A Writer Defects

Seth Godin "defects" from traditional publishing. Ouch!

In a significant defection for the book industry, best-selling marketing author Seth Godin is ditching his traditional publisher, Portfolio, after a string of books and plans to sell his future works directly to his fans.

The author of about a dozen books including "Purple Cow" said he now has so many direct customer relationships, largely via his blog, that he no longer needs a traditional publisher. Mr. Godin plans to release subsequent titles himself in electronic books, via print-on-demand or in such formats as audiobooks, apps, small digital files called PDFs and podcasts.

...One of his many concerns about the current publishing market is that the process often takes 12 months or more to get a new title into the hands of his readers.

...Mr. Godin said he would hire a top-quality editor and someone to format the work for electronic distribution. "After those fixed costs, your idea is packaged as you want, and it can then be put on sale next to other potential best-sellers on Amazon and elsewhere," he said. "The business race is on to have the relationship with the reader."

Godin also said that the main people who need publishers are writers who don't know who their audience is yet, or who need a platform to connect with their readers.

Notice the paradox? The publishers are turning away more midlist authors who have no platform, and banking on big names to keep them afloat. But it is really only the midlist authors with no platform who need publishers.