It's a story we've seen before, and that I predict we'll see more of in the coming years. They guy's work through Tor has been well-received, though he's certainly not a well-known author. What will be nice is if he posts updates on how things go once he publishes on his own, so we can get more data from people who have shown they are good enough to be traditionally published but opt not to be. http://johndbrown.com/2013/06/news-the-man-is-going-all-indie-for-the-next-little-while/
Has he actually published any books with Tor? I looked at his book list and accompanying posts about them on his site and it appeared as though the two parties agreed to terminate his contract before publication.
His first was published through Tor. It was recently re-released through a different publisher. Here's a link to the Tor version: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UVRUS4/?tag=postedlinks04-20
Okay, thanks. I couldn't find that on Amazon and his post made it sound like it hadn't yet been published when the contract was terminated. Will be interesting to see how things go.
I hope he'll provide regular updates once it happens. Of course, he has already demonstrated a certain level of quality of books. On par, if your book is good enough for traditional publishers, I think a author could very well to do better self-publishing because of how the royalties fall out except in the situation where you would have been the next Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling, or whatever. For a guy like this, whose book got good reviews for the most part but didn't really break out of the mid-lists as far as I can tell, I think this is a reasonable gamble.
Sorry, Tor? I'm not familiar with the publisher. Are they a subsidiary of a big six? Can't say I've heard of the author or seen his books at the store. Wish him luck.
According to Publisher's Archive: SFSite calls them the largest as well. They're part of Macmillan / Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.
Before taking that to mean that self publishing is great, bear in mind that this author has demonstrated that he has the skill to attract a publisher's interest, so he's writing on a professional level, something damn few self releasers can match.
