2012: the year of self-publishing

In the publishing industry, 2012, we think, will be remembered as the year of self-publishing.

That’s because at a time when bookstores – mainstream and indie – are struggling to stay open and when top publishing houses are scrambling to keep footing in a rapidly changing industry, there is one bright spot in the publishing industry: self-publishing.

The latest evidence of self-publishing’s ascendency? New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, one of the country’s most influential, and often scathing, critics, chose a self-published title as one of her favorite books of the year, a landmark moment for self-publishing.

Sharing shelf space with Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, and Oliver Sacks on Kakatuni’s most prized picks of the year is Alan Sepinwall’s “The Revolution Was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers Who Changed TV Drama Forever.” Sepinwall, a TV blogger, self-published the book in November after failing to catch the interest of a traditional publisher. It’s a critical analysis of hit TV dramas like “The Sopranos,” “Mad Men,” and “24,” which, Sepinwall argues, have transformed the TV landscape and allowed TV to “step out from the shadow of the cinema.” 

In her review of the book, Kakatuni, known as one of the country’s toughest critics, called the “The Revolution” “engaging ... smart [and] observant.”

Since being picked up by the New York Times, adds the UK’s Guardian, "The Revolution Was Televised" “is currently number one on Amazon.com’s ‘television’ chart, and has picked up adulatory write-ups in the New Yorker...."

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