And Then the Numbers Flowed Like Manna from Heaven

On Monday, I talked about the recent trashing of indie publishing by some trad published writers.

Well, on Sunday, Jim Hines, a SFF writer I admire, jumped into the fray. The religious mockery he used made me laugh, and he really tried to be neutral in the main post. Unfortunately, his attitude in comments was rather telling. Especially when he jumped on J.R. Tomlin for not being able to produce a study on indie earnings that was not anecdotal, but didn't say a word to Sylvia McIvers for stating that indies spent all their time doing their own shipping. (Needless to say, my respect for Jim dropped a bit for the uneven moderation of his blog.)

Then yesterday, lo, behold, a savior appeared. Nope, not Jesus of Nazareth. Hugh Howey.

Hugh Howey, his mysterious angel, and The Numbers.

The Numbers that showed the Transformation of the Publishing Universe was not only well underway, but past the Point of No Return.

People got so ecstatic that they crashed the server in their reverence. The raw data is available for those who like the crunchiness of fresh numbers.

Joe Konrath, who foretold the revelation by Hugh and his angel years before, immediately posted the report on his website, so that the faithful flock (or herd if you're The Donald) may continue gaze upon The Numbers and be redeemed.

There are already those who claim the Great Revelation is based on heathen propaganda. Absolute Write shut down the thread about The Numbers within three hours because the OP didn't back up her reasoning for the post. (Because the OP was working that day job that everyone says not to give up, maybe?) And the AW moderator cried out in horror, "Numbers? You expect poor dumb writers to understand numbers?"

And the Wave of Knowledge swept across the countryside and the sacred cattle moo'd...

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All religious snarking aside, comments are welcome. But y'all know the rules here: play nice, play fair, no name-calling. And this is my blog so I'm the final arbiter. If you can't handle that, go cry somewhere else.

Are the breakdowns perfect? No, but already Hugh and his partner are miles ahead of the Digital Book World/Writers Digest poll because 100% of the writers in Hugh's survey are published.