Scarcely a day goes by without yet another article announcing the death of 'legacy publishing' (the business I've been in for sixteen years I guess) and its replacement by digital self-publishing straight to ebook. <a href="http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html" target="_blank">Here's the latest entry</a>, a fascinating conversation between Joe Konrath, the digital evangelist, and Barry Eisler, who reveals he's taking the same path after turning down a half million dollar conventional publishing contract.

There's such a frenzy in this field at the moment that it behoves someone to pour a touch of cold water on things. Oh go on then. Let it be me. Here are a few things to consider before dissing that half million dollar deal yourself...
<ul>
	<li>First, this stuff is taking off big time in America. In case you hadn't noticed America (population 307 million) is a very big country with a very high take-up of new digital technologies. There are more potential customers  for ebooks in America than in the rest of the world put together. The UK (population 62 million) likes gadgets too but has nothing like the penetration of ereaders.  A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in America and make a tidy living. A few people can be big in self-pubbed ebooks in the UK and do... well, ok. Most self-pubbed ebooks do nothing at all, of course.</li>
	<li>If you do the self-pubbed route you lose, I assume, your conventional agent. Why would they continue to represent someone who's shifting the lion's share of their work outside the field in which an agent works? If you lose your agent you lose...</li>
	<li>Anyone pushing your books into translation (which for UK-based authors can be a very steady source of income)</li>
	<li>Anyone pushing you for audio, TV and movie deals</li>
	<li>Anyone giving you good feedback and advice about what's going on in the industry, how your books are being received, what new opportunities might come along.</li>
	<li>Ebooks may be selling like crazy but print books are still very popular too. If you go self-pubbed into digital it's hard to see a meaningful way in which you can take part in that game any more. Retailers won't deal with self-pubbed titles. You won't be in airports. You won't be in the High Street.</li>
	<li>You won't be in libraries either, which for European authors means you lose any income from public lending right and other copyright schemes (which, based on popularity, can bring in up to £8,000 or more each year in the UK).</li>
	<li>Your margins are likely to become very slim indeed, very quickly. Best-selling titles on Kindle tend to be there largely through price. It's one thing to price back list titles, that have no need of further work, at 99p or 99 cents (I do that myself). But if you start pricing original work at that level you're be receiving a mere thirty off pence or cents per sales. The current legal minimum adult wage in the UK is £232 per week. You are going to have to sell 662 99p books each and every</li>
</ul>