The battle rages in the publishing world. Without a doubt, there are many in traditional publishing who feel threatened by what is happening in the indie, or self-publishing, world. There are many who wish to be published but do not want the "stigma" of being self-published.
In the past the stigma of being self-published might very well have been justified. Vanity Publishing carries with it the stigma of its very name, vanity.
If you want to make a living from your writing, or at the very least, pay some bills on a regular basis, you need to stop and seriously consider self-publishing your work. I got my start in self-publishing through POD paperbacks. Now the majority of my sales are ebooks.
I still make a lot more per sale with my POD titles, but make up for the lower revenue per unit from my ebooks with the sheer volume of sales. If I could figure out how to make the same total number of sales, but all POD, I would be deliriously happy! I digress.
To make a significant choice between self-publishing your work or pursuing a traditional publishing contract, it is important to try to set aside the propaganda from both camps. Make a decision based on sales data.
While this seems much easier said than done, there is a source of sales data that allows an individual author to make the correct, for that author, decision about how to publish their work.
One data set worth examining, and a telling one at that, is the Print vs. Digital Report for May of 2014.
Another interesting data set is the 2014 Barnes & Noble ebook report.
Finally, I would like to suggest taking a look at October 2014 Amazon ebook (estimated) sales data.
All of these reports I have linked to are from the Author Earnings site.
