Why Traditional Publishing Is Nearly Obsolete (& Where Storytelling is Going)

[Story_Marc]

My expanding thoughts on the literature world as we move closer to the future! This is something I intend to expand on, but I wanted to document this as a starting point for some observations and thoughts.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

We can thank Amazon for destroying the flair of publishing. Now anyone can publish anything, and with the right connections, advertising and marketing, even if it's the crappiest book in the world, you can make a fortune out of it.

You can even make it a best-seller if you buy 10,000 of them.

 

[Story_Marc]

We can thank Amazon for destroying the flair of publishing. Now anyone can publish anything, and with the right connections, advertising and marketing, even if it's the crappiest book in the world, you can make a fortune out of it.

You can even make it a best-seller if you buy 10,000 of them.

I agree, though I feel the "flair" of publishing would be destroyed no matter what. Amazon was going to do what someone would do because it's practical. And, as I made clear, no era is without its problems. Someone would try to solve that problem in whatever way, as the existence of self-publishing beforehand best showcases. The internet has just given a better infrastructure.

With Platform Era, as I'm calling it, abundance IS the biggest bottleneck. I don't think the crappiest book in the world can actually make a fortune -- though I realize this is hyperbole -- but I do agree that those things help. It's the third of the three things I've mentioned authors need to succeed in the modern world: entrepreneurship. More people need to think like business professionals if they wish to operate effectively.

As for how to achieve all that, I've so many thoughts I wish to experiment with and explain coming up, but that's future content.

 

[VictorDoUrden]

More is written in a day today or any other day in last few decades then all of human history put together..... and that ain't really a good thing. Amazon as much of a cringe POS that it is. Fucking scum. You know they can fuck with someones work without telling the author and then "update" it? Them being piece of shit scum aside some really great stuff has come from it. Said great stuff being the exception then the norm. Would have never been otherwise without amazon publishing as most publishers are like newspapers, as in, old, corrupted and full of nepotism. Plus all the fucking censorship and retarded rules that break the fourth wall and ruin many a story. Most big sites and publishers are crap for exactly that.

 

[DireBadger]

More is written in a day today or any other day in last few decades then all of human history put together..... and that ain't really a good thing. Amazon as much of a cringe POS that it is. Fucking scum. You know they can fuck with someones work without telling the author and then "update" it? Them being piece of shit scum aside some really great stuff has come from it. Said great stuff being the exception then the norm. Would have never been otherwise without amazon publishing as most publishers are like newspapers, as in, old, corrupted and full of nepotism. Plus all the fucking censorship and retarded rules that break the fourth wall and ruin many a story. Most big sites and publishers are crap for exactly that.

welcome to the history of artwork in general

 

[LesserSarcasm]

Work for a book distributor, it's not dying at all. Probably shouldn't say more

 

[Xam_I_Am]

With my second book finally written, proofread, edited, edited again. I look twoards getting my first book into the hands of a greater audience. Honestly having a mild panic attack thinking about just how the hell i'm going to do that. I suck suck suck at social media, so I've looked for online publishers, but reading through their submission rules and guidelines, I find myself in a bit of a limbo. It has no Sci-fi/magic etc or harem. So I'm hesitant to even bother with Royalguard. I looked around at romance publishers, but it doesn't seem like a lot don't want stories with smut in it, which mine has.(Granted its story-heavy smut) I've been looking at Moonquill, but their latest publications are far from my genre. So now I'm just sitting here pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to do. Sorry for the rant.

Enjoyed the video though.

 

[Corty]

If the crappiest book can make a fortune where is my paycheck?!

 

[Anonjohn20]

If the crappiest book can make a fortune where is my paycheck?!

You've got tons of free books; have your next one be an Amazon direct publishing book. You too can make a penny while they make a dollar.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Actually, come to think of it, my housemate and I closed down the literary agency arm of our business about the time Amazon's bookstore came into being - that would have been around, what, 2008? 2009?

People really had no use for us anymore if they could just bypass the middlemen of agents, editors, and publishers, and just do it all online. I'm honestly surprised literary agents still are needed. I suppose if you were old-school and were a sensation before the rush of the internet, you might want one for legal matters but...what's the point?

Like I said, you can be a sensation if you have a good quality book (or bad quality book), and just advertise it like mad. One of our former clients had an exceptional and successful mystery book. He dropped us and published the sequel on his own. He spent thousands of dollars on marketing it, bought a Kirkus Review and bam, a best-seller. *^^*

So, if you really want to be mainstream star with adoring fans and gobs of money, yes, get an agent. But if you really just want to show your work to the world without the fanfare, just head to Amazon.

Print is dying anyway. *^^*

 

[Tacit]

I don't think traditional publishing is obsolete so much as the game has changed completely. You're not getting massive advances for books the way you used to unless you're a big name that the publisher is trying to get to increase their name brand. Having worked for a print & binding company, the overall volume of books we'd process didn't go down so much as the type and variety of them. People are buying fewer physical mainstream books yes, but the machines are still running on 3 shift rotations a day printing various mangas, children's books, and indie books.

One thing to note though is that there was a noticeable surge in books printed out by various industry professionals and gifted out as educational material in the late 2010s and early 2020s. That's something that usually requires a traditional publisher and ghost writer because most working professionals are great at telling information but not at writing it down and putting it into a nice package.

If anything I'd say the magic of publishing a book is gone. Anyone can publish a book on KDP, Ingram Spark, or Lulu and distribute as many books as people are willing to buy. On one hand publishing your own book is no longer considered some major accomplishment or validation of your skills (especially with the AI slop books nowadays) but on the other, we get excellent stories published by authors that would never have existed in the first place like Lin Meili who just started writing during Covid and published her book within a few months.