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That demonstrates clearly the great divide between the legacy 20th century publishing industry and the emerging 21st century paradigm.

The old way is all about exclusion and gatekeepers and the perks of power, with new authors being mere grist in their mill.

The big publishing houses love you just as much as a mother sea turtle loves her eggs. She lays 300, and never looks at them again. If two or three make it back to the beach as adults (best sellers) that is all she cares about. The fact that 297 are eaten along the way bothers the mother sea turtle not one bit.

And that is IF you are lucky enough to be one of the "annointed" who actually get a contract the traditional way! Zero promotion by the publisher, a miserly advance (against sales), 8% royalties, and a 60-90 day sit on the shelves of the chain bookstores. And like the baby turtles, if you are not one of the tiny percentage to make it, you are "killed" in the industry as a "failed author."

No thanks. If and when I talk to those guys, it will be on my terms, with several of them negotiating with me. Until then, I will command my destiny.

And why not, since promotion is left to the new author anyway? Why not make 50-80% on your books, instead of 8%, if you are going to be the one to promote it anyway? For what exactly are they earning their 92%, when most of your books will be sold on Amazon anyway? For the chance to have your books sit on a back bottom shelf for 90 days?

To me, 5th avenue is a sucker game, and not worth the candle.

The difficulties you list with the traditional publishing route are real, Travis, but if the goal is to be a fulltime writer and make a good living at it, traditional publishing is still the only realistic game in town. As bad as the odds are there, they're infinitely worse in self-publishing.

Not trying to be discouraging in the least to you or Jeff or anyone else, but that's just the unvarnished truth. Self-published books command virtually zero respect in the industry because there is no verifiable quality control. The percentage of self-published books that ever get picked up by a traditional publisher is staggeringly tiny. Almost no review venue that matters will touch them. And with many agents and publishers, just having self-published is the death knell. I genuinely hope that you and Jeff and others prove to be among those rare exceptions, but that is the reality of the path you've chosen and it's not likely to change in the foreseeable future.

And BTW, while Amazon certainly sells a lot of books, their numbers are still DWARFED by brick-and-mortar sales. It's not even remotely close.