Thank you for the post and for trying to highlight budding alternatives. My day job is marketing—not in the books industry, mind you, but I have some head for business. The biggest thing I can’t seem to get around is the need for any alternative to be reader-centric. If the primary “customer” of these alternative publishing platforms is the authors who want to get published, then readership will remain small and the profit will too (to say nothing of the possibility of grift). But if someone can find a way to draw in lots of readers and connect them with truly excellent stories, then the sky is the limit.
In more practical terms, not even the Big 5 trad publishers have enough resources to reach the readers they need without Amazon. What’s a little guy to do? Optimizing for author acquisition (and author profit) in turn reduces the ability for a publisher/distributor to acquire readers; money is the fuel that makes the marketing machine go and the publishers need money to make anyone buy any book.
There’s a million ways that trad publishing is broken, but there are so many variables that disrupting the industry seems nearly impossible without infinite money. It’s no coincidence that Amazon has been the only one to change the game in the last 25 years—and then they obviously only changed it to form their own monopoly.
Keep me in the loop on that WW/S&S podcast idea. I can't guarantee I'd be able to attend as a guest or speaker or the like with regularity, what with work schedules and responsibilities around the home and all that, but if that's something which does come to fruition I would certainly like to put forth some kind of assistance with it, even if it just results in me sharing new episodes as they air.
Ooh, this is a “red flag” for me: “so long as the writer already has a platform, has published some works and so long as they have not attacked/done campaigns against him and his brand online”. First, “already has a platform” is exactly what trad publishers are starting to ask for, because they expect the author to use that platform to market the work. By the time I was done with trad publishing (or it was done with me) authors were taking in more and more of the promotions. Second, “already published” ain’t gonna count Substack, so he’s basically asking for established authors. Third, the last criterion suggests you have to agree with his politics, which is … weird. I don’t think he is looking for new writers. It also sounds like it’s in very early planning so who knows how it’ll end up?
Great post. I wish I could participate in the Warrior Wednesdays / S&S Saturdays more. I've hardly had time to write two short stories over the past month and a half, but the more I do the better I feel. We will need another meeting to hammer out some smaller scale tangible plan. Wooo!
Well-written article. As far as platforms go I am in the process of setting up a Rumble/YouTube channel to grow a platform in addition to my own substack. But I'm going about it to where I'll be collaborating with video content creators to assist in producing monthly long-form videos after I get a live-stream show where fellow Iron Agers and other creatives can make an appearance to promote their work and share our passion in this endeavor to save pop culture. Expect a substack article in the next day or two to get more in-depth on the matter at hand.
This all sounds cool. Hope all these budding alternatives take off
Thank you for the post and for trying to highlight budding alternatives. My day job is marketing—not in the books industry, mind you, but I have some head for business. The biggest thing I can’t seem to get around is the need for any alternative to be reader-centric. If the primary “customer” of these alternative publishing platforms is the authors who want to get published, then readership will remain small and the profit will too (to say nothing of the possibility of grift). But if someone can find a way to draw in lots of readers and connect them with truly excellent stories, then the sky is the limit.
In more practical terms, not even the Big 5 trad publishers have enough resources to reach the readers they need without Amazon. What’s a little guy to do? Optimizing for author acquisition (and author profit) in turn reduces the ability for a publisher/distributor to acquire readers; money is the fuel that makes the marketing machine go and the publishers need money to make anyone buy any book.
There’s a million ways that trad publishing is broken, but there are so many variables that disrupting the industry seems nearly impossible without infinite money. It’s no coincidence that Amazon has been the only one to change the game in the last 25 years—and then they obviously only changed it to form their own monopoly.
Keep me in the loop on that WW/S&S podcast idea. I can't guarantee I'd be able to attend as a guest or speaker or the like with regularity, what with work schedules and responsibilities around the home and all that, but if that's something which does come to fruition I would certainly like to put forth some kind of assistance with it, even if it just results in me sharing new episodes as they air.
Thank you for all you do to encourage and publicize writers. You are doing heroic work.
Ooh, this is a “red flag” for me: “so long as the writer already has a platform, has published some works and so long as they have not attacked/done campaigns against him and his brand online”. First, “already has a platform” is exactly what trad publishers are starting to ask for, because they expect the author to use that platform to market the work. By the time I was done with trad publishing (or it was done with me) authors were taking in more and more of the promotions. Second, “already published” ain’t gonna count Substack, so he’s basically asking for established authors. Third, the last criterion suggests you have to agree with his politics, which is … weird. I don’t think he is looking for new writers. It also sounds like it’s in very early planning so who knows how it’ll end up?
Great post. I wish I could participate in the Warrior Wednesdays / S&S Saturdays more. I've hardly had time to write two short stories over the past month and a half, but the more I do the better I feel. We will need another meeting to hammer out some smaller scale tangible plan. Wooo!
Well-written article. As far as platforms go I am in the process of setting up a Rumble/YouTube channel to grow a platform in addition to my own substack. But I'm going about it to where I'll be collaborating with video content creators to assist in producing monthly long-form videos after I get a live-stream show where fellow Iron Agers and other creatives can make an appearance to promote their work and share our passion in this endeavor to save pop culture. Expect a substack article in the next day or two to get more in-depth on the matter at hand.