Welcome to the November installment of the Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour.  Have you given any thought to the state of the publishing industry?  If you’re a writer, you probably have.  If you’re a reader or just stopping in at the blog for other reasons, maybe you haven’t.

The publishing industry is undergoing a massive upheaval in how business is accomplished.  There is still a traditional segment of publishing — publishing houses buying from agents and working for revisions, then all the pre-publication process of approving the manuscript, typesetting it, copy-editing, deciding on a cover, marketing, distribution, and probably a million details I’m missing to get a paper book — either paperback, hard cover, or trade — to the masses.

More and more, there are smaller presses or independent presses who will do smaller print runs or print on demand.  People are becoming their own publisher.  Some more traditional publishers have added an e-book arm.  Some of those houses publish ebooks first, and if those sell well, they’ll publish a traditional version of the book.

There are a plethora of opportunities for authors available today.  It’s an exciting time in the industry, but it’s also a stressful time.  The opportunities for authors are pretty broad, but if they don’t learn the ins and outs of each option, they can burn some bridges, and, like any other time in publishing, that can cause problems.

With each opportunity for success, there’s an equal opportunity for failure. But without the opportunity to fail big, there is no opportunity for great success.