The NY Times has reported that David Mamet will be self-publishing his next play, with facilitation from his agent. This is a big deal because it’s one of the first times a big-name literary author is bypassing the traditional publishing model.
I’ve previously referenced the squirrelly ethical dilemma faced by agents who want to facilitate their clients in self-publishing. It seems the agent has a strong motivation to choose the easiest, most profitable route — which is a challenge as well for home sellers dealing with a real estate agents.
But another reason the David Mamet news is interesting is because it raises an entirely different question: Is he really self-publishing?
I met with a software marketing guy recently, and in casual conversation he mentioned that the publishing and recording industries face a similar challenge. There’s kind of a bow-tie effect, where on one side you have an array of writers (or musicians), and on the other side you have an array of consumers. In the middle you have a knot, which represents the publisher (or the record label).
But in publishing, that knot is not just a publishing house. This is the standard model for publishing: Author -> Literary Agent -> Publisher (including various levels of editing, as well as marketing) -> Distributors -> Retailers -> Consumers. That’s a lot of steps in the knot between authors and readers.
“Self-publishing” seems to indicate an author takes on the lion’s share of that work. But that’s misleading, I think. Some authors do create a website and handle their own distribution and marketing and everything else. But David Mamet still has his agent, distributors, and retailers. He also has a name-brand, which is a significant head-start in the marketing.
I don’t know if he’s planning to hire a freelance editor or, at least, copyeditor, but it seems like he’s really just cut out the name-brand publisher on the spine of his book. Much of that knot still exists. Maybe the discussion over “self”-publishing needs to be reframed in terms of this knot and who is doing what.
