Saturday, October 02, 2010

Long But Interesting

Recently, The Wall Street Journal ran an article called: Authors Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books. It’s long, but well worth reading. Here are some high and low points:
Priced much lower than hardcovers, many e-books generate less income for publishers. And big retailers are buying fewer titles. As a result, the publishers who nurtured generations of America's top literary-fiction writers are approving fewer book deals and signing fewer new writers….

From an e-book sale, an author makes a little more than half what he or she makes from a hardcover sale….

The Authors Guild and some literary agents are urging publishers to raise the author's share of e-books to as high as 50%, arguing that there is less overhead for a digital book. Thus far, publishers are resisting.

But the author received only a $1,000 advance, typical of the advances paid by small independents. "I can't make a living as a writer, but it feels great to have these stories out in the world," says Mr. Lea.… The smaller advance has a ripple effect. Ms. Daniels, who earns a 15% commission, used to make $11,250 on a big publisher advance of $75,000 or so. Her cut on Mr. Lea's $1,000: $150.
If you want more, link over. It’s not all bad news:
Big-name authors and novels that are considered commercial are increasingly in demand as e-book readers gravitate toward best sellers with big plots.
There are a lot of implications in this article. The big one that strikes me is one writers in the trenches already know. More so than ever before, writers have to be out in the cyberworld every day selling their books. What are your thoughts?

19 comments:

  1. Doesn't seem right somehow that, with lower production costs, authors are getting less and less share of their work. Yes, agents, editors, publisher marketing departments, all add value to producing a highly finished product, but in today's technologically geared world one wonders if it's not worth learning or sub-contracting some of these tasks out privately and self-publishing. Hmmmm. A conundrum.
    Judy

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  2. I had 2 wonderful agents of best-selling authors interested in Fleeing Famous (A SpellBound Cafe series). They both said that established authors are now being asked to participate in social media on their own time to promote themselves and that many are not happy/not willing to do this. eBooks & the internet are not responsible for the "plight" of publishers - it's the publishers refusal to change with the times, roll with the internet punches. Authors are starting to realize they can publish eBooks w/o a publisher...Amazon makes it very simple. Lawrence Block is releasing some work that has reverted back to his rights, and Seth Godin has refused to re-sign with his publisher, stating he'll do it on his own. Anne Rice is considering the possibilities also.
    Ultimately, the agents I was in negotiations with w/drew their consideration after I explained I wanted to keep my eBook rights. My family is not happy I didn't sign everything away, but I feel, in the long run, this was the right choice for my career.
    Laura "One Quirky Girl" Freed
    Co-author of Fleeing Famous

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  3. Authors have always had to "sell" their work. What was a book signing, a newspaper interview, library greets if not places to sell a book? A publisher could call it anything they wished but in the end the author was the salesman.

    Now the author has a means to do it on his own and get paid a better cut for doing so. The authors rolled with technology and the publishing houses didn't. Now publishers are scrambling to save their butts but they still don't want to make changes.

    Huge cuts to publishers can't be justified since all of the media monitors the internet and anything that grows popular on the net is picked up by the other media. Sad to say but the publishers may never catch up.

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  4. Helen - as usual you bring us the most interesting news. Disturbing but interesting. Is it a surprise to anyone that those who have been in the cat bird seat want to remain there? Not to this writer. I know that if I want to sell my books when they get published I'll have to work the social media. It is one of the reasons that I'm getting used to it now. The part of this that I find tremendously sad is that publishers want to keep everything safe - when everything goes pear-shaped they want to have the big established writers and not take chances on the new ones. This means that the quality of books published, in any mode, will decrease because there will be no impetous to back a dark horse. Too bad for readers, too bad for writers - just great for those who aren't taking chances I guess. That's why I get so darned mad when someone like Yann Martell gets offered such an astoundingly huge advance. Yuck!

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  5. Helen - as usual you bring us the most interesting news. Disturbing but interesting. Is it a surprise to anyone that those who have been in the cat bird seat want to remain there? Not to this writer. I know that if I want to sell my books when they get published I'll have to work the social media. It is one of the reasons that I'm getting used to it now. The part of this that I find tremendously sad is that publishers want to keep everything safe - when everything goes pear-shaped they want to have the big established writers and not take chances on the new ones. This means that the quality of books published, in any mode, will decrease because there will be no impetous to back a dark horse. Too bad for readers, too bad for writers - just great for those who aren't taking chances I guess. That's why I get so darned mad when someone like Yann Martell gets offered such an astoundingly huge advance. Yuck!

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  6. The industry seems like it still has a long way to go in ironing out its own wrinkles. In the meantime, there doesn't seem to be any point in resisting the internet and technology. It must be incorporated into the whole writing/book package.

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  7. As always, you bring interesting news to our attention!

    The small publishing houses that have sprung up and sell mostly ebooks are ahead of the NYC publishers with regards to royalties. Most small pubs offer much larger percentages on ebooks, precisely because there is less cost to them - and because the authors know they're expected to do their own publicity. Ellora's Cave, Cerridwen Press, and the Wild Rose Press have been doing this for years and some prolific authors make a living on ebook royalties. Ebooks continue to be a fast growing medium, and NY has been slow to catch up.

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  8. I agree that authors should be getting 50% on ebooks. I believe more newbie writers will self-publish, and mid-list (I hate that phrase) authors will go straight to e-books with new projects. The % of writers making a living is pretty dismal. I'm certain that most of us have other jobs so it's not impossible for a writer to self-publish well. I've already had a copy edit done on my wip. It needed it, it made me a better writer, and energised me. Let's say I did that 3 times for 3k, design a cover $500, all the rest $500. Presto I have an e-book. I know that I could sell 500 now for $5. I've recouped half already. If we use Joe Konrath's figures he'd do it cheaper. If I use an agent and go with a smaller niche press but keep the ebook rights I'm still looking pretty good. A small advance, less editing costs, and I believe the ebooks will sell the hardcovers. The publisher will most probably want the ebook rights, so pay me 50%.

    Patricia Stoltey has a good link about internet marketing and Nathan Bransford has also posted the link. We have to market ourselves and then let the book organically market. Hard sell doesn't work. Being authentic and interesting, and really we all are interesting, is what sells. People notice you if you're sincere.

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  9. I take it Ms. Daniels is an agent?

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  10. Thanks for sharing such an interesting article. It is amazing that the cost of an ebook should be so much less that say a hardcover and that part of the lower production costs isn't translating into more profits for the "artist". I did read somewhere though that the costs to produce ebooks were not as cheap as we all may assume, due to the time consuming costs of converting print to digital. It would be nice to hit a happy medium with the authors profit share increasing due to lower production costs and not over pricing digital books.

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  12. That's very interesting, Laura. Keep us up on how it goes for you.

    I agree, Jan. It is maddening!

    KatieO, I like that - authors making a living on their e-book royalties!

    Good points, Simon. And with more authors out on the Internet, readers can "meet" them and decide if they want to read their books.

    Agree with you, Suzanne!

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  13. Right now I'm focusing solely on viral advertising and word of mouth. I'll do book signings later this year. I'm not concerned about the big boy publishers right now, although I will start an agent search this month.

    Stephen Tremp

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  14. Of COURSE the publishers don't want to give authors 50% - ebooks are their one chance to actually make a profit.
    As print books dwindle, I wonder if agents will seek employment eleswhere? Sounds like they stand to lose the most.

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  15. I actually have a problem here. I know a forum that has thousands of my potential readers but I no longer like the philosophy of this forum. Should I still be active there, just for the sake of promoting my books? Hmm, marketing is hard!

    My Darcy Mutates…

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  16. Interesting stuff - I'm glad you're keeping me up to date! :)

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  17. Enid, you'll have to decide that, but it is hard to give up sales. But if the group really bothers you, it's also hard to give up your beliefs.

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  18. Thanks Helen. I just checked that I'm doing better than Mr. Pipkin. So I'll hang onto my belief right now.

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  19. I would like to exchange links with your site straightfromhel.blogspot.com
    Is this possible?

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