The Writers' Lounge

Yeah, indie authors who hope to sell/have anyone read them do need to think of it as a business as far as pricing/marketing/everything else. (And those who do well succeed on that as much as on their writing, I suspect.)

I definitely think that there are a lot of advantages to small presses - both in their ability to bring niche products to market and they do pay a lot better for the author. (I mean, I couldn't imagine someone making 30-70% on their books anywhere other than in ePublishing.)

I think that niche works for some, not for others. There are pros and cons to any type of publishing. ePublishing will probably never quite have the cache of a publishing house picking you up (unless you sell millions of copies, which is unlikely). You do have to be super careful about editing/marketing/everything else (which would be handled for you in a mainstream publishing house - admittedly not all that well, but you get something.) I mean, no matter how you look at it, there's a certain amount of skill in the author and luck...but the risk and reward ratios break down somewhat differently. *shrugs*

I'm not even sure that you need all that much money to fling into marketing. But I do think that you have to be very social media savvy, and to have an idea that in some way "stands out". That's hard to do! (I mean, think about all the fairly good stories that are totally neglected on ffnet. What makes something popular? I still honestly don't know to be completely honest.)