Being a publisher, not a writer.

Watched a program on self-publishing on C-span.  It pretty much confirmed the way I was thinking.  That I need to think of myself as a publisher, not a writer.

Anyway, if I remember rightly, the number of ebooks they mentioned being published per year was around 484,000.  Which basically means that somelike 1300 books are being published per day.  I'm sure that is growing every year, so I'm guessing it's more like 1500 a day, or even 2000 a day.

Per day.

How do you stand out in a crowd like that?

The organizer of the event was a former publishing employee, and she said that a huge number of publishing types -- agents, editors, copy-editors, etc. etc. have been let go and that less books are being traditionally published.  (Hard to believe -- but I do believe that more of the books that are being published are following tropes, or successful examples, or established writers or themes.)

I think it is safe to say that publishers are dealing with many more books than ever before, with much fewer people.

Which makes it more of a crapshoot than ever before.

Anyway, I've thrown my hat into the self-publishing ring.  I'm not sure that it is something you can do half-heartedly.  I think you have to choose one side or the other.  Otherwise it just becomes too distracting.

Having been self-employed for 30 years, deciding on my own how, when, why, where, which things I'm going to do, being my own publisher makes sense to me.  Not having to ask for permission or having to wait for someone else to make a decision.

But I want to be as professional as possible about it.  Good editing, nice covers and design, and hopefully good books.

At the same time, I'm also just concentrating on just writing for now, and trying to gather information on the best way to be a publisher.  I'm picking little things up as I go along.