.
That said, all self-published works are not created equal. Some are awful--full of amateurish writing, ghastly design and typos. So the key to self-publishing is building a strong cast of supporters to make you look good. This includes copyeditors, graphic designers and printers. Ebooks are no different except that you don't have printing costs, which dramatically increases your profit margin.
Some ebook distributors have a bad reputation and dispense spammy, inaccurate garbage so you do have to be careful about where your work is displayed. You can get around this by selling the digital products through your own site or through Amazon and other reputable companies.
In short, self-publishing won't hurt you with mainstream media unless it's bad self-publishing.
Independent journalists have to find a way to thrive despite mainstream media turmoil, and I think publishing ourselves via blogs, books and digital products is one profitable way to do it. Many "self-published" blogs, subscription newsletters and other publications are breaking news, delivering value and earning money. Take Michelle Leder's Footnoted.org. Creating a publication that subscribers are willing to pay $2,500/year for is no small feat. The fact that she distributes it herself has done nothing but enhance her credibility, platform and bottom line.
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