What I got from the article in question is that, like other booms, it’s the glut of interest in both social media and self-publishing that will fade. Self-publishing’s always been around, and social media’s really as old as the Internet, but right now both are receiving exaggerated attention–everyone’s grandmother is on Facebook, and because it’s been made very easy, a lot of writers who otherwise would not are trying their hand at self-publishing.

But casual Facebook users are always wandering off, according to some studies (the same thing happened to chatrooms, vanity sites and personal journals in the ’90s and ’00s), and online advertising, which never worked very well, turns out to not work very well through social media either, much to Facebook’s dismay. The merely curious will become interested in something else; the opportunists will find it not as profitable as expected; the “I just need to spam Twitter!” believers will grumble and flail for the next magic bullet

(I think the article’s author ties social media and self-publishing together because most writing advice/blogs targeting self-published authors do–how many articles have we seen about how you MUST have a social media presence if you expect to sell even a single copy of your e-book? He didn’t come up with the idea, he just drank the Kool-aid.)

People will still self-publish, of course, but if the bubble pops as he predicts, then they’ll be the ones who don’t expect social media or self-publishing to that magic bullet.

Phillip Roth identified the schism between the Uk and USA perception of literary in an interview, where he cited the UK literary author Ian McEwan’s failure to be fully accepted in the USA as a literary author, because McEwan had “too much story and plot in his work and the American literary establishment did not see this as LITERARY”

In the UK epub scene, there are great literary authors putting out exciting and quality work just now which can of course also be classed according to genre, I think of this as a hybrid…Roz Morris, Cally Phillips, Dan Holloway, Linda Gillard, Catherine Czerkawska…great story and great quality too…

Yes, I like the idea of keeping the exciting tales, but getting a wee bit of literary bent into the character, language etc….I think James Lee Burke is a good example of the hybrid..

In film-making, Kubrick seems the best example of the hybrid between excitement and quality attention to detail/art, I did this piece here on the genre/quality spectrum:
http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/epublishing-on-kubrick-model-by-john-a.html

My own book was being sent out by my agent as “literary” one week, a “thriller” the next…in the end literary thriller was its box…

The Uk author, Linda Gillard, has told me she thinks of myself and herself as “genre busters”…which is a big problem for marketing departments at publishing houses…but I’ve found readers have no problem at all with it.

I suppose everyone wants excitement!
But not every reader finds it in the same places.

We can lament all we want about which is better, but the public votes with dollars. The public wants excitement.

The rise of Preston & Child thrillers points to the public wanting a more literary bend in those exciting tales. I see that as a good thing. I like well-drawn, deep characters in exciting situations.

Peace, Seeley James

Social media is an important piece of the puzzle. Because it’s free, too many people want to believe it’s the only piece.

After 30 years in sales and marketing, I learned two lessons: sales occur on many levels, never trust your career to just one. And — Advertising hurts to pay for but works wonders when you get it right.

Peace, Seeley

As for social media marketing, I can only go by what has happen to me in the last seven months since publishing my first novel.

Facebook has not had any real effect, I just find it useful to keep in contact with friends and family.
Twitter on the other hand has obtained me a radio interview, five reviews and interviews on various websites. I have also had purchases and better still reviews, from those purchases. Time spent on twitter is slightly irrelevant when you are new to publishing and trying to get your work recognised.

I feel that there is some slight resentment by some traditional authors and publishers to e-publishers,as can sometimes be seen by some reviews on e-books. Everything in life has changed due to the internet. We are just embracing this new and exciting way to get published and we do not all expect to become rich and famous, but it is nice to get some rewards for the time spent creating our novels.

E-books will not disappear,there is room in the market for them and traditional publishing. However, as it is now so easy to get a novel published there will be many more books to choose from, so the market share for each author could get smaller. Nothing will change by people making sweeping statements like E.M made, we all just have to embrace this new way of publishing and marketing and continue to fine tune our craft. After all, good novel’s will always sell, no matter what format they take.

Isn’t that 99,000 pounds? Or did the UK not go digital?

Is this guy really saying that 99,000 pounds can be dug out of his couch cushions, and thus is unworthy of a writer’s time?