4 ms·

Reading an article in the Guardian on a couple of the breakout successes of self publishing, it's interesting to see that frequently they move over to tradition

Reading an article in the Guardian on a couple of the breakout successes of self publishing, it's interesting to see that frequently they move over to traditional publishers once they're known. A friend who is a writer swears blind that his editor make his books massively, massively better as well as doing (along with the rest of the staff at the publishers) a whole bunch of stuff he has no interest in and is no good at. Yes you can get those services elsewhere but how many authors are going to pay an editor a significant amount up front on the off chance their book sells? It doesn't always apply - I can see tech books, particularly those written by several people working together, don't rely on editors in the same way - but I think Jeff is generalising from his experience in a very specific field. I have no evidence of it but it feels to me that publishers get caught up in the whole middlemen are evil, largely derived from record companies and movie studios but publishers, at least not the ones I've spoken to are generally more passionate about what they do, more genuine and authors have far more freedom to move (there are no $100m costs to get a book written) which helps keep them honest.

gizzlon 14y ago
Maybe, but how do you explain the example he gives? Making 1,8$ pr books seems low. You'll have to sell a lot of books to make a living.. Edit: That might not be the publishers fault though.. Anyone know how the $29.54 breaks down? How much does amazone take for example?
- nicholassmith 14y ago
  Well partly it's the accounting. Making a book is actually quite expensive compared to making other things, there's the costs of proof reading, the costs of paper stock, binding, artwork, distribution (books are heavy compared to CD's and much bigger). All of these things are real, actual costs. Then there's the RRP, most of the time this is a big chunk higher than the company pays for the book, so lets say the margin is ridiculous and it's 50%, so on a £20.00 book the publisher is getting £10.00 from the sale, then the costs of the book come out of it from there. And yes, writers have to sell a lot of books to make a living. I can imagine a lot of fairly well known writers probably make comparatively little compared to say, a software developer.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    > And yes, writers have to sell a lot of books to make a living. I can imagine a lot of fairly well known writers probably make comparatively little compared to say, a software developer. It's no co-incidence that you'll often find writers penning newspaper columns or appearing as talking heads on TV shows and the like - it's regular money which supplements the irregular and not massive income they get from writing.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  As I say, I think much of the issue here is that he's generalising based on tech books which have higher costs (they're bigger, cost more to print, store and ship), sell in smaller volumes and go out of date faster (leading to far higher numbers of returns). Full breakdown here but the publisher is basically getting about 50% of the list price so your $30 is already down to $15 by the time it gets there: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_the_costs_of_publishing_a_book_break_down.html http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_the_costs_of_publishing_... He's probably right that tech books are broken but I think it's important to distinguish between technical books and other books which don't share the same model.
tomjen3 14y ago
I imagine that once you were famous, you would be paid a lot more to sign up. For example I doubt R.R Martin has any problems getting a great deal, if he ever wants another publisher for a new series after he is done with game of thrones.

gizzlon 14y ago

Maybe, but how do you explain the example he gives? Making 1,8$ pr books seems low. You'll have to sell a lot of books to make a living.. Edit: That might not be the publishers fault though.. Anyone know how the $29.54 breaks down? How much does amazone take for example?

nicholassmith 14y ago
Well partly it's the accounting. Making a book is actually quite expensive compared to making other things, there's the costs of proof reading, the costs of paper stock, binding, artwork, distribution (books are heavy compared to CD's and much bigger). All of these things are real, actual costs. Then there's the RRP, most of the time this is a big chunk higher than the company pays for the book, so lets say the margin is ridiculous and it's 50%, so on a £20.00 book the publisher is getting £10.00 from the sale, then the costs of the book come out of it from there. And yes, writers have to sell a lot of books to make a living. I can imagine a lot of fairly well known writers probably make comparatively little compared to say, a software developer.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  > And yes, writers have to sell a lot of books to make a living. I can imagine a lot of fairly well known writers probably make comparatively little compared to say, a software developer. It's no co-incidence that you'll often find writers penning newspaper columns or appearing as talking heads on TV shows and the like - it's regular money which supplements the irregular and not massive income they get from writing.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
As I say, I think much of the issue here is that he's generalising based on tech books which have higher costs (they're bigger, cost more to print, store and ship), sell in smaller volumes and go out of date faster (leading to far higher numbers of returns). Full breakdown here but the publisher is basically getting about 50% of the list price so your $30 is already down to $15 by the time it gets there: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_the_costs_of_publishing_a_book_break_down.html http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_the_costs_of_publishing_... He's probably right that tech books are broken but I think it's important to distinguish between technical books and other books which don't share the same model.

tomjen3 14y ago

I imagine that once you were famous, you would be paid a lot more to sign up. For example I doubt R.R Martin has any problems getting a great deal, if he ever wants another publisher for a new series after he is done with game of thrones.