RE: Steemit & The Future of Book Publishing
The big trend right now both in Europe and in North America are a type of co-op publisher who splits costs and profits with the author. Self-publishing has too many cons which is why most self-publishing stars go on to secure a traditional publisher once they've hit it big. Self-publishing is a business and unless you are prepared to spend most of your time dealing with marketing, distribution and logistical issues, you're better off exploring other options. By the way, as someone who used to work for a publishing database employed by Amazon, the average payout for self-published authors was less than $117 a year in 2014. Less than 2% of all self-published books on Amazon in 2014 made over $500 for the author. And only a tiny, tiny fraction of that 2% made $10K or more. Those stats haven't changed much since then.
Edited: Amazon lost its big case with Hachette just recently. As a result, the big publishers expect profits of 3 to 5% over the next two quarters which still pales in comparison to the growth seen in smaller independent publishers, many of whom will benefit from the Hachette win.
Indie and self-publishing are growing fast, and the market is changing very rapidly as demonstrated by the data I shared. I do like the co-publishing platforms, particularly when they bring in good expertise. As an author, I like to understand all parts of the process including marketing and distribution. J.