The Self-Publishing Bar is Going Up: A look at 2014
I’ve watched with fascination over the last four years as self-publishing changes. In the early days (2010), when many authors still feared self-publishing, selling novels on Amazon was much easier. My short stories used to go at the rate of one or two a day. Now, even getting people to download your free novel by the thousands (which also used to be easy) is a challenge because the market is so crowded.
But there is hope. Self-publishers are raising the bar on quality. Take covers: back in the old days, an i-stock image and some bad fonts were typical of home generated covers, but now a starter for many authors is a professionally designed cover.
Here Publisher’s Weekly takes a look ahead to 2014, and the good news is that many self-published authors are getting more professional in their book production. They’re hiring editors, cover artists, and publicists. This means that the half-hearted efforts of your retired grade four teacher will be glaringly obvious to readers, making it easier for them to sort the wheat from the chaff.
We indie-publishers, self-publishers, are in ferocious competition, and this is just a great thing for readers, because the traditional publishers have proved that only we will provide quality books at a reasonable price.
So here’s to 2014. It’s a whole new indie-publishing world. Again.