Many an aspiring author has faced rejection letters from publishers (and many a famous author, too). But in an age of crowd sourcing, crowd funding and a larger sharing mindset, this has also spilled into the once closed world of publishing and writing.
The immediacy of the web and the communal nature of social media has changed the nature of books; not only the e-reader devices we read them on, but the idea of books, with a higher presence of works by self-published authors. This has also brought back serialization, posting sections of their written work over time much like a blog or post to maintain excitement among readers. Publishing online and in serials can also change the engagement levels readers have with books, creating fierce followings much like those experienced by influential bloggers, twitter accounts, or big time authors. These large followings often make traditional publishers take notice of burgeoning new talent, similar to YouTube singers get picked up by large record companies. This format flips the model of publishers choosing content they think the public will like, to people telling publishers who they want. The most interesting thing about this system is it puts the power back in the authors hands; when to publish, what to write, how to control marketing and advertising and pricing. Ben Galley, co-founder of e-book store Libiro perhaps said it best; writers today are now more like authorpreneurs than simply authors. Questions still remain on how to be profitable as a self published author (as many expect e-reader books to be less expensive than a traditionally published book), but only time will tell how this and other aspects change for "authorpreneurs."
ARTICLE: Mashable, February 2014
SITE: http://mashable.com/2014/02/09/self-publishing-digital/
