Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers discussion

https://justpublishingadvice.com/self...

The article contradicts itself. Self-publishing is dead because there will be more and more books self-published. Er, what?

It has long been difficult to support oneself solely by writing novels, especially over the course of a lifetime. Once upon a time, only those with independent income, often land, had the luxury of spending their time writing. They did not live solely from that income.

There was a good century or more when writers--a good many, though far from a majority--could live off writing. Even then, if you look under the hood you'll find many "established" authors wrote for magazines and newspapers in addition to their novels. We are mourning for a golden age that existed mainly in our imagination.

The Amazon phenomenon was a blip. It was heady and exciting, and probably led a number of people to quit their day job prematurely in the belief that because something existed for six years it would last for sixty. I feel for them. Had I been making five or six figures for two or three years in a row, I likely would have been among them.

But self-publishing ain't dead. The industry exists not because writers make money but because the publishers make money. And they're still making money, whether their name is Hachette or Amazon.

I choose to pay attention to this comment: "Self-Publishing for the wrong reasons is rightfully dying, if not dead."

I'm self-publishing for the right reasons. I wrote a book I love that I believe others will love as well. Traditional publishing is expensive, sllllooooooowwwww, and hugely based on passing trends. I choose to self-publish and I am happy about that.