5 ms·

I have a friend who's a fairly popular eBook author with 10+ books to his name. We made a deal where I handle all the accounting and grunt work including dealin

by keltex 14y ago

I have a friend who's a fairly popular eBook author with 10+ books to his name. We made a deal where I handle all the accounting and grunt work including dealing with audio books, layout people, cover designers etc. He deals directly with the editors and does the marketing himself. He also pays out of pocket for all expenses: me (I get a % of net), editors, designers, advertising. We can do everything ourselves online: Amazon KDP for ebooks, Smashwords for eBooks on non-amazon platforms (Nook, Apple), CreateSpace (Amazon owned) for paperbacks and ACX (Amazon owned) for audio books on audible. The only thing we don't have is distribution in regular bookstores like those in airports. But there are now authors who are cutting deals with publishers where they keep the eBook rights and sell the print rights. There was a recent article in the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324678604578340752088305668.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732467860457834...) about this. It's a new hybrid deal that's really the best of both worlds. Because Amazon pays 70% royalties on the books he sells and with all expenses included, his net margin on eBooks is in the 45-50% range. I doubt Charles Stross is getting those kinds of margins through his publisher. Not saying this is the path Stross should take, just that there are ways to achieve what he wants (focus on writing) without leaving as much money on the table.

triplesec 14y ago
This is brilliant! Sort of fleshing out through experience what I was trying to say in my post what he might be able to do. What would you say to people trying to emulate something like your model: where would we get good ideas about figures, expected sales, marketing etc. How did you learn?
jseliger 14y ago
>We made a deal where I handle all the accounting and grunt work including dealing with audio books, layout people, cover designers etc. Who do you hire for layout, cover design, and line and copy editing? If you're not willing to share publicly, drop me a line at seligerj [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
runevault 14y ago
One thing that's interesting is, at least some reasonably successful authors already hire someone to help them deal with various issues. I know Brandon Sanderson has an aid who helps with pre-hand off edits along with any number of other tasks. Mind you, a lot of authors who go primarily/totally traditional can't afford someone for that, but it DOES happen even for the old route. I expect this sort of thing will become more common, and could even see people having a business where they do this sort of work you're talking about for multiple clients (not a lot, maybe 2-3). Possibly even teams like dev consulting companies who keep multiple people trained in the work that work together as needed to deal with clients.
- keltex 14y ago
  I do think there's an opportunity here. I think your market is authors who are already successfully publishing via the traditional route (like Charles) that you can persuade they will make more money via a hybrid route. It's a simple matter as running the numbers.
  - runevault 14y ago
    Also indies who've done reasonably well but are starting to feel buried under all the non-writing work. Even if you already have your own pipeline of people for covers/etc, having someone else to help manage those things and keep the things that don't require author input off his/her plate is still a damned valuable service.

by keltex 14y ago

triplesec 14y ago

This is brilliant! Sort of fleshing out through experience what I was trying to say in my post what he might be able to do. What would you say to people trying to emulate something like your model: where would we get good ideas about figures, expected sales, marketing etc. How did you learn?

jseliger 14y ago

>We made a deal where I handle all the accounting and grunt work including dealing with audio books, layout people, cover designers etc. Who do you hire for layout, cover design, and line and copy editing? If you're not willing to share publicly, drop me a line at seligerj [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

runevault 14y ago

One thing that's interesting is, at least some reasonably successful authors already hire someone to help them deal with various issues. I know Brandon Sanderson has an aid who helps with pre-hand off edits along with any number of other tasks. Mind you, a lot of authors who go primarily/totally traditional can't afford someone for that, but it DOES happen even for the old route. I expect this sort of thing will become more common, and could even see people having a business where they do this sort of work you're talking about for multiple clients (not a lot, maybe 2-3). Possibly even teams like dev consulting companies who keep multiple people trained in the work that work together as needed to deal with clients.

keltex 14y ago
I do think there's an opportunity here. I think your market is authors who are already successfully publishing via the traditional route (like Charles) that you can persuade they will make more money via a hybrid route. It's a simple matter as running the numbers.
- runevault 14y ago
  Also indies who've done reasonably well but are starting to feel buried under all the non-writing work. Even if you already have your own pipeline of people for covers/etc, having someone else to help manage those things and keep the things that don't require author input off his/her plate is still a damned valuable service.