E-book Self-Publishing: Electronic Vanity Publishing or The Real Deal?

In the old days — after the invention of the printing press but before the Internet — the unfortunate authors who were unable to find traditional publishing houses to publish their manuscripts paid for the privilege. Classified ads in the back of “New Yorker” magazines from so-called vanity publishers promised them a professional publishing job — for a price — and somehow the chance that their now-bound manuscript could still conceivably be “discovered.” “Real” writers and those in the literary world were dismissive of such endeavors. In order to become a member of the elite literary fraternity, an author had to be adopted by an agent, retain a business attorney, accept a small check (or not) and hope the book was critically well-reviewed and flew off the shelf with increasing sales.

Chapter 1: The Internet & Everyday Tasks

The explosion of the Internet brought about AOL chat rooms, which Facebook later killed; online shopping, allowing consumers to avoid the crowds at the mall; and even online degrees, making higher education accessible even to those unwilling to commute to a brick-and-mortar school. Banking began to shift online and paying one’s monthly bills in cyberspace soon followed. Some people stopped driving back and forth to their offices and telecommuting became the norm, so that even one’s employment became cyber-optional. Medical news now reports of some patients “seeing” their doctors for check-ups by webcam. Not only that, doctors can fulfill their required annual continuing education credits with online classes.

Chapter 2: The Internet & Leisure

In addition to using new technology for business purposes, the Internet quickly proliferated with leisure activities. Online dating services, games, online gaming and blogs prosper. At some point, books began to be available

to read in electronic formats, such as Kindle, iBooks, Stanza and others. The ease of purchase and the portability of one’s library became enormous draws for consumers. Of course newly published books became available, but older books previously published only in the traditional format were also made available as e-books. Such cyber sales endure today, and popularity of these technologies continues to grow.

Chapter 3: The Burgeoning Industry of E-Book Self-Publishing

In 2008, writers began to launch small self-published e-books on available platforms. Some were free, while others cost 99 cents. Even as unknowns, customers could take a chance on a book for a buck; if an author became popular in cyberspace, he often made more per sale of a 99-cent book than a literary giant would from the sale of a $39 tome because cyber-publishing eliminated so many of the inherent costs associated with publishing a tangible book, including but not limited to paper, printing, ink, shipping and warehousing. Industry quotes indicate that e-book sales ballooned from 0.6% of the total trade market share in 2008 to 6.4% in 2010.

The literary community continues to criticize the self-publishing industry, couching its disapproval in terms of publishing errors, editing finesse and the overall quality of the finished product. Many authors who have found success on the Internet are now signing book deals with publishing houses. The available support staff in a publishing house — particularly the editing department — is one of the primary reasons cited by some authors for this transition. Not unsurprisingly, small middleman editing companies geared to e-book authors have developed to ensure cyber-printed volumes will have the same quality of those published on paper.

This post was written on behalf of AIU.