5 ms·

Traditional publishing is hugely screwed up, but I'm not sure this particular point is irrational from the publisher's point of view. If they can get the autho

by rst 16y ago

Traditional publishing is hugely screwed up, but I'm not sure this particular point is irrational from the publisher's point of view. If they can get the author to promote a book --- and it's increasingly common for them to demand that authors do exactly that --- then promotion doesn't come out of their own budget. Which raises the question: if the author's doing all the promotion to readers, what do they need the publisher for? If you're trading in physical books (which were still more than 99% of the business, in 2009[1]), there actually is a sensible answer: most physical book sales are on physical stores, so you can't sell to readers unless you first convince bookstores to sell the books. That, in turn, in the U.S. means basically convincing the buyers for the major chains that they should give you shelf space --- there are as many Borders' as all independents put together, and Barnes and Noble is way bigger than that. And the big publishers have built up personal relationships with buyers for the chains, and expertise in catering to their whims. Which can be a big deal --- see [3] for an example of a book series that's being completely repackaged because the buyers couldn't figure out to do with the first cover. So, it's not like the chains will take anything the big publishers dish out. But the conversation about what physical books get sold in physical stores is largely a conversation between their sales guys and the chain buyers. And the only way for a self-published author to break into that conversation is to somehow sell a few thousand units through some other channel. On the other hand, if you're willing to forgo the physical stores as a sales channel, which is starting to matter, well... less than it did in 2009, then it really isn't clear that the publishers have much else to offer you. Their other services (editing and packaging) do have value, but not nearly enough to account for their customary share of the gross. It may be that publishers' problem in the future is going to be justifying themselves to authors --- but I try to read up on this stuff, and I'm not sure I've seen any of them putting it that way to themselves yet. A couple of references --- Charlie Stross on ebooks [1] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-e... part of a longer series on the publishing industry from a successful author's point of view, as of a year ago: [2] http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-misconceptions-about-pu-1.html http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/04/common-m... and the blog post on promotion I footnoted above: [3] http://www.iantregillis.com/index.cfm?blog=164 http://www.iantregillis.com/index.cfm?blog=164

thalur 16y ago
"Their other services (editing and packaging) do have value, but not nearly enough to account for their customary share of the gross." And, as I understand it, these things can be done directly by the author. So a lot of what is left is the publisher takes on the risk - they pay for the editing, the artwork, the printing, the marketing etc up front.
- rst 16y ago
  That depends on the author. But for what it's worth, Joe Konrath, the self-publishing advocate who wrote the original blog post, does pay for packaging assistance, and strongly recommends that others do likewise. (The right hand sidebar of his blog has links to his cover artist --- for ebooks, if you want the Amazon "buy this" page to look like anything --- and book interior designers. Editing is more of a mixed bag, but it's a very rare, and generally very experienced author whose work doesn't need a second set of eyes.)
- joshkaufman 16y ago
  Most of the risk that publishers take on is in the form of returns: retail booksellers effectively operate on consignment, which is one of the reasons the industry is so screwed up. It's also a big reason most trade published books don't earn out the advance. Editing, layout, artwork, and editing are outsourced. If you choose to self-pub, you can hire the same people the Big 6 publishers hire, as long as you're willing to do a little legwork to discover who they are. Kindle / ebook publishing is making the layout and printing part mostly obsolete. If you know HTML and a bit of CSS, you can write the book in native Kindle format - it's pretty similar to writing a blog post. (I tested this yesterday - it's not at all difficult.) Once you're done, you can publish in ~24 hours. That beats the 18-24 month trade publishing cycle. The successful self-pub authors have a lot of books, and doing it yourself makes it much easier to publish a few books every year. You also get to keep 70% of the sale price vs. the standard 5-15% royalty for trade publishing. I'm thinking long and hard before signing another trade publishing contract, that's for sure. If I do, it's going to be with the publisher's understanding that I'm fully capable of doing this myself, which should be reflected in the advance.

by rst 16y ago

thalur 16y ago

"Their other services (editing and packaging) do have value, but not nearly enough to account for their customary share of the gross." And, as I understand it, these things can be done directly by the author. So a lot of what is left is the publisher takes on the risk - they pay for the editing, the artwork, the printing, the marketing etc up front.

rst 16y ago
That depends on the author. But for what it's worth, Joe Konrath, the self-publishing advocate who wrote the original blog post, does pay for packaging assistance, and strongly recommends that others do likewise. (The right hand sidebar of his blog has links to his cover artist --- for ebooks, if you want the Amazon "buy this" page to look like anything --- and book interior designers. Editing is more of a mixed bag, but it's a very rare, and generally very experienced author whose work doesn't need a second set of eyes.)
joshkaufman 16y ago
Most of the risk that publishers take on is in the form of returns: retail booksellers effectively operate on consignment, which is one of the reasons the industry is so screwed up. It's also a big reason most trade published books don't earn out the advance. Editing, layout, artwork, and editing are outsourced. If you choose to self-pub, you can hire the same people the Big 6 publishers hire, as long as you're willing to do a little legwork to discover who they are. Kindle / ebook publishing is making the layout and printing part mostly obsolete. If you know HTML and a bit of CSS, you can write the book in native Kindle format - it's pretty similar to writing a blog post. (I tested this yesterday - it's not at all difficult.) Once you're done, you can publish in ~24 hours. That beats the 18-24 month trade publishing cycle. The successful self-pub authors have a lot of books, and doing it yourself makes it much easier to publish a few books every year. You also get to keep 70% of the sale price vs. the standard 5-15% royalty for trade publishing. I'm thinking long and hard before signing another trade publishing contract, that's for sure. If I do, it's going to be with the publisher's understanding that I'm fully capable of doing this myself, which should be reflected in the advance.