The new wave of on-line publishing

Source: LITERARY POP

Smashwords is a self publishing portal started in 2008. There are other on-line publishing portals, but Smashwords is a great representation of he revolution happening in publishing today. In its four years since its startup the on-line publishing company has published over 130 thousand books and has made over 12 million dollars profit on a 30% commission model and in the process Smashwords has made a huge impact on the publishing industry as a whole.

The publishing industry today is in a state of major flux. Talk to anyone in the business and they will tell you they don’t know what’s going on, other than things are changing. For most of the history on publishing you went on bended knee to and presented your manuscript to a company. The most likely result was, you got your pages back with a form letter wishing you good luck…somewhere else. With profits shrinking and major retailer like Borders closing their doors the industry has circled the wagons and is rarely taking anything other than what it feels is a sure bet. This new world of publishing has lead the exodus to the self and on-line publishing world, and companies like Smashwords Lulu, Booklocker and Myebooks stand at the forefront.

I remember being at a writer’s conference just six years ago where the guest speakers was a VIP from Random House. He was animate at the time that on-line/self publishing would ruin the industry. He actually warned all new writers that going to the on-line route would tarnish your name and prevent further traditional publishing options. I can only look back at this and laugh. This VIP from on of the biggest publishing companies in the world didn’t see the on-line revolution just about to happen. Today just six years later, more people buy their books on-line than from a traditional store. Not only was he wrong, he didn’t even comprehend the huge economic impact not only to his company, but to the demise of brick and mortar book retailers like Borders and the many Mom and Pop booksellers.

This modern publishing reality has lead to the overwhelming success of the on-line companies, and today the business couldn’t be more different. The only thing preventing you from publishing your own title…is yourself.

This past year the on-line leader of self publishing Smashwords has seen several of its authors in the New York Times bestsellers list and continues to build steam. This is all happening on a grass roots, do it with many small publishers, instead of the huge conglomerates. This new do it yourself industry is being lead from the bottom up, and even the big houses like Simon & Schuster are scrambling to get into the self and on-line publishing. Just this year Simon & Schuster launched Archway, a flat rate self publishing imprint, and early reports are that is doing well.

I guess the bottom line is like Bob Dylan said, the times they are a changing. The internet revolution has changed publishing forever. This change has allowed access to something that most of us haven’t been able to reach, and the very good news is people are taking advantage of it.