We are witnessing the evolution of this entire market,
from writing, printing, publishing, to retail.

The Wild West of American history, forever cemented into our memories, stories, and movies! The Western Frontier, the American Frontier! It was actually a very brief and unique period of time from the mid-1800's to early 20th century (c. 1865-1917, but these dates are fluid), little more than 50 years in total.
And I believe we are in this same Wild West of Publishing.
Players include the Pinkertons, the Central Pacific Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad, the Union and Confederacy Armies, among old and new governments, wanting nothing more than to deny a changing landscape, hoping to desperately establish or cling onto their empires. (The Big 5 Publishing Houses & Big-Box Bookstores).
Others wander lost through this changing and treacherous landscape, in desperate need of guidance and hopes for a better tomorrow; prospectors, farmers, pilgrims. (The Indie-authors and upcoming self-published authors).
There are the sheriffs, Paladins, and gunslingers of legend, seeing the chaos and lawlessness for what it is, with hopes of taming and bringing some sense of order, fairness, and a level playing field. (The Small-Mid-Sized Presses & Publishers).
While others still, like bandits, gangs, and outlaws, only see the opportunity to make a quick buck by robbing the naïve. (The shadow industry of the Vanity Presses).
And like the Wild West of America, the Wild West of Publishing too shall be a brief and transitory period of history, I suspect.
A Brief and Modern History of Publishing:
The Phenomena of the Rise of the Indie-Author (c. 2015)
The Decimation of Editing
The Rise of the Small-Mid-Sized Presses & Publishers (c. early 2020's)
The Shadow Industry of the Vanity Press (c.2015+)
The Return of the Indie-Bookshop (c. latter 2020's)
The Lost Ways of the Big-Box Bookstores
Who Determines Good Literature?
A New Way Forward
The Future and Beyond
Closing Thoughts
The Phenomena of the Rise of the Indie-Author (c. 20-teens)
The explosion of self-published authors in the 20-teens (c. 2015+/-).
With the advent of the eBook and easy accessibility of print-on-demand, the technology was there to open avenues never before traversed. Between 2009 and 2019 we saw an increase of 166% of self-published titles.
But within this decade we also saw two other phenomena occur, both hinged upon the inexperience and lack of specialized skill of the indie-author.
The first was the rise of a shadow-industry - predatory businesses preying upon the Indie-authors' ignorance and skill-set shortfall: The Vanity press or publisher.
The second led to the following decade. Where The Big 5* wouldn't budge or help, playing gatekeepers, this led to the rise of the Small to Mid-size press and publishers.
The Decimation of Editing
It is difficult to pin-point specific dates on this particular phenomena. Although I am sure June 1st, 1980 was an important date. This is the date CNN began offering 24-hour news.
It began with the concept of, rather than simply reporting the news, specifically being the first to report the news. I personally experienced this first hand within the newspaper industry. Within the blink of an eye it would quickly migrate to TV news broadcasts and dominate media.
Speed mattered. In fact, speed was job #1. And that's where it began. It wouldn't be long until the fact-checking and editing became secondary, and eventually irrelevant. You could always come back and print or release or post a correction or redaction. If a story or breaking news is to expedited, editing would only slow the process down. And the first casualty of this was the editors and editing in general.
But The Phenomena of the Rise of the Indie-Author (c. 20-teens) only exacerbated this problem, as so many new and self-published authors, doing everything for themselves - including editing - ultimately, choose to either bypass this potentially costly step, or introduce new and different options (including beta-readers).
Fast forward to today, and we see the wasteland of what is left of editing. Although there are a great number of people offering editing services online, there are few true editors.
It isn't all doom-and-gloom. It revealed the white elephant in the room; the true potential of exactly what Print-on-Demand actually means. No longer are we ordering hundreds or thousands of copies of our book, storing them in our garage, or attic, and hoping they all sell before the sitting inventory becomes damaged. We no longer need to have an inventory. And that means a correction is as simple and uploading a new file.
The Rise of the Small-Mid-Sized Presses & Publishers (c. early 2020's)
And now, as we are well entrenched in a new decade, we are seeing the Big 5's numbers slowly drooping, while the collective Small-Mid-sized Presses & Publishing companies catching up, and the phenomena of the indie-author plateauing out. Why? I can only speculate and make educated guesses.

The model of the Big 5 only works if you're a Stephen King, or J.K Rowling, or George R.R. Martin. It rarely work for anybody else. In the 20-teens, thanks to the technology of eBooks and proper print-on-demand, we saw the explosion that was the Rise of the Indie-Author. Like the music explosion of the '80's, the decade of the 20-teens was a barrage of talent and creativity, but also like the 80's, we tend to remember the one-hit-wonders and forget about the massive amount of less marketable material.
As we entered the early '20's we are seeing the Small-Mid-sized presses and publishers pickup and collect the talent of the previous decade, bringing their specialty to the fore; to hone and polish, clean up and fine-tune their work, bringing a level of professional expertise that simply wasn't available to the indie-author, and wouldn't have been offered by the Big 5.
The Shadow Industry of the Vanity Press: An Alternate Course (c.2015+)
Although the Phenomena of the Rise of the Indie-Author (c. 20-teens) gave birth to The Rise of the Small-Mid-Sized Presses & Publishers (c. early 2020's), it wasn't, unfortunately, the only avenue. As any successful industry flourishes, so too does a shadow-industry pursue it.
The Return of the Indie-Bookshop (c. latter 2020's)
And now, as we enter the mid to late '20's we are seeing this evolution continue, spreading into the retail end of this creative production chain; the bookstores.

It's a good time to be an author, a writer, and a poet. It's a good time to be a reader and a booklover.
No matter where you live in the Nation's Capital or Surrounding Regions, there's an independent bookstore for you: Perfect Books (Elgin), Books on Beechwood (Beechwood), Octopus Books (The Glebe), Singing Pebbles Books (Old Ottawa East), The Spaniel's Tale Bookstore (Hintonburg), Black Squirrel Books (Old Ottawa South), White Pines Books (Arnprior), Westboro Books, The Book's Better Bookshop (Smiths Falls), Mill Street Books (Almonte).
The Lost Ways of the Big-Box Bookstores
This was a long time in the brewing and a date can't easily be pinpointed. This is best covered in Indigo's Trials and Tribulations: The Rise of New Markets?
But the Big-Box Bookstores ultimately left a vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum, only helping pave the way for the return of the Independent bookshops.
Who Determines Good Literature?
An original draft of this article talked about how The Big 5* traditional publishing houses' models functioned (or didn't function) for anybody other than the J.K. Rowlings, or Stephen Kings, or George R.R. Martins. It spoke about how, historically, the big publishing houses really didn't know good from poor literature, citing examples of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft (both considered literary masters today), yet both fought and struggled to see publication during their lives. It used the example of Justin Trudeau's Common Ground (2014) for no other reason than because his face and name will sell copies. But is it any good? Don't know - don't care. Not likely that I'll ever read it.
I suppose ultimately, the point was to speak about how and why a small publishing company should be different from The Big Five and traditional publishing.
If traditional publishers don't know good literature from bad literature, if the traditional publishers are only interested in products that will make them large profits, what their model actually does is put themselves into the position of gatekeepers - actively promoting mediocrity (promoting what's safe at the cost of stifling innovation and creativity), and actively keeping the vast majority of other writers out of publication.
We are forced to face a series of questions and statements:
Is it the publisher's or the reader's job, to determine good writing?
If it's the latter, then the publisher's job is to facilitate and introduce literature so that readers can determine for themselves what is good literature. (And by implication that means, deliberately NOT playing the roll of gatekeeper).
If it is the former, then, it is the publisher's job to gatekeep; to control who has access to publication, or who has the power or opportunities to do so. It is the publisher's job to determine who can be defined as a legitimate writer, poet, or author.
It all boils down to whether it is the publisher's job to play gatekeeper or not, and should brings up the core difference between a traditional publisher and a small to mid-sized publisher. Whether deliberately or not, the Big Five have subscribed to the former: passively or actively, they are playing gatekeepers.
Only those small to mid-sized publishers and presses who believe the latter will have any chance of standing apart from the Big Five.
But what does that look like? As a small publisher and press, we shouldn't be interested in mimicking or attempting match a business model after The Big 5. As the publishing and printing industries evolve and change with technologies, so too must our publishing and business models. A new brand of publisher and press and retailer and business model must arise.
I believe the first and fundamental difference is not playing gatekeeper. The level of acceptance needs to be more tolerant. (Yes, the 'bottom of the barrel,' simply poor stories or storytelling needs to be caught and filtered, but much more material needs to be allowed).
We must also acknowledge that - resource wise - we cannot (and should not) compete with traditional publishers. Their net worth are measured in the billions, and their annual revenues likewise. Their budgets can easily be in the millions; their model is having money to spare.
A New Way Forward
We cannot follow the model of the Traditional Publisher, and we cannot follow the model of the predatory Vanity Press. So we need to build upon these values:
If an author receives ¢20 on the sale of a $20 book, it has to be asked, what exactly is the publisher doing to earn that 99% margin?
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Authors must be willing to put themselves out there - readings, book signings, radio & TV spots, podcasts, events, markets etc.
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We vehemently oppose predatory businesses, while expecting our authors' dedication and investments to match their publisher's
Our 1st Generation of Business Model and Publications (based on 3.5 years of publishing and data):
Our original model was based upon no upfront money. On hindsight, I believe this was a reaction to the Vanity Press & Vanity Publishers, and an attempt to distance ourselves from any semblance to a predatory business model.
We are in a fortuitous situation with our extensive 4 decade long background in print where we are able to construct a model upon our profits from printing. The more books the authors sold, the more printing they would need, the more profits both of us would enjoy. This translated into our authors enjoying a profit margin between +50% to 75%. (Much better than traditionally published author's 1% to 10%).
This met and addressed this 5th statement of belief:
If an author receives ¢20 on the sale of a $20 book, it has to be asked, what exactly is the publisher doing to earn that 99% margin?
However, profits became contingent upon books being moved and sold. Bear in mind, profits were based upon the printing of books, but this wasn't necessarily just profits - these initial funds and investments were to cover initial layout, formatting, editing, licensing, and design costs.
The end results were, 40% were profitable, and 60% were either at a loss or a breakeven. This hinged exclusively upon the individual author's "hunger"; whether they would actively go out or passively sit back. (No, they were not 'abandoned' to fend for themselves. Book signings at the big-box bookstore, independent bookshops, and schedule local TV and radio interviews were set up). It was then we discovered a phenomena of some individuals whose goal was simply to become a "published author," and others who simply hoped or believed their books would sell themselves. Sales were a distant second... and since our initial costs and investments were to be covered by the sales of printing, our initial costs simply weren't covered.
This contradicted the 6th and 7th statements of belief:
Authors must be willing to put themselves out there - readings, book signings, radio & TV spots, podcasts, events, markets etc.
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We vehemently oppose predatory businesses, while expecting our authors' dedication and investments to match their publisher's
Our 2nd Generation of Business Model and Publications (based on the past current year of data):
A second, and current, business model involved layout, formatting, editing, and design fees up front (at a reduced rate for our published authors). It put a little more emphasis upon the author to help move their book rather than be sedentary.
And the results? 100% were profitable. And from the authors' points of view, 80% were profitable, and although 20% were not profitable, neither was this selection of author active or "hungry." (I believe this was the same kind of author whose goal was to simply be a "published author." And they were fine and happy to have spent the money).
What Differentiates this Model from a Vanity Press?
Ultimately, support and profit motive. We still set up events for book signings and TV and radio appearances, should the authors want them. We still make our profits from the printing of their books. It is in both the authors' and our best interests they continue to move and sell copies. They still enjoy a profit margin of between +50% to 75%, and we still enjoy profits from ongoing printing sales.
The Future and Beyond
What will the next evolution or devolution step be in publishing? The future's a devilishly devious thing to predict, but I feel the introduction of AI will play a major part in it. Ownership, copyrights, and exactly how AI will be used or abused.
Will we see AI used to actually create stories and books? Will we allow it? Will they be interesting? Will they sell? Again, we return to that pivotal question, Whose job is it to determine good writing?
AI is a tool, no different than a hammer. A hammer is neither good nor evil. It can be used to build a home to raise a family in, or a hammer can murder.
We have already seen a pilot project for audiobooks, where an AI can narrate one's novel. This will open doors to up-and-coming authors to offer audiobooks and open this market up further.
Ultimately, the introduction of AI may be a Streisand-effect. Forcing and bringing focus upon the grey and misty realms of copyright infringements. Fonts, licensing, etc.
Closing Thoughts
I don't think there currently can be closing thoughts. I believe this is an open and evolving system. I believe we are in the midst of a changing and liquid literary landscape. But I also believe, like the Wild West of the American frontier age, this too will be an ever so brief blip of time. Possibly a half-century? And we happen to be fortunate enough to being living through it.
*Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster
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