Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 3 Volume 9 | Page 35

7. “E NTITY
SELF - PUBLISHING ” WILL INCREASE
DRAMATICALLY , PRESENTING MORE CHALLENGES
TO COMMERCIAL NON - FICTION PUBLISHING .
The pieces are all in place for “publish-
ing books” to become part of any big enti-
ty’s marketing strategy. You don’t need to
own a book publisher to issue them any
more than you need to own a newspaper or
magazine to get a story out. Ingram or a big
publisher can handle the heavy lifting, the
capital-intensive parts of the overhead. And
several armies of service providers, most of
them well-experienced working for or with
established commercial publishers, can do
the strategizing, writing, editing, designing,
digital and all other marketing, and even
handle the rights sales. A smaller army of
intermediaries to help big brands of all
kinds utilize these ubiquitous capabilities is
about to spring into action. Over the next
few years, we will see a tsunami of non-
fiction publishing from capable entities
.
F ALL 2019
much like the tsunami we have seen of gen-
re fiction publishing direct from authors.
They will have one very similar characteris-
tic: reaching readers will be more im-
portant to them than making money. That
suggests that the price competition we’ve
seen in genre fiction may be about to be
replicated much more broadly.
And when that has happened, it will be
time for a new set of predictions because
we will have had another sea change.
Very appreciative of Kindle Chronicles
host Len Edgerly interviewing me for his
podcast and giving me a chance to talk
about “The Book Business: What Everyone
Needs to Know” which I wrote with Robert P.
Riger and which was published by Oxford
University Press earlier this year.
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W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE