Does traditional publishing hurt your career?

According to Smashwords founder, Mark Coker traditional publishing deal might actually do more harm than good for an author. That's what Coker claims in a recent Smashwords blog post - Essentially, Coker broke it down on the Smashwords’ blog in this nutshell. Data shows that authors who sell their ebooks at a $2.99 price point can actually end up earning more in royalties than authors whose books are priced at $6.99 or higher because they move more product. Only authors who have the option to price their books that low can see this gain over authors whose titles are priced by the publisher.


If an author can earn the same or greater income selling lower cost books, yet reach significantly more readers, then, drum roll please, it means the authors who are selling higher priced books through traditional publishers are at an extreme disadvantage to indie authors in terms of long term platform building. The lower-priced books are building author brand faster.  Never mind that an indie author earns more per $2.99 unit sold ($1.80-$2.10) than a traditionally published author earns at $9.99 ($1.25-$1.75).



"The picture painted augurs well for indie ebook authors, but indicates that authors who continue to publish with traditional publishers might actually be damaging their careers.  Look no further than the bestseller lists at Apple, Amazon or Barnes & Noble to see that indie ebook authors are taking eyeballs from the authors of NY publishers.  As I write this, seven of the top 30 bestsellers in the Apple iBookstore are distributed there by Smashwords."

Full article HERE