While some say the rise of the self-publishing model is damaging the industry, others feel it gives authors a fairer dealThe complaint that there are too many books is not a new one. “My son, be warned by them: of making many books there is no end,” reads one line in Ecclesiastes, written at least 2,000 years before the invention of the printing press.Now the bestselling author Bill Bryson has added his voice to the millennia-old chorus. There are 200,000 books published annually in the UK alone, “more books than you could possibly read,” the writer of Notes from a Small Island told the Times. He is not sure that the growth in self-publishing, in particular, is “a healthy development”. He said he gets sent “a lot of self-published books, and most of the time it is just some anonymous person’s life, and it is of no interest.” Continue reading...
The article explores the debate of whether too many books are published, noting a long-standing complaint about overproduction. While self-publishing has exploded, with authors finding success and significant income, traditional publishers are also seen as contributing to the problem by under-investing in many of the books they release.
