Who Needs Publishers? We All Do!

Philip Goldberg
Interfaith minister; author of the forthcoming book 'American Veda'
August 24, 2010 - The Huffington Post

Recently, Newsweek ran an article about the brave new world of self-publishing. Its title asked the question "Who Needs a Publisher?" Well, the short answer is, I do. The bigger answer is: we all do.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad that self-publishing has evolved from stigma to respectability. I love that worthy authors who might be overlooked by the major houses can now be read. It's great that writers with a special niche, an established following or an entrepreneurial bent can make more money self-publishing than they would in royalties. But I'm also concerned about the future of books and the larger issue of assuring the flow of reliable information.

Here are just two reasons for that concern, based on my own recent experience.

1. Advances. I just finished a nonfiction book that will be released this fall. It consumed the better part of three years -- far more than I anticipated -- and the research entailed countless hours of reading, about three hundred interviews and some travel. My advance did not come close to covering the cost of all that information-gathering, but it helped. More importantly, the fact that a major publishing house was committed enough to write even a modest check was psychologically essential. Given my personal circumstances, I simply could not have sustained the effort to complete the project without that commitment.

Advances are a time-honored tradition that serve authors the way venture capital serves entrepreneurs. They're not only a vote of confidence, they make it practically possible to move an idea from conception to fruition. It should concern all of us that the writing of research-heavy, time-consuming books might in the future be limited to authors of independent means, academics with tenure and writers with support from foundations or -- beware! -- commercial or ideological organizations with a vested interest in promoting a point of view.

2. Quality control. After authoring and coauthoring more than twenty books, I was just reminded once again of the immense value of working with professionals. At each step of the way, from inception to restructuring to rewrites to finalizing the index, editors, copy editors and proofreaders made my book a better book.

The rest of his piece at Huffington Post.