Unless you live under a rock–or just don’t follow the publishing biz–you have heard that Barry Eisler turned down a $500,000 contract with Saint Martin’s Press to self-publish. It sounds insane, but he will make more money self-pubbing his novels than he would by taking that outrageous deal.
But more important to me than the money is the fact that Eisler is one of the first big, big names to make the switch. Self-pubbing is the way of the future, and Eisler and Konrath discuss it here. This post is long, 13,000 words, but you can download it in ebook form and read at your leisure. If you are at all interested in publishing, I highly suggest that you do so. It provides great insight into what traditional publishers are thinking at this phase of the game.