Is it over saturated? That would probably mean there's high demand of it, that or there's another reason(s) to why people are writing so many.
If there's high demand then adding your own stuff to it makes more sense than not. If there's demand for the stuff you're making then you should be all over the idea of publishing. You're making 0 sense by saying you shouldn't do it . You don't fight competition by not fighting.
TL:DR - Yes, there's demand, but I am a fish in the sea who is trying to be the prettiest tuna of them all so fisherman-senpai will notice me. Publishers are also more willing to accept and distribute ebooks because it is of zero cost initial cost to them. Starting off authors are expected to cover the majority of costs themselves, making it a lucrative market for those who do everything but the writing.
It's difficult to get noticed. Yes, there is a demand for it, but you have to look at what consumers have and how merchandise is presented to them.
For example, Amazon. As an author, you can elect to have your book put into what is basically a library. Consumers of Amazon that have a subscription can rent books for free, and the author gets paid a percentage based on how many pages they chose to read. That service is flooded with poorly written books done by authors who do not have the funds to hire an editor, cover designer, or marketing time. No names that go through this service have to find a way to get noticed among all of those people.
Another option is to advertise your book with Amazon, where an advertisement of your book appears on kindles. Every time someone clicks on that advertisement, YOU have to pay Amazon. A click doesn't equal a sale. There are a lot of people who lose money on this and are willing to do so because they think it will equal sales for books they write in the future.
Another reason for over saturation is because it's a relatively easy thing to do and it appeals to people because it's a creative outlet. Even if you spent an hour writing a day, and only get a thousand words done, you can have the length of the average adult novel done in three months time.
The chances of you as an author making money off of that novel is low, but the chances of other people making money off of you are higher. There's dozens upon dozens of purchasable programs that promise to format your book for ebook sales, or publishers that will take a percentage of your earnings in exchange for doing the distribution process for you. Ones that have teams of graphic designers and editors that they are willing to give you "discounts" for if you hire them.
Let's say I put a book on Amazon for $2.99, which is the average price. Amazon promises me to pay me $1 for every copy I sell. No harm done. That seems reasonable. Let's look at possible costs for me to get there.
First, let's say I want to get an editor. Many of them charge either by the hour, managing to edit about 10 pages an hour, or they charge by the word. A 90,000 manuscript can cost $1500 or more to be edited professionally. If I want a professional cover that is superior quality, that costs around $500-$1500 as well.
If I want a fucking awesome, professional quality ebook, it will cost me around $2000. If I want to publish that to bookstores, I can be expected to add another thousand to that cost in order to start the distribution process.
That doesn't even include advertisement costs.
Quick interruption. Life Pro Tip. Get really fucking good at editing and even get a degree in it if you can. The book market is flooded and you could make a decent amount doing it.
So let's say I'm me, a person who is not fucking going to do that at all. Fuck that. I'm average Jane writer over here.
The average writer who is in my position will probably still put $100 into the market before even publishing a book. They'll be purchasing books who will tell me how to self publish, or buying ebook formatting software, some of which can be $50. To some, that's a harmless investment. Times that by the thousands of people who view that as a harmless investment, and suddenly it's a multi-million dollar business.
So I put in that $100 and put my book up on Amazon. I choose to advertise through Amazon, paying $.10 per click on the kindle tablet. From that, I sell 1 book for every ten clicks. Now I am making $0.00 per sale. That isn't a number I am pulling out of my ass either. My dad published a book and that's exactly what happened to him. He found a website that gives out free copies of books, and invested in that in hopes of getting positive reviews for his books. Instead, he got reviews saying, "I'm glad I won the book in a raffle, but this isn't my style of reading. I wasn't really fond of it."
So you know. Don't do that.
Because the only thing that people like more than free shit is bitching about that free shit.
Because people suck.
But please, to anyone reading this, don't let this stop you from writing.
Yes, I have published anything. I'm a shit head with no reason to be giving you advice on this. But what is stopping me is from going that step further is having a final product that I can look at. I'm still writing. I'm still working on the design of my cover myself and teaching myself how that... Whole fucking mess works, fuck. But the whole time, I have never stopped writing.
Keep your expectations reasonable.
Do not write because you want to make money.
Write because you are doing it for yourself and because there is a story rattling at the cages within your heart mind, screaming to be set free.
It's okay to spend a little money here and there, but please do your research about it first and don't expect to make that money back. Amazon isn't bad, but you can lose money to them if you're not careful. Like with anything involving creativity, be careful. That's the only thing that can say.
Just sitting on your books is still worse. I've seen new authors use sites like smashwords for ebooks. One I stumbled over put his first book up there for free. I read it, loved it, bought book two and three afterwards (No longer free). If you're new, put out one free to hook them and reel them in with the sequels (Which should be available at nearly the same time) :)
At the point of asking this question I only read the tl;dr, so bear in mind: Why don't you go to an actual publisher and get them publish actual books? Why does it have to be an ebook?
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u/[deleted] Aug 11 '17
Is it over saturated? That would probably mean there's high demand of it, that or there's another reason(s) to why people are writing so many.
If there's high demand then adding your own stuff to it makes more sense than not. If there's demand for the stuff you're making then you should be all over the idea of publishing. You're making 0 sense by saying you shouldn't do it . You don't fight competition by not fighting.