In case you haven’t already heard the gossip, thriller writer Barry Eisler has turned down a $500,000 advance from a traditional publisher so that he can indie publish his next 2 books instead. You can read his interview with J. A. Konrath about the reasons here.
In the end, it looks like it came down to having much more money and control in self-publishing that tipped the decision for him to go indie. He’ll be able to make a heck of a lot more revenue over ten years by indie publishing than in the deal he was offered. And he’ll be able to get the first book published now instead of having to wait until Spring 2012.
Dean Wesley Smith has a thoughtful analysis on the Eisler & Konrath interview on his website. Reading Eisler’s blog post, followed by Dean’s, will give one a great crash course on money matters in publishing.
