Read Cat Valente’s post. Or, if you are lazy, here’s the takeaway:
No one goes around suggesting that everyone should become their own autonomous cheesemakers and cheering the death of the cheese industry. Why? Because that would result in a lot of shitty cheese.
Exactly.
My view is that the big advantage of cheap self publishing options is not to have each author attempt to become their own editor, graphic designer, marketing etc- it’s that small groups of people, with the appropriate skills, can use these options to build the equivalent of a publishing house.
Especially since, it takes generations to push entrenched issues in established places, whereas, it just takes a lot, but not impossible, amount of work to do a fresh start with a group of like-minded folks.
In my own sector of geekdom, rpgs, we’ve seen people consistently push 300-1000 copies a year, in a niche of a niche, so these things are not impossible or un-doable.
Very true. :)