Brook Johnson, a writer from Arkansas, writes in her blog, brook-johnson.blogspot.com, that she sees the debate on publishing traditionally vs. self-publishing as a battle that is over. She writes, "Self-publishing won the debate in my mind, because in the eye of the reader, it doesn’t matter." She cites how there is no accepted validation in self-publishing.
My perspective matches that to some extent, but I suspect - and I added this to a comment to her blog - that e-publishing will soon have built in validation - your number of readers will speak volumes.
There isn't a pure model yet where your download/sales volume totals can be seen (in e-publshing), but I imagine Google or some other electric brainchild will aggregate e-publishing download results before long and the best will rise to the top.
It will then be like the music download business (where downloads can be tracked). Check out how that developed and you'll see where books and self-publishing are headed.
My perspective matches that to some extent, but I suspect - and I added this to a comment to her blog - that e-publishing will soon have built in validation - your number of readers will speak volumes.
There isn't a pure model yet where your download/sales volume totals can be seen (in e-publshing), but I imagine Google or some other electric brainchild will aggregate e-publishing download results before long and the best will rise to the top.
It will then be like the music download business (where downloads can be tracked). Check out how that developed and you'll see where books and self-publishing are headed.
Oh, I agree with you, definitely. A day will come when there is universal validation in self-publishing. Right now, the validation comes from others who have taken the self-pub path and encourage others to do the same. It comes from the readers, as you say. Still, a lot of writers don't see it that way. Validation must come from some higher power (such as the NYT bestseller list) for it to mean anything. Someday soon, I hope, validation will be intrinsic with self-publishing. There won't be this need to prove oneself as a writer. Honestly, that day couldn't come soon enough. :) Thanks for reading!
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