Shannon Mayer, the author of several self-published urban fantasy novels, told Wired.com that she saw self-publishing as food for the publishing industry itself.
She thought self-publishing made authors much more engaged, as she herself spends an hour a day interacting with fans on Facebook.
Mayer also credits self-publishing with creating more productive authors – she has published 25 books in the last four years, and almost all of them have earned 4.5 or 5-star ratings. Self-published books tend to be more affordable too – Mayer’s are priced at $3 to $4, profitable enough for her to leave her job, but cheap enough to keep people buying.