why do we need "publishers" in today's market?is not like you have to have 4 intermediaries to sell on amazon or even digital copies? i'd be more forthcoming to pay $10 for a book that i know 50-70-90% proceeds go to the author than 2-4-5% which the rest take up?

publishers, printers, yada yada must've been important to sell books 50 years ago but are they really necessary today?

> why do we need "publishers" in today's market?

Distributing and marketing a book still takes expertise.

ah, so the one who is supposed to make money from his/her skill is given pittance while distribution and marketing people take the cake. fine.

edit:

if onlyfans can allow questionable skills be monetized and give millions to the um, performers, surely an author can find a way to sell their own books themselves

> the one who is supposed to make money from his/her skill is given pittance while distribution and marketing people take the cake

You may want to read on the economics of publishing instead of working off assumptions [1]. Scientific publishers are a scam. But trade fiction and nonfiction publishing isn’t a moneymaker.

[1] https://www.almostanauthor.com/the-economics-of-publishing/

i need some numbers... $100 book(fiction for ease of understanding), how much does each entity in the chain from author to consumer earns?

if that is the economics, where does digital books and audibooks fare? why do you need the intermediaries in that thing? same for amazon? its not like i HAVE to pay a printer to publish a digital ebook so if that is removed from the pie, shouldn't the author "get" that portion also?

I've always said that onlyfans is one of the more ethical platforms; there's less of a question of who gets paid and how.

so what is the role of publishers and marketers and whole dinosaur industry that should die already.

i've had a proposal. From a $100 physical book, an author makes say 5%. That is all their work as the original work and remuneration they get so if we move to digital, how about the author double or triple that to say $15. add another $5 for delivery and the same book now costs me $20 and the author gets "more" money, something they actually want and what i want, to consume the content created and support the author and be easy on the wallet. this would probably kill the paper book model overnight but i really don't have concerns about the poor publishers and printers who would go out of job

Does it? I genuinely doubt this; and if it does -- is this current system by which it happens worth keeping (i.e. is not merely legacy gatekeeping by incumbents?)

Self-publishing isn't free, and usually requires guidance from a professional resource to do properly without your book being lost in the chaff. You may get a higher percentage of return, but haven spoken to a fellow community member who has done self-publishing and writing for a major publisher, they commented they would never do self-publishing again.

My books are both in eBook format and paperback. ~400-500 hundred pages in length. The hundreds of hours spent writing the book/taking screenshots, formatting, does not pay off, at least for technical books.

Creating technical books is purely for the notoriety, possibly job prospects, etc., IME. I've had wonderful community feedback which is certainly a self-esteem boost (maybe ego, which isn't necessarily a good thing :)), but it is only going to buy me a few cups of coffee at Starbucks.