However, Camacho’s credible argument did have its flaws. This was most evident when his article contradicted itself regarding promotional opportunities that traditional and direct publishers provide. Explaining that publishing companies are best at assisting new writers with marketing, Camacho stated, “The direct-published author still misses out on the promotional efforts offered by the traditional publisher” (Camacho 330). By bringing this to the reader’s attention, he ensures they understand this situation. Camacho proceeded to illustrate this point by adding, “In direct publishing, authors rarely benefit from the book tours, book reviews…and established-author blurbs that they may enjoy in traditional publishing” (329). This idea alone
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I had never considered the effect top earners among the self-published authors have on the average. “Though the average direct-published author makes $10,000, the serious earners at the topend skew the mean. The median earnings for electronically published authors [are] around $500” (328–329). When I read this, I was shocked, having only ever heard the $10,000 statistic and not the $500 one. This would seriously affect any beginning writer’s thoughts on success rates in the self-publishing market: there is a huge difference between making $10,000 and $500. Camacho went on to state that the average advance paid to writers by traditional publishing companies is $5,000 (329). Comparing this to the previous statistic, I could not help but notice that at face value, self-publishing means a writer would only earn a tenth of what they would publishing traditionally. This sways my opinion heavily in favor of abandoning self-publishing for traditional publishing. However, in considering these statistics, I realized that Camacho did not consider those who self publish books with no intention of selling a vast quantity when comparing these statistics. Camacho himself mentioned that there are those who self-publish books that they wrote only for the love of writing, or books only intended for their friends and family to read (335). I wonder what the median earnings would be if the writers in that situation were not a part of the equation. Since I do not have the answer to that, I will have to use the numbers Camacho provided. Overall, this information regarding author earnings was important to my question of whether self-publishing is a good
I had never considered the effect top earners among the self-published authors have on the average. “Though the average direct-published author makes $10,000, the serious earners at the topend skew the mean. The median earnings for electronically published authors [are] around $500” (328–329). When I read this, I was shocked, having only ever heard the $10,000 statistic and not the $500 one. This would seriously affect any beginning writer’s thoughts on success rates in the self-publishing market: there is a huge difference between making $10,000 and $500. Camacho went on to state that the average advance paid to writers by traditional publishing companies is $5,000 (329). Comparing this to the previous statistic, I could not help but notice that at face value, self-publishing means a writer would only earn a tenth of what they would publishing traditionally. This sways my opinion heavily in favor of abandoning self-publishing for traditional publishing. However, in considering these statistics, I realized that Camacho did not consider those who self publish books with no intention of selling a vast quantity when comparing these statistics. Camacho himself mentioned that there are those who self-publish books that they wrote only for the love of writing, or books only intended for their friends and family to read (335). I wonder what the median earnings would be if the writers in that situation were not a part of the equation. Since I do not have the answer to that, I will have to use the numbers Camacho provided. Overall, this information regarding author earnings was important to my question of whether self-publishing is a good