But think about it. Who stands to benefit from the perception that we “need” a traditional publishing model? Who is against self-publishing?

Agents are against it. They stand to lose money.

Publishers are against it. They stand to lose money.

Marketing firms are against it. Who is going to pay for a release blitz without the big publishers around?

Established authors are against it. They don’t want the increased competition. I don’t blame people like Stephen King for being against self-publishing, although I think his opinion of it is self-serving and more than a little dishonest.

The public is smart enough to decide what music they like. Even independent movies get a lot of attention–how many times now have we had an instance where someone self-financed a movie for a paltry sum of money, then it became a hit? We think “going it alone” is just fine for essentially every other form of art, but when it comes to publishing, oh no! We can’t have the public deciding what *books* they like!

The publishing industry needs to decentralize just like the music industry is doing. We *don’t* need the middlemen–certainly not as many as we used to. The tools are there to do it all yourself. Is a lot of it going to be crap? Of course! But the public will decide what they do and don’t want to pay for. And that’s how it should be.
.-= gorzek´s last blog ..Over and Out =-.