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| Hugh Howey |
Hugh Howey is a writer of dystopian
end-of-the-world-as-we-knew-it books that are quite good. He is self-published
and he is incredibly successful at selling his books – primarily on Amazon.
Here is the blog post I wrote last summer reviewing his book and the article in
the Wall Street Journal WOOL - A Self-PublishingTriumph. To many writers he is their hero and now their
guide through the labyrinth that is the ebook and self-publishing.
And he is, like the little boy and the naked emperor, one
who is not shy in pointing out what may be really happening in the world of
independent publishing and ebooks.
On February 12, 2014, Howey published a lengthy manifesto
that challenged the big New York publishing establishment and dearly held beliefs
about where independent publishing and self-publishing, especially ebooks, stands
and where it might be going. He also
challenges the large traditional ebook retailers to publish the facts and
figures about what is really going on in the ebook world. The 7K Report is causing quite a kerfuffle in the independent and traditional world.
Challenges to the data and its crunching by both sides is as much of the story
as Howey's report is.
Much of what is causing all the angst is that no one from
Amazon to Scrivener is willing to go public with real factual numbers regarding
sales, especially ebooks. They point to Howey and repeat the famous line from
the Wizard of Oz about not paying attention to the man behind the curtain.
There are two stories about Howey here. The first is the
data and its acquisition and how Howey got it, and the second is what he did
with it after it was complied. To hear him tell it no one wanted to touch the
report. The excuses were the usual, "It's too long and who really
cares." When Howey posted the 7K Report on its own website it had over
30,000 hits in a day. Yeah, no one really cares.
In a lengthy, interesting, and incredibly worth the time YouTube
video, Howey discusses the report and its data with Self-publishing Roundtable,
Episode 32.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gaey6a0zgA
Howey says that the top percentage of self-published authors
are doing much better than the top percentage of traditionally published
authors – makes you think for a minute about what's really going on out there.
Howey is pro-writer and is challenging the publishing
industry to better respect and better pay the authors who are their only reason for being. His goal
is to push the writer to the front of the publishing queue not the back where
we have been placed by the traditional publishing industry. I have seen this in
the arts world and other allied industries – most especially in the art
publishing industry. The artist is the last to make the big bucks. Look how
music was changed by iTunes – suddenly even the lowliest garage band can now
make money and get exposure. Same is true for writers.
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