Mutiny! – Controlling the means of Production

Kester Brewin has been blogging a lot about piracy (mostly as a kind of way of asking questions about economics and power and culture). It's very interesting, then, to see that he's going to publish in the parate spirit. That is, he's going to self-publish in DRM-free e-format and offer a ppb as an option or a hand-crafted hardback. Nice.
Kester Brewin  Mutiny! [1] – Controlling the means of Production:
Mutiny! is going to be self-published, and that’s a step that I’ve taken deliberately. I’ve spoken to publishers too, but I’ve decided to go down this route, and I’m really excited about it

I am too. I think that if you're not mass market novelist, there is decreasing reason to go via normal publishing routes; publishers no longer can be relied on to connect writer with audience and to make the best financial deal for the author. Disintermediation makes sense unless you don't want to bother with chunks of the process and are happy for someone to take a big chunk of the profits. About the only thing that this seems to make sense for is the marketting. But then, look at how many books get remaindered despite get a marketting deal as good as many of those that sell. Being picked up by a publisher is no guarantee of sales. So with the outlay on an e-book being so small, what do you need publishers for? Say you made  90p on each sale of your paperback being sold at six quid. Well, you could sell your ebook directly for 4 quid and make most of that back. Offer a print-on-demand option for those who prefer a paper book and you're still doing well. The real trick is to be able to get connected with your potential audience. And for many people writing more 'niche' books, you probably already have that. So good on you Kester.