More and more publishers are now buying stories online. It's not because the authors decided to send their manuscripts to them. They were found because of their popularity.
To name a few web-published stories, Carrier of the Mark was bought by HarperTeen from Inkpop, Throne of Glass was also bought by Bloomsbury from Fictionpress, Life's a Witch was bought by Simon & Schuster from Wattpad, and the most recent one, Dinner with a Vampire was bought by Harper Voyager from Wattpad.
For the self-published, Switched was bought by St. Martin's Griffin and On the Island was bought by Penguin.
Why is this happening? Why are publishers of the Big-Six accepting--gasp!--unagented manuscripts?
Well, ever since Kindles, Nooks, and other ereaders rocked the world with their debut, people have been switching to the cheaper, convenient ebooks. These devices have made things much easier for the indie and self-published authors (along with sites such as Inkpop, etc). Most do not have the money to print their books, nor have them allowed in a big-time bookseller. With online booksellers, it's a different story since there is not much restriction in their guidelines, and no stock limit to the amount of titles an online bookseller can have.
In other words, web, indie, and self-publishers now have a fighting chance to be a bestseller.
As much as I hate to admit it, publishing is a business. Publishers are companies. At the end of the day, they care about what will sell, what will give them profit. So I understand why they thought of buying stories that already have huge platforms and reputations, rather than take a change on something that might be good.
What do you think of publishers buying web, indie and self-published stories?
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