Who Needs a Traditional Publisher When You Can Self-Publish for Free?

With the success of such self-published authors as E.L. James author of “Shades of Grey” and Amanda Hocking, author of numerous best-selling e-books, including “Hollomen,” there is no question that e-books are here to stay. How is it that some self-published authors are able to sell more e-books than authors published by major publishers?

One could argue that there are two reasons why this is happening.

The first reason being is price. Some self-published authors are selling their e-books for as little as $.99 where the standard price of an e-book published by a traditional publisher is $9.99. That is ten times what the indie author is charging, and that alone can play a significant role in why some indie authors are selling more e-books.

Being an avid reader myself, I have to say that there have many instances where I purchased a book of interest, simply because of the low price. I tend to believe that there are millions of other authors who share my philosophy as well. What boggles my mind is that many times, the e-book version of books published by the majors are very similar in price to the paperback version. If I have a choice between a paperback book for $10.99 verses the e-book version for $9.99, I’ll take the paperback for $10.99.

Jessica Park, author of “Flat-Out Love” was quoted as saying that one of the reasons she fears a book deal with a traditional publisher is that she knows that the e-book versions will be severely overpriced.

The second reason for the major success of the indie author over the traditional published author is that some, not all, but some traditional published authors are relying too much on the publisher to make their books a success, whereas, an indie author knows from the very start that if their book is to be a success, they will have to become aggressive marketers.

There may come a day, if that day has not come already where an author from anywhere in the world will no longer even need a traditional publisher to believe in her book, especially with the launching of Createspace, a company that will publish your paperback and e-book at no costs to you.

For the ambitious author, with a dynamite marketing plan and the skills and commitment to pull it off, there will no longer be a need or want for the traditional publisher.

Sarah Box is the author of “The First and the First Lady, the True Story of What Never Really Happened!” You can find her on Facebook.com. http://www.facebook.com/sarah.box.547

Author: Sarah Box
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

Deborah H. Bateman encourages other believers in their walk with Jesus Christ through Bible study. She is a Christian Author, Blogger, Website Designer, and Book Publishing Coach. She is the Founder of Christian Daily Resources a Christian online ministry dedicated to "Sharing God's Word". Deborah is the author of more than thirty books in the Daily Bible Reading Series and one book about self-publishing called: Self-Publishing Simplified: How to Publish a Book on Kindle. Deborah shares Daily Bible Reading lessons here on her blog at http://DeborahHBateman.com/blog Her website: Christian Daily Resources is at http://ChristianDailyResources.com She shares a Daily Bible Verse on her blog Bible Verse Tweet at http://www.bibleversetweet.com/. Deborah has a family favorite recipe blog called Recipe for Life at http://deborah-bateman.blogspot.com. She invites you to check them out and subscribe to the ones you like.