WHICH WAY NOW?

I am struggling with a dilemma about my future as an author.

Basically there are two ways of being published.

THE OLD WAY

1. You write a book.
2. You find an agent to represent you.
3. The agent persuades a publishing house to publish you.
4. You get an advance. Your agent takes a cut.
5. After much rewriting/ time your book is published for you.
6. You may or may not receive any more money depending on sales. Your agent gets a cut.
7. You get the might of the Marketing Department at the publishers for about a week.
8. You market your book yourself.
9. You may or may not get another deal.

THE NEW WAY

1. You write a book.
2. You pay to get it edited, to get a book cover done etc. You make all the decisions.
3. You publish it.
4. You set your own price and can change it to suit your purposes.
5. You are in charge of how it is marketed.
6. You can change anything about it at any time.
7. You can publish another book whenever you like.

Gone are the days the vanity self-publisher. Buying from an Indie Author is like going to a Farmer's market, drinking craft ale, enjoying artisan bread, picking up presents from Not on the High Street. You are dealing direct with the craftsperson. The Indie Author world is massive, complicated and potentially worth a fortune. Indie authors with back catalogues of a handful of books in a popular genre are making a decent living. The Author Earnings Report is hot off the press and makes very interesting reading.

It looks like a no brainer, doesn't it? Publish digitally across the globe, make royalties of 70% on everything you sell and retain complete control.

But today I heard best selling Author Entrepreneur Mark Dawson in a podcast. He was talking about his much hailed course on Facebook advertising. (You may have seen all the publicity about his protege Adam Croft who will clear £1,000,000 this year.) The key, he said, is to keep 'churning out the books'.

And with that sentence he summed up my dilemma. I have read a lot of these highly popular and successful books. Undoubtedly people like to read them and they sell. But they're not very good. They are, as the man said, 'churned out'.

I can do that ( although I'm not saying they would sell). I can write fast and turn things around quickly but do I want to? Deep sigh.

What about a hybrid? Really good books published the new way with author control. Maybe there are some and I just haven't found them yet.

Or maybe I could do both.....

What do you think? All advice gratefully received.

Imogen.