Lately, on the writing blogs I read, a number of posts have dealt with the business side of writing. Literary agent Chip MacGregor has had several posts lately about treating writing as a business, and how to generate income streams. His focus so far (I don’t think he’s finished with the topic) has been on things other than books. He’s talked about how a writer can be proactive with seeking and even creating writing gigs that generate income with writing that is shorter than book length. He gives hints of how to beat the bushes and make a living off writing. In other words, he’s talking to someone who isn’t tied to a day job while chasing the writing dream.

Rachelle Gardner, also a literary agent, has addressed business issues of late. Both she and MacGregor are thinking of the author published with a “traditional publisher”, not self-publishing.

The Passive Guy, at his Passive Voice blog, frequently deals with writing business issues, especially from the legal sense. He’s normally more focused on independent authors, although yesterday he had a summary of a post on “The Daily Beast” blog post where author Jodi Picoult gave this advice to new authors: “Do not self-publish.”

Yesterday Dean Wesley Smith published a post on streams of writing income, but focused more . He divided the author’s outlook into short-term and long-term. In the latter he put many, many streams of income, thinking mostly of books. On the short-term chart he showed only three revenue streams, all related to e-book self-publishing.

So what’s writer to do? Those who are most invested in the traditional publishing industry say don’t self-publish. The long-term approach demands that you submit, submit, submit to traditional publishers, and gather a basketful of rejections. Picoult says she had over 100 on her first novel. Those who have turned away from traditional publishing say the long-term approach is to write, write, write. Forget about submitting (which takes a lot of time to research and do). Write as many works as you can as quickly as you can. Polish them to some minimum level of quality that a reader demands, and get them out there for purchase. Over the long-term these will generate income.

It seems that both of these camps are talking from a basis of success. Picoult has been on the bestseller lists for a long time, even hitting number 1. She graduated college in 1987, and her debut novel was published in 1992. That’s a relatively short time to accumulate over a hundred rejections, finally have an acceptance, and go through the year-long (or longer) process of manuscript submission, editing, line editing, typesetting, printing, warehousing, distributing, and the beginning of actual sales.

While I don’t fully discount Picoult’s advice, I take note that she broke into traditional publishing over 20 years ago (her acceptance must have been in 1990 or 1991). The industry has changes since then. Drastically changed. The barriers to entry are so much higher than when Picoult broke through. The gate keepers have increased in number, and the gates are smaller. The literary agents are mainly invested in the traditional publishing industry, which is where they make their money.

Smith and Joe Konrath push the long view of e-self-publishing. They are invested in that. They are also concerned with a writer making a decent wage from their words. They aren’t looking to coach a writer into producing the next bestseller. And they realize a significant amount of luck enters in, whether you self-publish or are traditionally published.

I’m comfortable in my decision to e-self-publish, and have book-length works also available in paper. Would I still consider a deal with a traditional publisher if one fell in my lap? Probably, but I’m not taking time away from writing to seek one.