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| image taken from this Salon article |
It's an interesting point of view on self-publishing and I find its implications for library collection development to be quite intriguing.
Hugh Howey writes books, he self-publishes those books, he maintains complete 100% ownership of his books, they are available digitally and as such this means they will always be available (no out-of-print options here), he also now makes a substantial monthly income from this.
One of the chief challenges I face in my role developing my library's collection is how I treat self-published material. I have to admit that the majority of self-published print material that comes across my desk is appalling in content, style, presentation, and quality. There's one particular picture book featuring a crocodile (or was it an alligator?) that still gives me shudders (*shudders just thinking about it*). These authors are often local people who are so very proud of their work that it is challenging to try to explain that what they are giving me is of extremely poor quality. There has been little or no editorial process and so the concepts of writing to your audience or suiting book content to your audience hasn't been that well balanced. Many of these titles end up in our Local Studies collection simply to satisfy the author and to collect material written by local people.
That said, Christopher Paolini's "Eragon" originally started life as a 'self-published' title printed by his family's printing company. And I have had a couple of beautifully illustrated and written picture books come across my desk which have been gorgeous. But it's not been the norm.
The rise of eBooks has meant that self-publishing has taken on a whole new form. Authors can publish prolifically in eBook format and reach a growing audience of people who do and do not use libraries. Hugh Howey points out that the popularity (or not) of his work is always determined by the readers so making your work broadly accessible raises the chances of success (from an author making money point of view). This is typically the case when you consider the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey (by E. L. James) which started life as a Twilight fan-fiction piece. It only existed as an eBook, you could only get it online, but the popularity there gave it the strength to be physically published as a print book where its increased popularity (and that particular genre) then grew exponentially. (It's a crazy world)
So how do I develop my library's collection when more and more asked-for titles and authors are only available as an eBook? How do I make them accessible to my library customers? How do I catalogue that item? How do I acquisition it? How do I lend it?
We have a series of lending eReaders with preloaded genre titles on them. One of the eReaders features a couple of titles by Lee Child which are only available as eBooks, you can't get them in print. Here's a hugely popular commercially published author whose books walk off the shelves in droves and yet he too has followed the eBook path for some of his work.
This is not to say that all eBooks have been self-published. Most publishers have jumped on the bandwagon to also sell eBook versions of printed titles, but they generally do so at a hugely marked-up price which compares directly to the cost of the printed item. Self-published authors will undoubtedly sell their eBook titles for $0.99 or so, certainly under the $10.00 mark. This pricing makes more of the books accessible and turns eBooks into impulse buys which more and more people then buy more of - it becomes a lovely cycle of income production for the author. I like this idea.
Self-publishing is a bit like a Kickstarter project but where the thing is available before the money comes in. Self-publishing allows writers to hone their skills and grow and develop in an arena which provides constant feedback and criticism (hopefully mostly constructive). Self-publishing also allows writers to afford to keep writing. It is changing the nature of publishing itself and challenging traditional publishing houses to adapt.
It kind of reminds me of the teen flick "Stick It" featuring a group of rebellious gymnasts who defy the traditional rules to do the routines they want to do, to show the full extent of their skills and abilities, and to choose the winners themselves regardless of what the judging 'rules' determine. Self-publishing allows authors to retain full ownership of their work, to defy the traditional rules of publishing, to defy the standard expectations of success, and to allow their readers to choose the best-sellers based on what they like to read, not what has had the most money spent on a media campaign and groovy cover.
Food for thought.
