Questions re: Traditional Publishing vs Self-publishing

 

I belong to a number of online groups for writers. I enjoy people telling what the writing life means to them. But over the last few months, the comments have become variations on the same theme. A question like - I've just finished my first book, should I go for traditional publishing, or should I self publish?

I know what it means to be a beginner, and I have tried to provide answers in some cases. Unfortunatly, I sadly admit that I can be long-winded. Furthermore, my kind of answer, especially in the limitations of a twitter or facebook setting, probably ends up being more confusing than helpful. But the questioners keep showing up, many of them asking the same things. So I have decided to try giving my insights and responses to the questions of beginning writers here on this blog.

There are many important things a new author needs to consider when they first begin writing. 

First: You need time, money and, most of all patience 

In some ways, publishing can be analagous to remodeling a home. Some people and projects require the use of a general contractor to take charge.  Other people feel competent put in the time and energy to manage the details themselves, and need the control of engaging individual workers and making certain get exactly what they want. Your personality plays the biggest role in selecting which path you will do best in as far as publishing your manuscript.  

In modern traditional publishing, patience is not only a virtue, it’s an absolute necessity. Years can pass between the time you write THE END and when an acquiring editor agrees to buy the rights to publish your book.  Conversely, you may only need months to do it yourself and self-publish. The self-publishing path will cost you in money more than in time. 

Second: Your individual goals drive the decision

When you first start writing a manuscript, decide if your future plans include publication.  The sooner you make that decision, the sooner you can start looking into things like editing. Not everyone wants to publish. That’s absolutely OK. A member of my critique group is a fantastic writer, with zero desire to publish. Not even in a magazine. I love her writing, and a few years ago I tried to get her to consider publishing. No interest. Her goal is to have something that tells her history to her family when she is gone.
If you want to publish someday, start making decisions before you write THE END. If you are looking at traditional publishing, you can get an early start on researching agents and acquiring editors who are willing to take unagented submissions. If you decide to self-publish and want more than the pride of holding your book in your hands, and maybe seeing copies in the hands of your friends and family, the sooner you stargt learning more a out the realities of publishing the better. If you want to sell thousands of copies and eearn best-seller status while making a pile of money, start moving in that direction as soon as possible.

This includes an honest self-assessment on your comfort with marketing. While it is true that you have to market yourself and your book whether you pursue traditional or self-publishing, marketing is critical to any hope of making significant sales for a self-published book. People prefer buying books from authors they know, or at least feel they know. Celebrities, best-selling authors, authors with a major platform. That’s why you should begin your marketing work even before you finish your book.  

While many self published romance books and authors beat these numbers, the average self-published book sells 250 copies. The average self-published author earns $1,000 per year from their books. 33% of self-published authors make less than $500 per year. 90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies.

Marketing yourself is crucial to helping you surpass those numbers. Use social media, your website, and any other means you have to build a group that will follow you. Over time, they will feel like they grow to know you, they will feel you are one of them. Then, months, even years later, when you have a completed book, you also have people who feel they know you and are therefore more likely to care about your book.

Third: Know your own personality

Are you ready to face rejection without feeling compleely dejected. Here are a few statistics accumulated a few years ago. 

Agents and acquiring editors reject around 90% of submissions. If you don’t accumulate a large number of rejections in your quest for traditional publication, you have either given up on getting an agent or being acquired by a traditional publisher - or you have the goddess Tyche in your corner (Greek goddess of fortune, chance,  and fate, much like the African goddess Oya who appears in my newest (and as yet unpublished) manuscript). In order to achieve you must be prepared to see a lot of nos first.

I hope I have managed to answer some issues aspiring authors may have, without making things more confusing. I would love to have you share any issues or alternate opinions in the comments. I too am eagefr to learn. For the record, I have traditionally published three books, and self-published two, so I have seen both worlds.   

Why I Prefer The Traditional Publishing Route

I have listened to several authors wondering about traditional vs self-publication. I have done both, and for me, there is no question. I prefer traditional. Not just because of the advance, which is admittedly a nice deal. If you self publish, the writing in only step one. Either you perform every additional detail yourself, or you project manage people you hire, and pay, yourself to do those details. Or you can engage with someone calling themselves a publisher and pay them the big bucks to get things done.  Doing things yourself is the only low cost option, but it does require the kind of person who loves managing a bunch of tasks.  

I have never been a controlling person (unless you talk to my daughter). I hate the tiny details, so to me, taking the slow but steady option of having a publisher take control from me once the writing is done is basically a godsend.  

Some observations on how fiction and non-fiction is treated by publishers.

Editing is very different. In both fiction and non-fiction, the editor choses to buy the rights to publish your book largely based on your writing voice and your knowledge of the subject. But in fiction, my editors were always ready to suggest changes, sometimes down to individual paragraphs or even sentences. Lots of changes, all the while telling me my work only needed a “light edit”. I’d really hate to see a heavy edit. 

Some writers worry that a traditional publisher might want them to change their work into something they don't want.  In my experience the editor's only make suggestions, and when I look, they make sense and end up making the story better.  With Courage, for example, the editor suggested I change the last few chapters. Mind you, she did not tell me what to change things too, just stating that she found the ending confusing.

Frankly, she was right. My ending kind of confused me too. Fortunately, months had passed since I first wrote the manuscript, and I was able to look at it through new eyes and see an alternative. If you have ever read Courage, well, just trust me, the published ending beats the original one hands down. There was a chase through an abandoned warehouse while being pursued by a group of thieves and a SWAT team lead by Mr. Cho who had only pretended to be a parole officer, the better to conduct a sting on the criminals and handle his confidential informant, the heroes’ older brother. Like I said, confusing. I really bless the editor for suggesting that be changed.

ALSO - if you are, or know of a teacher, let them know ASAP that WNDB (We Need Diverse Books) is currently doing a back-to-school giveaway. Winning classrooms and organizations will receive one set of books, and Courage is one of the books in the Elementary School / Middle Grade / YA Bundle. They can find more information, and enter to win, at http://ow.ly/tmOG50KcFW4, The giveaway deadline is only a few days away.  

This year, my first non-fiction middle grade book, Unlawful Orders, has been traveling the long and winding road toward traditional publication, a journey that will end when it hits bookshelves in October.  With non-fiction, I think my editor assumed I really was subject matter expert, or an all-knowing wizard. She suggested so few changes I was amazed, mostly only grammar and misspellings. In fact, she let stand something I expected her to change. I used it as much for shock value as anything else and was so confused when she let it slide that I wrote to ask if she was really going to leave that in. I couldn’t believe they were willing leave something so inflammatory on the pages. Since I never really expected that to hit the final version, I ended up editing it out myself. (And no, I won’t tell you what it was.) The fact-checkers did come after me on a few things. Fortunately, most of the time I was a able to tell them, “I know things are different here in the twenty-first century, but back in the 1940’s…” and then point them to references they had missed. That always felt good. Maybe I deserve those wizard robes!

That is an area where traditional publishing makes me happier than self-publishing. Yes, the traditional route takes longer, but they also add value extras like fact-checkers that act like goalkeepers to ensure the information on the pages is accurate. They also handled the book illustrations. In addition to finding the right cover artists, I discovered that my publisher employs people whose job descriptions involve getting permissions to use the dozens of photographs included in the book. No wondering if I can or cannot include the great pictures we chose together.  Plus, the publisher hired someone to format the chapter notes and bibliography once I demonstrated my utter helplessness in that area. They made a good book so much better.

People talk about how little the publishers do for marketing, but that’s not always true. My publisher interviewed me for a group of librarians, the interview is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hlLlI3Y4PA  

In April they had me on an online School Library Journal panel to discuss the book with librarians. They also arranged to send me to the National Council of Teacher’s of English Homecoming conference in July, the first in-person event the organization has held since Covid descended on us. There was no stipend or honorarium, but the company did pay my transportation and lodging.  I had an audience of educators that I hope I thrilled with my talk. They did line up for me to autograph their ARCs, and many stayed to chat with me, a true ego boost.

As an unanticipated plus to the visit, the NCTE Homecoming event was held in Louisville, Kentucky, close enough to my home in Chicago, Illinois for me to drive instead of fly. After everything I have been seeing about airports and flying these days, it was not a difficult decision, although the hours long drive down highway 65 was no picnic. But as I headed south of Indianapolis, I found the name of a town that somehow seemed familiar. Seymour. I wracked my brain trying to figure out why that word kept rolling around inside my head, then suddenly it hit me. Seymour, Indiana was the location of Freeman Field air base during World War II. That is where the unlawful and illegal orders were given to the characters in my newest book.

 

I literally felt like a fangirl. Even though the airfield itself is long gone, I had to leave the highway and enter the town. It was almost a pilgrimage to a place I had not even known existed only a few years earlier. The location where a hundred Tuskegee Airmen took a stand against discrimination in the military and said no to an illegal order. They were willing to risk their lives by that act of mutiny a decade before Rosa Parks refused the order to give up her seat on a bus.

PS, Seymour also happens to be John Cougar Mellencamp's hometown, so I got one extra treat during that detour.

 

Everything Old is New Again!

By: Marcia King-Gamble

www.lovemarcia.com

Happy 2022! I can’t help but wonder where the years went to? Just 24 years ago, I signed my first book contract with Kensington Publishing. Memory fades as to whether it was a two- or three-year contract, but I do know it was for multiple books and that trend continued for many years. Even today, I still remember that feeling of elation when I got that very first call from an editor. Months of visualization had actually paid off.

My very first published book. The cover has since changed and so has the title.  You can find the updated version here: https://amzn.to/3FbjcT1

Back then I used to go to stores like Walden’s (now out of business), Barnes and Noble, and Borders (also out of business,) and imagine my books being on that prime shelf space. I could see, smell, and feel that print book. I also didn’t realize that shelf space is paid for by the publishing house and positioning is everything. That eye-opening information came later.

Although Indie books were around for ages, the authors were seldom respected. However, with the advent of the Kindle, the Indie Market took off and traditionally published authors slowly migrated over.

This was for many reasons. Some wanted complete control of their business, others were dropped by their publishers, and others came out of pure curiosity. Mid-listers were more willing to take a chance on this market, and after witnessing the success of some established authors, the New York Times and USA Bestsellers made their way over.

Of course, there were always naysayers. It wouldn’t last, some said, no one reads substandard books. It’s a market for those who can’t write. The list went on. Change can be hard for both the reader and author. Change is hard for most people, anyway. But regardless, it looks like the Indie Market is here to stay, and many talented authors have released some very fine work.

For me, after careful reflection, I’ve decided to return to world of traditional publishing, although this is not necessarily an exclusive move. While there are certainly pluses to the Indie World, there are negatives to. There’s something about the freedom to write what you want, when you want, but I need the structure and discipline of a defined delivery time.

As an Indie it’s easy to procrastinate. We have no pressure to deliver on any date, regardless of whether said date was published on social media. A handful of fans might reach out inquiring as to where your book is, but you don’t have a cover artist or editor breathing down your neck because you’re holding up someone elses's release. If you don’t deliver, there is no fear of losing your slot and having your release delayed another year.

Being Traditionally published means putting your butt in a chair and getting the writing done. It means delivering on time and working with an editor that requires you to get edits back to her and at a specified time.

I'm not saying being an Indie writer  hasn’t been a nice run, and I wouldn’t continue to write for the market, but I miss the worldwide distribution possibilities, and I miss working with editors who have my back.  So, my plan is to come back as a hybrid. This way I get the best of both worlds.

More from my backlist. 

About Marcia King-Gamble

USA bestselling romance writer, Marcia King-Gamble originally hails from a sunny Caribbean Island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. This former travel industry executive has spent most of life in the United States. A National Bestselling author, Marcia has penned over thirty-four books and eight novellas. She has contributed to Michael Fiore’s DigitalRomanceInc and served as a moderator on the now defunct eHarmony advice boards. Having witnessed the bad, the ugly, and the not so good in relationships, she still prefers to write about happily ever after. Caring for her animal family keeps her grounded and sane.

Visit Marcia at www.lovemarcia.com or “friend” her on Facebook: http://bit.ly/1MlnrIS

Be sure to join her newsletter mailing list.

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It's That Time of Life

by Courtney Pierce

When I try to recall the best book that I read in 2018, I laughed out loud. I didn’t even finish one besides my own. Indigo Legacy took a full three years to complete, along with multiple read-throughs from both my editor and so many from me I stopped counting. But that doesn’t count, does it? Editing a novel is hard, hard work.

There were two books I attempted to read in order to give myself distance from my manuscript. Both were supremely disappointing: Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles and Origin by Dan Brown. I had a Missus-Bitchy-Face at every turn of the page. Greg Iles is one of my favorites, but a courtroom rehash of the first two books of a trilogy bored me to tears. I wanted to love this book, but it felt like a throw-away to keep Greg's publisher happy. In similar fashion, Dan Brown’s writing has gone downhill with the pressure to crank out a controversial story. Even at 200 pages into Dan Brown’s book, Origin, and I still didn’t know the "big discovery" that was teased in the Prologue. Give me the guts of the real problem upfront, and then play out the obstacles for finding the solution. Schlock. . . pure schlock.

Ugh…sorry guys, but I’m getting so picky. The new traditional publishing machine messed with my leisure reading. I’ve never not previously finished a book, but these two books made me shove them under the nightstand for an evening of staring at the ceiling. I can do better. I can write better.

I did read a fabulous non-fiction book about bears. Bears: Their Life and Behavior by Art Wolfe. It rung my chimes in a big way. His photography was second to none, and Mr. Wolfe captured the expressions, actions, and emotion that I wanted to embrace. I learned so much good stuff. After I read it for my research, I was so juiced to work on my new book that I couldn't stand it. My clairvoyant character has a spiritual communication with a grizzly. With a little Native American magical realism, I'm off and running with themes of aging, love, and reconciling the past. More on that later.

The “machine” of traditional publishing is being eclipsed by Indies, those of us who choose to own and control our work. We fearlessly defend the integrity of our stories and celebrate our ownership. We are so bonded with our characters that our readers, too, consider them part of their families.

I’m happy for this shift. My readers know who I am. I have a personal relationship with them, and I share the details of my life to these strangers who have become my friends. Could I ever imagine this with a traditional publisher who only cares about the dollar return for each press of the “Add to Cart” button?

I’m in this writing business for a different reason: I need to write the story ideas that I obsess over. I can’t not write them. I don’t really care about being famous and rich from my writing. That’s not why I do it. I write about what resonates inside of me. And if it connects with others who experience the same emotions, then Hallelujah! I love you guys. 

Fame and success are complicated topics. We authors want to make a living from the heart of what we do. However, many writers chase fame like a phantom in the night. They lunge for the next trend and hold a cup under the guillotine of an author who gets interviewed as Oprah’s “Book of the Year.” That doesn't personify most of the authors I know. I can’t bond with those who spend more money on their author photo than on what they spend on editing their book.

I write with private abandon and come up for air with fluttery eyelashes. Sometimes I have no idea what happened in the world while I was away in my fiction-crafted existence. A raw humor covers my discomfort at being public, but I do enjoy my anonymity when I want it. And when I’m done, my work will have a life of its own . . .  Equally as important is being a wife, a mother, a sister, and a daughter to a Mom who was at the center of three of my books.

I’m not unique, although my generation of Baby Boomers is quite singular in the way we think and feel. We still believe in so much possibility, no matter what our age. I’m that little girl of ten with too much experience, hurt, wisdom, pride, and work ethic. I’m that little girl who meets her obligations and strives for the moon. With a lasso, I will reach that goal of retirement where I can write full-time. Until then, everything that happens I’ll think of as life-fuel for stories, imagination, and the hope that what I write will connect with birds of my feather.

This weekend I will be transitioning my Mom into a senior living community, but before I leave I'll tell my twelve-year-old that eating junk has long-term consequences, My husband will keep the porch light burning for me when I get home on Sunday. After I arrive, he'll wrap me in his arms to fall asleep, only for us both to go to work on Monday. Not for too much longer, this work routine. But I will miss going by Mom's house every morning and evening, picking up her prescriptions, and receiving her daily hugs. It tears me up, really. But now she will be closer to my older sister, who is also getting ready to retire.

In the meantime, I write this article in an oh-so-quiet house with a glass of wine. Our cat, Princeton, is in my lap, purring away without a care in the world. The food dehydrator whirs to make dried fruit and veggies for my Mom and I to snack on while I drive her to her new home, a long four hours away. I'm not sure if the transition will be harder for her, me, my husband, my stepdaughter, or Princeton.

It's a five-way tie.

Courtney Pierce is a fiction writer living in Milwaukie, Oregon, with her husband. stepdaughter, and their brainiac cat, Princeton. Courtney writes for the baby boomer audience. By day, she is an executive in the entertainment industry and uses her time in a theater seat to create stories that are filled with heart, humor and mystery. She has studied craft and storytelling at the Attic Institute and has completed the Hawthorne Fellows Program for writing and publishing. Active in the writing community, Courtney is a board member of the Northwest Independent Writers Association and on the Advisory Council of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. She is a member of Willamette Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and She Writes. The Executrix received the Library Journal Self-E recommendation seal.

Audiobook now Available!

Check out all of Courtney's books: 

courtney-pierce.com and

windtreepress.com 

Print and E-books are available through most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.

Available Now!
Book 3 of the
Dushane Sisters
Trilogy

The Dushane Sisters Trilogy concludes with Indigo Legacy, available now. There's love in the air for Olivia and Woody, but will family intrigue get in the way? Ride along for the wild trip that starts in a New York auction house and peaks in a mansion on Boston's Beacon Hill. 

The Dushane sisters finally get to the truth about their mother.

New York Times best-selling author Karen Karbo says, "Courtney Pierce spins a madcap tale of family grudges, sisterly love, unexpected romance, mysterious mobsters and dog love. Reading Indigo Lake is like drinking champagne with a chaser of Mountain Dew. Pure Delight."

The Long & Winding Road - AKA Traditional Publishing

Hi everyone! I am YA, and now MG author Barbara Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for adolescents and teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 


IT came in the mail on Monday. The galley for my new novel, Courage, all three hundred and fifty plus pages.

You can’t see me, but trust me, if you could you would view an older black woman who is somehow managing to do both a happy dance and heave a heavy sigh of dread.

Here’s the thing, I am a hybrid author. My first and now this, my fourth novels, were/are being traditionally published. My second and third were Indie published. I also have numerous short stories and flash fiction in magazines. (That reminds me, I have to finish off a new story for the Spring issue of the Arlington Almanac.) So I know things about different sides of the publishing spectrum. Which is why I signed a contract with Harper Collins and I am eagerly going Traditional with my new, Middle Grade novel, titled Courage.

For the next three weeks I will be rationing my time to be certain I finish this final look through of the three hundred and fifty plus pages of the novel I spent months writing, and then even more months revising. This is the last time I will go through my own words before publication. Since, in the words of the old jingle, “the quality goes in before the name goes on,” and I will be my name on book, I have responsibility for the final look-through of every page.

And then it’s off to the hell country know as promotion.

Having traversed both paths to publication, I know that traditional publication is a long, winding road. It’s not for the faint-hearted or for anyone unwilling to face a mountain of rejection. I finished this story in 2015. It was sold in 2016. I did not bother to count the rejection messages in between. Suffice it to say there were almost as many as I received for my first novel, PULL. But at least they were all nice comments.

I spent much of 2017 doing major revisions and edits. My wonderful editor at Harper Collins, Karen Chaplin, gave me great feedback and numerous suggestions. Some I took, others got the push back necessary to preserve my original artistic vision - buy me a drink sometime and maybe I'll tell you more. I will say the ending was re-written three times. (With the third re-write largely going back to the elements I put into the first re-write.) This was important, because while all authors know that the opening has to be the strong hook that pulls readers into your story and prepares them to stay with you for the long ride, the ending too is critical. That’s the part that has to leave a reader ready to say the ride was worth it. It should also have them want to take another journey with the author.

I have deliberately not re-read my manuscript in months. That’s part of the process, an author needs eyes as fresh as possible for this last step between herself and her readers. My heart thumps as I open that first page and read that

“Chlorine fills the air.” 

Maybe not the most perfect first line ever, but fitting for a boy who is about to stake a leap into the air and learn that even in the midst of something as bitter and unpleasant as the stench of chlorine, he can find the goodness of friends and family. That he needs to learn the lesson of the final line, that

“Everyone deserves forgiveness.” 

(Yeah, I know. Three complete re-writes of the two ending chapters to get to something that simple. So shoot me.)

Courage hits the shelves in the spring of 2018. This MG novel from Harper Collins is the story of six twelve and thirteen year old friends living on Chicago's South side, including T'Shawn, who finds himself living through a remake of the prodigal son drama when his older brother returns from prison. His friends set out to save him, and their neighborhood.

Now, on to promotion, one of those aspects of my profession that I have always abhorred. See, I even bring out the big words just to show how awful I think it is. Promotion is a requirement, whether you are Indie or Traditionally published. I just finished having a consultation with a marketing manager to gain some pointers.

Hey, maybe more about that next month.

Changes in Publishing - Part 1

By Maggie Lynch

Whenever writing about changes in publishing, the question one needs to first address is how many years of history to include? For the purpose of this article, I will only address the last fifteen years: 2000-2014. 

I choose that period because it is the beginning of massive change. Before 2000, traditional publishing had run the same way for the past 100 years. In fact, I can remember publishing a textbook about online learning in 1998 and a second one in 2000 and asking the publisher to create a website with digital links in it.

The publisher (a worldwide textbook publisher based in London and New York) balked at that suggesting that no one would want to go online to get information from a link in a paper book. It wasn’t until a book in 2004 that I finally got a website. My how five years makes a huge difference!

Traditional Publishing Changes

BOOKS, TOYS, CLOTHES
AND MORE

Five years ago, traditional publishing was the only game in town for an author wishing to reach an audience that extended beyond their personal family and friends. But getting a traditional contract had grown progressively more difficult since the 1980’s.

At the end of the 1980’s and into the 1990’s publishing morphed to become large media conglomerates. The Big 5 publishers of today are content publishers. They do that through books, radio, television, movies, and games.  When you have nothing else to do look up Bertelsmann, the parent company of PenguinRandom House and other media corporations. You will see that publishing books is not it’s only, nor it’s biggest, money maker.

 A “content publisher” is different from a book publisher. A content publisher needs larger and larger numbers of consumers to buy the content in order to pay the high prices of developing it. 

BOOKS, MOVIES
AND MORE

By the mid-1990’s traditional publishing changed from a model of buying books they liked and investing in that author for the future, with a plan to “break them out” around book five or eight if sales were decent, to a model focused on acquiring bestsellers that could also be made into movies and games and plays. Authors were easily abandoned by the second book or third if sales weren’t always on an upward trajectory.

The book distribution model five years ago was based on large booksellers (B&N, Borders, Walden, Crown) and big box stores (Walmart, Target). Small indie bookshops were ignored, and ebooks were relegated to small online publishers that received authors who couldn’t publish anywhere else or published in genres the big guys weren’t interested in (like erotica before 50 Shades of Gray). What a difference only five years make.

Indie Bookstores and Ebook Distribution Models

As of last May, the number of indie bookshops in the U.S. was 1,664—actually an 11% increase over the past five years. The only big bookseller left among the ones named above is B&N and they have announced they are closing about 220 stores over the next decade.

On the ebook side, in 2010 there was one big ebook retailer. Amazon had 22% of the market. Now there are many big ebook retailers that are online only (Kobo, Nook, Apple, Rakuten, and others). Though Amazon has ~50% of the U.S. market, they have significantly less outside the U.S. In many countries Apple and/or Kobo are the only big ebook retailers, and Amazon has no market. Simultaneously thinking locally and globally is critical to authors today.

The next hurdle for bookstores is how to get a bigger slice of the ebook pie if they are to compete successfully in the long term.

http://www.indiebound.org/spread-word

Consumer Buying Changes

In addition to the significant changes in print and brick and mortar stores are the changes in consumers' buying habits and choices. Now books compete with audiobooks, enhanced books, series books, even twitter books. In addition, a multitude of “free” books, heavily discounted books (a boxed set of nine novels for 99 cents), and a variety of membership clubs online (Kindle Unlimited, oyster, scribD) have put downward pressure on pricing and built consumer expectations of what a book is worth. This is just in the book marketing space. In addition, there is the usual competition of music, movies, games, and other entertainment-related sales and the book tie-in to all those options.

On the consumer side, the ugly industry realities that impact traditionally published and self-published authors alike are: consumer impulse buying with free or heavily discounted books that have led to purchased books never being read and therefore never reviewed or recommended. This means that in addition to lower and lower pricing, there is less and less word of mouth sales. All of that leads to discoverability challenges for everyone—including Amazon.

What does all this mean to the individual author? 

This article, therefore the answer to that question, continues next Saturday, December 13, 2014.

MAGGIE LYNCH

Maggie Lynch is the author of 15 published books, as well as more than 35 short stories and numerous non-fiction articles. She is also the founder of Windtree Press, an independent publishing cooperative.

Visit her online at http://maggielynch.com
Maggie's love of lifelong-learning has garnered degrees in psychology, counseling, computer science, and education;  and led to opportunities to consult in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. Since 2013, Maggie has enjoyed the luxury of writing full-time. Her adult fiction spans romance, suspense, and speculative fiction titles under the name Maggie Jaimeson. She writes young adult fiction under the name Maggie Faire.  Her non-fiction titles are found under Maggie McVay Lynch.