#his job is to look after andrew and aaron but he organized that dinner he brought them into that situation

[denizenhardwick]

i love nicky hemmick. i think about how much he loves his family and how often that comes into conflict with what he wants. how he left the life he was making for himself in germany to take care of his cousins, despite being a pretty ineffectual guardian. how he doesn't understand andrew literally at all but still obviously cares about him so much. how he sides with andrew and aaron at every opportunity. how it was what his dad did to andrew that finally got him to cut contact with his parents.

[andrewjostenzarchive]

Oh Death

2466 words of Kevaaron. Enjoy. <3

Kevin's been playing professionally for ten years now. He still lives and breathes exy, but he also found other things that bring him joy. History. Documentaries. Cooking. Aaron.

Aaron is a chief physician in his hospital. It's a stressful job, but very rewarding. Both of this means, though, that they have trouble meeting up. When Kevin is off, Aaron sometimes has to do a double shift at the hospital. But as long as they have each other, they don't mind. Especially in the offseason when Aaron also takes a vacation.

It's shortly before Christmas and they are both home. Kevin is in the kitchen, preparing dinner while Aaron sets the table up. It's weirdly domestic and Aaron still has trouble to believe that all of this is real.

In the background the TV is on. It's some history documentary that Kevin chose. They already watched it ten times, but Aaron doesn't mind. He likes to see Kevin smile. While they eat, they hold hands, caressing each other's skin. This is when the call comes.

Kevin frowns and looks at Aaron. Latter one just shrugs his shoulders. They barely get calls. Mostly they just use skype to keep in contact with their family. Kevin gets up and grabs the phone. "Minyard-Day?"

Kevin's face falls in a matter of seconds. His skin goes pale and his hands start shaking. Quickly Aaron jumps up and walks to him. "Where?" Aaron searches for an answer in Kevin's face, but can't find one. His heart is dropping more and more the longer he waits. "We're on our way."

"What happened?" Aaron asks after Kevin carelessly throws the phone onto the table. "My dad ... he had a stroke. They put him in a hospital."

Kevin wants to leave instantly, but Aaron orders him to sit down while he quickly packs a few things. Kevin's mind is hazy, he doesn't know what to do. Aaron comes back with a jacket over his arm. "Babe, come on." He helps him up and into his jacket before grabbing the bags. Kevin heads to the driver's side, but Aaron stops him. "I drive. It's okay."

Nothing is okay. Nothing. Kevin still shakes when he sits inside. "We gotta get to him."

"I know. We will." Aaron squeezes Kevin's hand while going way too much over the speed limit to the airport.

"I can't lose him," Kevin says, his face twisted in pain.

Aaron feels a knife pressing into his heart. "You won't." He doesn't know if it's true, but oh god, he hopes.

Aaron does all the talking at the airport. Kevin tries his best to hold it together while his thoughts get faster and faster. Why did it happen so soon? Should he have spent more time with him? Oh god, why was he so focused on exy? Was it his fault? In the airplane Aaron just holds Kevin and whispers soothing stuff into his ear until at least most of the shaking stops. Kevin is too paralyzed to share his fears, though, so he just keeps them to themselves. Aaron seems to feel it, but he just kisses the top of Kevin's head.

He can hold Kevin, but he can't save him from his own thoughts.

As they don't have a car, they go with a taxi. It's the horror for Kevin to sit still while the driver could be so much faster. He visibly tenses and Aaron is quick to notice. "I'll give you two hundred bucks more if you drive like hell is loose." The driver doesn't need to hear that twice.

After three near-death experiences, they reach the hospital. Aaron feels like throwing up - he thought Andrew drives bad - but Kevin jumps out before the car even completely stopped and runs to the hospital. Aaron sprints after him after he just pressed a wad of notes into the driver's hand. When he arrives, Kevin already set off to the stairs, probably knowing which room Wymack is in. It is hard to keep up, but he ignores his stitches in the side and runs after him.

Kevin bursts through the door without even knocking, Aaron in tow. He instantly freezes and Aaron looks around him to see what's going on. Wymack is pale. Extraordinary pale. He lies on the bed, a mass of tubes in him. His breathing is weak and his eyes are closed. Abby sits right next to him, holding onto his hand for dear life. She looks up at their arrival and manages the smallest of smiles. Her eyes are red, but she is probably done crying.

Kevin still stands still like this all isn't real. Aaron softly nudges him until he begins to move, heading slowly to his father. Aaron closes the door and follows him. His throat is tight. He's never seen Wymack like this. He's been always so strong and fierce. Now he looks like a shadow of his old self. He goes to stand next to Abby while Kevin sits down on the other side, his eyes never leaving Wymack's face. "Dad?" His voice breaks, and with it, Aaron's heart.

Wymack moves, but only ever so slightly. He opens his eyes, a weak smile playing on his lips. "Hey son."

Kevin breathes in and out a few times, obviously struggling to keep his cool. "Dad, what happened?"

Wymack tries to wave his right hand, but fails. "Don't worry about me."

Aaron can't stand to see this any longer. He needs to talk to a doctor. Because from what he sees, it definitely doesn't look good for him. "Kevin?" Kevin doesn't move, but Aaron knows he heard him. "I'll be right back. Promise."

"Where are you going?" Now Kevin's head snaps up, looking slightly scared at Aaron.

"I'm just gonna get the doctor. Don't worry."

"I'm gonna go with you, I haven't walked in hours," Abby says, squeezing Wymack's hand before also getting up. Kevin sits down while they leave the room.

Abby goes to get herself some coffee while Aaron heads to a nurse and asks for the doctor. He finds him shortly after and asks him about Wymack. The doctor's face seems troubled. That's all that Aaron needed to know. He just wants to head back as he hears a loud scream. Kevin.

He's repeating "Dad" over and over again. Aaron arrives at the door and sees the spilled cup of coffee on the floor. Abby.

Aaron barges in. "What happened?"

He doesn't need an answer after a look on the screen. Wymack's heart stopped beating. He shoves his feelings aside and gets in doctor mode. He steps by Abby, opening up Wymack's flannel and starting a cardiac massage while ordering Abby to get a doctor. Kevin's face is a mess of tears while he still holds onto his father. Doctor and nurses barge in. "We need a CPR stat!", Aaron says before giving him rescue breathing. He hears Kevin's protests as a nurse wants him to step away, but he is totally focused on Wymack right now. He hears how Abby takes Kevin away.

They fight for his life for a few minutes, but nothing. In the end, they have to give up. "Time of death: 02:05 pm," Aaron says with numb lips. He doesn't dare to look at Kevin while the other doctor leaves the room, letting the rest of the work to the nurses. He just sinks down onto the chair, burying his face in his hands. He doesn't think any patients' death hit him as hard as this. Wymack was like a father to him and a real dad to Kevin. And now he's gone.

Finally, he dares to look up. Kevin knees on the floor, staring blankly at Wymack who's been covered with a shroud. Abby has a hand put on his shoulder while tears stream over her face.

They sit like that for a while. Abby is the first one to move. "I'm gonna call the others," she means with a hoarse voice. The door closes behind her with a soft click. It seems like that wakes Kevin up from his frozen state.

Kevin's face is a grimace. Aaron stands up, but barely gets the chance to walk to him as Kevin jumps up. He pushes Aaron against the wall, hard. Aaron stops breathing for a few seconds while Kevin shakes him. "You promised he won't. You promised," Kevin sobs, fisting Aaron's flannel. "You promised. You lied. You liar!"

Aaron's eyes begin to water too. "Kev-"

Kevin slowly sinks down, still shaking Aaron. "You lied. You lied to me." He begins hitting him weakly with his fists.

"I'm sorry," Aaron says, his voice shaking. He slowly grabs Kevin's wrist, stopping him from punching him. He sinks also down while Kevin holds onto him for dear life. "I'm so sorry."

Aaron wraps his arm around Kevin, holds him while they both cry. Kevin sobs into Aaron's shirt, but he couldn't care less. He holds onto him. And holds. Holds until the shaking gets less. Until the sobs get quieter. Until the only sound in the room is Kevin's ragged breathing. Aaron feels like someone ripped his heart out.

They sit still for a while. Then Aaron slowly leans back a bit, craddling Kevin's face in his hands and wiping away his tears with his thumbs. "I'm here for you. You got me. You always will."

Kevin just nods before leaning his forehead against Aaron's. His breathing slowly evens out and matches Aaron's rhythm.

They both look up as Abby reappears. "I called them."

Aaron helps Kevin get up, slinging an arm around him. He has to be strong for him. They leave the room without looking back once.

As soon as they are in the hotel Aaron booked in the taxi, Kevin heads straight to the mini bar. Aaron lets him. Kevin didn't need alcohol as a crutch for years now. They only had wine at home, nothing strong. But Aaron knows the want to numb your own feelings. And only for today, he will let Kevin do it. He will keep an eye on him.

So he lets Kevin sit between his legs, emptying a vodka bottle in silence. There is no need to speak while he strokes his hair. It feels like a train drove over him. After an hour, Kevin starts dozing off, the last words on his lips being "Aaron". Aaron lies down with him on the small couch, holding him tightly. This night, no sleep finds Aaron.

The next days go by with funeral arrangements. Aaron and Abby organize the most, but Kevin decides the most. He wants it to be perfect.

They just sit in the living room when it knocks. Kevin stands up and opens, expecting Abby, but instead gets nearly hugged to death by Nicky. He is closely followed by Neil and Andrew. Aaron only needs to take one look at Neil's slightly red eyes before he averts his gaze again. "What -" Kevin begins, but Nicky cuts him off.

"We are here for you, Kevin!" With a look at Andrew, Nicky adds: "More or less."

Neil is seemingly too tired to glare at Nicky. Andrew is the first to move again, sitting down next to Aaron and watching him with clear eyes. They don't say anything, just look at each other. After a while, Andrew just gives a short nod. Aaron nods back. They hug each other shortly.

They all sit around the living room table, now also getting involved in the arrangements. Aaron doesn't miss how close Neil sits to Kevin, but he knows both of them were hit the hardest with Wymack's death, so he doesn't mind. Not even as Kevin gets up because it's too much and Neil indicates Aaron to sit down again while he goes after him. Aaron never really understood their friendship, but now he is really grateful for Neil.

Nicky still chatters away, trying to make the silence less heavy while they organize things. It's not pleasant that they only came together in this circumstances, but it feels good to be a whole group - a whole family - again.

For the funeral, they are all dressed in black. It's a beautiful ceremony, but doesn't help to lessen the pain in Aaron's chest. He and Kevin hold hands throughout the whole thing. While the coffin gets lowered into the ground, Aaron feels like Kevin is close to breaking his fingers, but he doesn't mind. They watch as people throw flowers into the hole, saying their last goodbyes. After they all moved on, they are the last two left.

Aaron can see Andrew, Neil and Nicky waiting on a tree a few steps away to give them their privacy.

Aaron throws a single red flower onto the coffin. He never was a very religious person, but he hopes Wymack is well, wherever he is now. He wants to leave to give Kevin some last alone time, but latter one holds him back. "No. Please stay."

Aaron nods, standing next to Kevin.

"Dad ... I already miss you. So much. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you. That I never really had time. Time that we could spend together. But ... I know she would've been proud of you. Us. And I now hope that you are going to be proud of me, too. And I hope that you will watch over me and Aaron and my family. And ... that you see mum again. I hope that you are happy."

Aaron tries to fight the tears in his eyes while Kevin doesn't even care to hide them anymore.

"Thank you for everything. I love you. I always did and always will. Goodbye, Dad." Kevin sucks in a shaky breath after his last words before turning around and falling into Aaron's arms. Aaron holds him tightly, attempting to swallow down the knot in his throat.

The world will never be the same again without Wymack.

Aaron softly kisses Kevin's tears away until he calms down. "Okay?" he whispers.

"Okay," Kevin answers, taking his hand.

They walk over to the others, Nicky embracing Kevin again, then Neil. Aaron looks at Andrew.

Maybe the world will never be the same again without Wymack.

But the world will also be okay.

Their world.

[kidsviral-blog]

After Brett Kimberlin blogburst, RedState blogger/CNN contributor Erick Erickson and family victims of SWATting; will CNN cover the story?

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/after-brett-kimberlin-blogburst-redstate-blogger-cnn-contributor-erick-erickson-and-family-victims-of-swatting-will-cnn-cover-the-story/

After Brett Kimberlin blogburst, RedState blogger/CNN contributor Erick Erickson and family victims of SWATting; will CNN cover the story?

http://twitter.com/#!/EWErickson/status/206907698254594049

We're ok. After I starting writing about #BrettKimberlin I informed the local sheriff's office to expect this to happen.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

More importantly, I have an unlisted phone number someone was able to track it down.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

@Patterico Yep. Not like your situation. It was an "accidental shooting" and I'd already told the Sheriff's Office to expect something.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

Being friends with the sheriff, DA, and judge do help.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

Earlier today, Georgia police were called to RedState blogger and CNN contributor Erick Erickson’s house by a person claiming that there had been an accidental shooting at his residence. Erickson’s unsuspecting kids were outside when the cop cars showed up with flashing lights. The tactic is known as SWATting because of its intended purpose to provoke a SWAT team to turn up at a victim’s door. On Friday, California blogger Patterico detailed exhaustively how he and another blogger were SWATted as convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin and his online associates were waging a frightening harassment campaign against them and others who dared to call attention to his criminal past.

Reminder from Patterico:

Although I am an L.A. County Deputy D.A., it is certain that I was “swatted” because of my blog and not because of my job. As Andrew Breitbart noted, this happened to two people within the course of a single week: a man in New Jersey and myself. Both of us had had contact with Andrew Breitbart. Both of us were writing about the same story. And both of us received email threats days before we were swatted. The threat to me said, in part: “Please think about your family. This story is not worth it. I can assure you that.”

Kimberlin target Aaron Worthing, who bravely stepped out to expose the online terrorist’s tactics last week, notes:

Because [Erickson] warned the police ahead of time that this could happen it wasn’t quite the dangerous situation that Patterico faced. But the intent to intimidate was there.

Exactly. Thankfully, Erickson had the foresight to warn his local police department that a tactic like this could be used against him.

SWATting the Ericksons http://t.co/HvEINgbo via @ewerickson

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

Here’s Erickson’s blog post about how he and his family handled the terror tactic. Excerpt:

Last week we spent a lot of time writing about Brett Kimberlin and the incident involving blogger Patterico where someone spoofed his phone number and told 911 he had shot his wife.

Tonight, my family was sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner when sheriffs deputies pulled up in the driveway.

Someone called 911 from my address claiming there had been an accidental shooting.

It wasn’t nearly the trauma that Patterico suffered, but I guess the Erickson household is on somebody’s radar.

Luckily it was two sheriffs deputies who knew me and I had already, last week, advised the Sheriff’s Department to be on the look out for something like this.

To be honest, I look at this as a badge of honor that we are all successfully shedding light and disinfectant on the cretins.

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) May 28, 2012

Haters gonna hate:

https://twitter.com/D_R_Bastiches/status/206924104278872064

https://twitter.com/DrTesla33/status/206923243003723776

One immediate question now is: Will CNN finally cover this ongoing nightmare?

Update: They SWATted a @CNN contributor? Now that will make the story die… http://t.co/AswZa0hp a #BrettKimberlin production?

— Aaron Worthing (@AaronWorthing) May 28, 2012

@CNN should cover the story right? RT @EWErickson: SWATting the Ericksons http://t.co/blvwqw9B

— Lee Doren (@LDoren) May 28, 2012

Stay tuned. Stay vigilant.

***

A recal email from Aaron Walker:

First I reported how Brett Kimberlin tried to frame me for a crime. You can read about it, here. It is a long post, but extremely well-documented.

Second, Robert Stacy McCain reported on how he had to abandon his house due to intimidation by Kimberlin.

Then Patrick Frey told you about how someone had “swatted” him, where person calls up the police and makes a false claim that a serious crime had been committed send the police to his house, guns drawn. This is not a prank; he could have been killed. You can read about that and the powerful evidence that former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert committed this crime, here.

And now someone has done the same to Kimberlin critic Erik Erickson.

What we are watching, folks, is the attempt to suppress freedom of speech happening in real time. Alert the media.

*** Previous:

Kimberlin v. Walker scheduled for Tuesday hearing

‘I could have been killed for blogging’: Conservatives highlight chilling political terrorism on ‘Blog About Brett Kimberlin Day’

Action alert: Ask Barbra Streisand to answer for funding the work of political terrorist Brett Kimberlin

Media malpractice: Even with #BrettKimberlin trending, lapdog media remains silent

Solidarity: Real truth to power on ‘blog about Brett Kimberlin’ day

Markos Moulitsas gets schooled on ‘nobody’ political terrorist Brett Kimberlin

Unconfirmed report: State Department partnering with political terrorist and bomber Brett Kimberlin?

Political terrorist Brett Kimberlin’s organization reporting ‘inappropriate’ comments to law enforcement

Read more: http://twitchy.com/2012/05/27/after-brett-kimberlin-blogburst-redstate-bloggercnn-contributor-erick-erickson-and-family-victims-of-swatting-will-cnn-cover-the-story/

[rockymountainwriter]

Amazon: Literary Suicide or Genius of the Future

Like Walmart, Amazon is a global superstore.  It not only publishes books, it sells books, technology, videos, has its own literary magazine, and its own production studio. Amazon’s founder and chief executive, Jeff Bezos, a graduate of Princeton, also owns a major newspaper, The Washington Post. Amazon is turning or has turned the publishing industry upside down and they are feeling the effects.  Bowker reports that over one million (1,052,803) books were published in the U.S. in 2009, which is more than triple the number of books published four years earlier (2005) in the U.S. (April 14, 2010 Bowker Report). More than two thirds of these books are self-published books, reprints of public domain works, and other print-on-demand books, which is where most of the growth in recent years has taken place. Bezos told Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes, “Amazon is not happening to bookselling. The future is happening to bookselling.” (Packer 17).

One traditional publisher, Dennis Johnson, co-owner of Melville House out of Brooklyn and one of the few publishers willing to criticize Amazon publicly, says the mega giant has turned into the bully of the publishing world.  When Johnson’s distributor was approached by two Amazon employees, he described the dinner meeting “like dinner with the Godfather.” Refusing to budge on making a payment to Amazon for carrying their books, (in 1999, Amazon received $3,621,250 in co-op fees) Johnson contacted Publishers Weekly, who ran their story about the strong arm of Amazon.  The next day, the “buy” button on all their titles had been deleted.  Because Amazon accounted for eight percent of their sales, Melville House caved to the pressure and paid the ransom.  Though major publishing houses believe Amazon has monopolized the digital works of fiction and non-fiction genres by selling books for just a few dollars, unknown authors and readers who live hundreds of miles from any bookstores, disagree.

History of Amazon

In 1994, Amazon started off as a bookstore, an internet bookstore.  Jeff Bezo’s, a Princeton graduate, quit his job at a Manhattan hedge fund and moved to Seattle to cash in on the “exponential growth of the early commercial Internet” (Packer 2).  In Chicago in 1995 Bezos manned an Amazon booth “at the annual conclave of the publishing industry”, called BookExpo America with a sign that read “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore”.  When approached by Rainy Day Books owner, Doeren, he asked “where is this bookstore?” Bezos replied “cyberspace”.   When Bezos told Doeren his business plan, by gathering data on affluent, educated shoppers then selling books close to cost in order to increase sales volume, Doeren went back and told his business partner “I just met the world’s biggest snake-oil salesman.  It’s going to be really bad for books.” (Packer 3).

By 2010, Amazon controlled ninety per cent of the market in digital books (Packer 10).  One literary agent, Andrew Wylie, was worried Amazon had no competition.  E-Book prices were being slashed to a mere dollar ninety-nine or ninety nine cents and publishers feared it would not be long before they had to slash the cover prices of all their titles. Publishers wanted control back and along came Apple.  Apple wanted a deal with each of the big six publishing houses, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, and Simon and Schuster.  All but one, Random House, took the Apple deal and though the deal was worse from Apple than Amazon. “Apple’s terms included the provision that it could match the price of any rival” (Packer Cheap Words 12).  It gave publishers control over pricing and a way to challenge Amazon’s grip on the market.  However, in April of 2012, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint against Apple and the big publishers on conspiracy to fix prices after Attorney Steve Berman filed a class action suit.  Because Berman was an avid reader of e-Books, he discovered a number of different publishers had increased their book prices from $9.99 to $13.99.  After some investigation, Berman decided it was exactly what the publishers were trying to do, fix prices.  “The federal complaint was a shock and an embarrassment to the publishing community” (Gessen “The War of the Words” Vanity Fair 7).  Apple and the big publishers were trying to squash a monopolist-in-the-wings, Amazon, and the government stepped in and stopped them.  It was catastrophic for the publishers who had to pay out millions in damages to rid themselves of the class action suits (Gessen “The War of the Words” Vanity Fair 7).

Despite all this drama, behind the scenes, publishers were making money, just like Bezos said they would.  Print book sales may have been down, but e-Book sales were up.  With the e-Books there were no manufacturing costs, no warehousing costs, not shipping costs, no returns, and so even at a lower price, their profit margins were higher.  For instance, the retail price of a hardcover book of $27.99 would net profit to the publisher at $5.67, a profit margin of 41%.  An eBook selling for $14.99 retail will profit the publisher $7.87, a profit margin of 75%, therefore, publishers are making more money on e-Books than hardcover books due to the low cost of publishing.

In 2014, a war between Hachette, book publisher for writers such as James Patterson, Malcom Gladwell and Douglas Preston, and Amazon began.  The business dispute grew into a high stakes one, authors got involved because it was their bread and butter.  They organized a group called Authors United and circulated a petition that gathered more than 900 signature.  It called for Amazon to put an end to the sanctioning of books” (Gessen “The War of the Words” Vanity Fair 8).  In a nutshell, the Amazon-Hachette dispute mirrored a culture war which had been playing out since the 1960s in America.

Authors United was able to obtain 900 signatures to put an end to Amazon’s sanctioning of books. However, writers who had self-published with Amazon, some who had made a good living out of doing so, came to the defense of Amazon.  They were tired of New York publishing making the decisions of what stories people were allowed to read.  They were tired of the high prices of books, and they were tired of the little profits made on each book, with the majority of profits going to the publishers.  So they fought back.  They made it known that Amazon wasn’t the evil enterprise these authors purported Amazon to be.  They explained it was the natural and inevitable transition to online book sales.  They said the same transition happened to other forms of entertainment, they blamed the publishers for “resisting technology” (Gessen “The War of the Words” Vanity Fair 8).  These same publishers could have done the same thing that Amazon did, but they didn’t, they choose to fear the future and fight to protect the status quo (Gessen “The War of the Words” Vanity Fair 8).  Their petition on Change.org obtained more than 8,000 signatures.

The dispute with Amazon and Hachette ended in November of 2014 with both parties seemingly happy with the results.  The dispute was mainly over pricing and how much royalties an author could expect on sales of e-Books.  Hachette sent a letter out to its authors informing them their royalty payments would not decrease and they were given the right to decided how much to charge for their eBooks on Kindle.  Amazon in turn would provide incentives for Hachette to have lower e-Book prices, however the details of their deal remains unclear.  According to Sarah Kahn, an industry analyst at the market researcher IBISWorld, said the agreement shows that “large publishers have some kind of impact to negotiate with Amazon” (Stenovec 1).

Amazon’s self-contained publishing world has its advantages and disadvantages to the author who decides to publish with them.  First off, the majority of book sales, 20%, are through its e-Books, on the Kindle platform or on Kindle Direct.  The books are never seen in a book store, most won’t carry Amazon titles because they believe they are being undercut by Amazon and that they are out to destroy them (Shapiro 2).  Authors are also sacrificing the traditional New York based literary world as well as some amount of recognition in the world at large (Shapiro 2).  Amazon promotes the titles on its website and the Kindle, and uses one vendor, Amazon.  This is definitely not a path to riches for the author.  In fact, some find themselves working for almost nothing.  Aaron Shepard, an author of three “how to” books on Kindle publishing says he has told his readers to deliver the message, “The party’s over”.

One of the advantages of self-publishing with Amazon would be the low production costs, through their CreateSpace program.  With Kindle Direct, authors don’t pay any upfront cost to Amazon, they take a cut of 30 percent once the book starts making money.  This leaves a 70 percent royalty payment to the author much higher than the 10-15 percent from traditional publishers.  One self-publishing author has made upward of $450,000 a year.  According to an article in Forbes, a UK-based author, Mark Dawson, who writes thrillers and crime novels, has sold 300,000 copies of his thriller series about a British assassin named John Milton netting him a six figure total.

Future Issues

Around eighty percent of newly released books originate from self-publishing or small presses and this figure has been increasing yearly (Carolan & Evain 285). In order to establish the positioning of self-publishing’s future development, one must look at current industry practices. By profiling self-published authors, Carolan and Evain, who wrote a journal article “Self-Publishing: Opportunities and Threats in a New Age of Mass Culture” (2013), broke these profiles down into three categories: the big fish in the big pond, the big fish in the small pond, and the small fish in the big pond.  The author’s example they used for “the big fish in the big pond” was John Grisham.  Prior to becoming a bestselling author of legal thrillers, Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill,was rejected by dozens of publishers and agents until a small New York publishing house, The Wynwood Press, decided to release an initial run of five thousand copies.  Because Grisham had been studying the market, he knew his book would not obtain the success he was looking due to the limited marketing potential of the small independent press.  He sold his law firm, purchased one thousand copies of his book and went on a three month book tour cross state.  He ultimately sold every copy.  He then set out to produce his second novel, The Firm, which attracted Hollywood into making a major film, and in turn was then adopted by a major publishing house.  Though Grisham is often mistaken as a self-published author, he remains heavily involved in the promotion of his work and yet is also engaged with traditional publishers.

“The big fish in a small pond” category corresponds to self-published authors who have managed to “establish their authority as author-entrepreneurs in niche markets” (Carolan & Evain 288).  This is the perfect example of author James Redfield and The Celestine Prophecy. Redfield sold almost one hundred thousand copies of his philosophical dissertation on new age spirituality before Warner Books picked him up.  Niche markets are successful as self-published books because “these specialty books do not appeal to large-scale publishers and it is far easier to market a book to a specific audience” (Yakawicz 2010).  He has since sold over a million copies and the book is translated in thirty-four different languages.  Another reason for his huge success was the timing of his book.  The author had a great deal of knowledge in both his subject and his readership and the small interconnected communities used word of mouth to help develop his product (Carolan & Evain 288).

“The small fish in the big pond” concept deals with the self-published books that are released through Print-On-Demand which sells about an average of seventy five copies of any given book (Carolan & Evain 288).  The competition in this market is fierce.  Most self-published authors keep a low profile so it is important for them to engage with their readers either electronically or physically.  It’s important in this day and age for the authors to let readers know why they should invest their time in getting to know them. Blogging and social media networking websites are ways for authors to build their online communities and interact with their readers.

Diversification of Publishing

With the e-Book renewing the love of reading for many people, it has also helped the book industry all the way around.  People are checking out books at the library and they are still buying hard copies via the internet.  With the diversity offered to the public, it seems the modern publishing environment has been able to co-exist and complement each other’s activities.  Gabriel Zaid explains it beautifully:

The technologies that lower the threshold for investment and the cost of the product respond to the need of a better educated population to read and express itself in an ongoing conversation in which diverse subjects and interests multiply.  By rooting themselves in this economic reality, some forms of conversation that actually favor diversity may thrive.  But those that impoverish conversation instead of enriching it will encounter difficulties inherent in the very nature of books.

Conclusion

More than two thirds of the over one million books published each year are self-published books, reprints of public domain works, or other print-on-demand books.  All of this growth has come in the name of Amazon, the global superstore.  And even though in the beginning, traditional publishers felt Amazon was monopolizing the digital works of fiction and non-fiction genres, the publisher’s profit margins increased from 41% to 75%.  With 80% of newly released books originating from self-publishing or small presses, it’s no wonder this is the way of the future.  It has opened up diversity in the market place and has allowed both the traditional publishers and the e-Book publishers to find a way to co-exist in the market.  After all, enriching people’s lives will help a society thrive in an ever changing market place.  Amazon opened the doors to the future, and the future is here to stay.

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