Anyone can be an author

Self-publishing continues to attract aspiring writers, who dream of achieving the meteoric rise of John Locke or EL James. — Getty/AFP

Many among us have toyed with the idea of becoming a published author. Until recently, however, you had to be accepted by a publishing house. But now you can self-publish on a digital platform, and many people are taking the plunge, upending the traditional model. Could self-publishing, a kind of disintermediation, cutting out the middleman in the field of literature, lead to the emergence of new authors, new styles, with more diverse subjects?

We all have an aspiring novelist in our circle, who is often to be found scribbling a few lines in a little notebook, in the hope of turning out the next winner of the Prix Goncourt. If you think that none of your loved ones secretly harbour this ambition, you may not know them all that well. According to a study by Librinova and LIRE, more than half of French people would like to write a book, or have already done so. This suggests that more than five million unpublished manuscripts may be tucked away in drawers throughout the nation. A situation that might change with the advent of self-publishing.