the quality varies greatly. You don’t get to choose the paperback or hardcover or price, or most other decisions. DISTRIBUTION They do everything. MARKETING Usually, the publisher offers very little marketing. More often than not, they can inhibit marketing (explained below). They generally expect the author to do the majority of the marketing. Why is this? The economics of the industry is used to be based around distribu- tion. Pre-internet, being in Borders and Barnes & Noble was a big part of what sold books. People used to go to bookstores to decide what to buy. When distribution was king, traditional publishers were king. Now of course that’s not true anymore. Because of the internet and all the platforms on the internet (Facebook, Instagram, email, etc.), we build relationships with authors and ideas outside of the bookstore. Then we go to the bookstore (or more likely Amazon or Audible) to buy the copy. Long story short, big publishers never had a relationship with the end customer (the reader). They could have built this at any time, but they decided not to. And they continue to decide not to, because of legacy issues. PRESTIGE AND PERCEPTION Usually the highest of the three models, but fading in prestige, and not relevant to readers. 316 · ThE SCriBE METhOD