Cornelia Amiri GhostWriter

Self-publishing starts with distributors. The way distribution worked with publishers is they downloaded my books to distributors like Amazon.  When Amazon and other distributors sold my books, they took out their fee and sent the publisher the rest of the money. The publisher then sent my portion, my royalty amount, 40% of what they got from the distributor.  In 2007 Amazon did something new, they allowed authors to download their books directly to them, the distributor, without having to go through a publisher. So, when you download your book directly on Amazon or Kobo, or Apple, or B&N online, etc. you’re also publishing it at that time. That’s Self-publishing. That move by Amazon totally changed the publishing industry.  Once I got the rights to all my books back from publishers I'd sign contracts with, I stopped submitting to publishers, and now I Self Pub only. There are many advantages of self-publishing for authors, including: 1...

In the past, if you wanted your book on the shelf in major book stores, in other words Barnes and Nobles, if that was the best way for you to sell your particular book, then it was advantageous to go with the Big 5. The conglomerates who controlled the publishing industry for a long time are: 1. Hachette 2. Macmillan 3. HarperCollins 4. Simon & Schuster 5. Penguin Random House Also known as the Big 5. However, in order for a writer to benefit from having books on the shelf at Barnes and Nobles, there has to be a Barnes and Nobles for their readers to go to in their area.  There are fewer Barnes and Nobles with many having closed. However, since they were bought on June 7, 2019, hopefully at least the stores that are still open will stay open. Independent Bookstores, unlike Barnes and Nobles, will shelf indie books and also order them at their customer’s requests. You don’t have to be published by the Big 5 to get your b...