I just read some interesting publishing journals by Joel Friedlander on www.bookpublishing.com. He describes an incredible life in the publishing industry that started on the floor of his home, reading heavy bound typesetting books that belonged to his father. It is romantic and nostalgic, starting with learning the physical print trade at his father’s elbow and then describing his life in the industry and the pull between creating and producing that seem to play a part in the rest of his career, and probably for the rest of it.
I will look forward to the podcast when he produces it.
As relating to my study of self-publishing/distribution, I found it especially intriguing that he talked about there being a handful of self publishers in his professional experience, but only a few. And none did very well. That filled me with some dread. The numbers he referred to matched with what I’ve read before and expect for my own books. It is an expensive investment to physically print. This supports my thoughts that I need a wider market to call on to reduce overall risks. More books to offset the ones that don’t make their money back. This seems a dangerous endeavor without experience.
However, there was some hope in his last post that said that he sees some unusual success with self-publishers in the digital market, noting they have little to no knowledge of the industry.
Here’s to some old fashioned hard work, and some new digital help.
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