tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post1796441962716791708..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: Reselling Digital ProductsEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-43018176739420496842011-09-15T11:16:30.447-05:002011-09-15T11:16:30.447-05:00Not really disagreeing, still playing devil's ...Not really disagreeing, still playing devil's advocate ...<br /><br />Of course a publisher would <i>want</i> as many rights as it could get (print, digital, audio, foreign, etc.), but that doesn't change the fact that we read about more and more deals where the rights are split up: the publisher gets print, another publisher gets audio, and the author retains digital. Many authors even have second agents for foreign markets and film/TV.<br /><br />I'm under the impression that, like the movie industry, most books flop and a publisher survives by the few blockbusters. (And nobody can reliably predict the blockbusters. If they could, they wouldn't publish most of the flops.) In movies, we see less and less risk: more sequels, knockoffs, and remakes of successful known quantities.<br /><br />I could certainly see cases where a limited market (e.g., only print) of a proven quantity (novel sold well in ebook) might be viewed as a less risky investment by a publisher than buying all the rights to an unknown quantity which will almost certainly flop.<br /><br /><i>There will still be editing, cover art, paper costs, files to create -- you don't really think they'll skip any of this, do you?</i><br /><br />Yes, I suspect they might skip <i>some</i> of this. If the author already had a professional edit before releasing the ebook version, the publisher might be satisfied. (And might not want to upset readers if they learn the print edition is different than the ebook edition.) If the author owns the all the rights to the cover work he/she commissioned for the ebook version, I could see it being considered for a hardcopy version.<br /><br />I know a few (nonfiction) authors who've griped about getting zero editing on their recent books when the publisher had invested in editing on their earlier books. (In one case, the book was simply typeset directly from the author's manuscript with no proofreading and no galley reviews. Every typo in the manuscript made it to hardback.) So, yeah, I could see the publishers skipping some steps to reduce costs. They already do.Adriannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-56260236154136213742011-09-15T09:45:02.980-05:002011-09-15T09:45:02.980-05:00Ian, this is a situation many authors are contendi...Ian, this is a situation many authors are contending with at the moment. And congratulations on your sales record! That's a very good number of titles sold, and yes, I would take it as evidence that people like the book and word of mouth is solid. <br /><br />I'm not saying it's impossible for a publisher to want to pick up a title like this. I'm saying it's far, far more likely that they would ask for fresh content. <br /><br />By the way, let's play with numbers a little. Even if a book is priced at 99 cents, at 6000 copies, it has earned around $4100 to the author (gross). <br /><br />If it comes out in mass market and retails for, say, six bucks, at an 8% royalty rate, it would have to sell around 10,500 copies in mass market to gross the same amount to the author after the agent's cut. That's certainly attainable. You would have to sell half again as many copies at six times the price to make it, but it's do-able.<br /><br />But here's the problem. The publishers want to sell both -- 10k copies in mass market AND 6k copies in digital. They don't want to split the baby. And if you think that's unfair or wrong, think about what it would be like if the tables were reversed. What if they said, "We want to keep all proceeds from trade, but you can have digital." Would you go for that deal?<br /><br />TEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-10655477509605188032011-09-15T09:24:47.898-05:002011-09-15T09:24:47.898-05:00Ian, well, you know, decades in the publishing ind...Ian, well, you know, decades in the publishing industry has taught me one thing: If it's sensible, it probably won't happen. :)<br /><br />The big publishers have become so consolidated (there used to be a whole lot more than "5 or 6"), multinational, and, I think, out of touch. They've always done some things really well (I mean, since Victorian times), like finding new writers of great potential and championing them, and providing for more editing and promotion than made financial sense, and discovering or creating new markets. But those were the first missions to be hurled off the back of the train, and now, you know, as we say, "Maxwell Perkins was just laid off!"<br /><br />I think this is what you get when you marry cold-hearted business conglomerates to woolly-headed artistic free spirits.... the worst traits of each predominate, because they truly don't value what the other is actually good at.<br />AEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-75285112798590951222011-09-15T09:18:33.615-05:002011-09-15T09:18:33.615-05:00Okay, Adrian, that's a valid strategy, and it&...Okay, Adrian, that's a valid strategy, and it's one that publishers have tried. But here's the problem with it. Let's assume a book is going to be taken to market by a traditional publisher. If it's a genre book, they'll launch it in mass market paperback and digital formats. Maybe it will also come out in trade, but probably not for a newish author. <br /><br />At current rates, we can estimate what the digital sales of any title might be. As you say, much depends on specifics, such as the particular genre and readership for this title. Maybe it would be 10%, and maybe it would be 50%. But why should a publisher write off 10-50% off sales right out of the gate? Especially when margins are slightly better on e-books -- razor thin in any case, but slightly better on e-books. A drop of 10% in total sales volume can have a huge impact on the bottom line, and when that 10% comes out of a more profitable sector, it will hurt even more.<br /><br />And their up-front costs are not changed by the fact that you already published in digital formats. There will still be editing, cover art, paper costs, files to create -- you don't really think they'll skip any of this, do you? So it's the same cost to produce the book, but they walk into it knowing you've already skimmed off anywhere from 10-50% (or more, in some cases) of sales.<br /><br />But the most telling word in your post is this: leftover. You're asking them to take your leftovers. I'm sure there are times we might want to choose leftovers over a fresh dinner, but that's the exception, not the rule.<br /><br />TEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-1406430852979060892011-09-15T06:23:11.638-05:002011-09-15T06:23:11.638-05:00Thanks for an interesting post.
I'm thinking ...Thanks for an interesting post.<br /><br />I'm thinking about offering my science fiction books to a publisher on the back of fairly strong (I guess) ebooks sales, which are about 6000 copies since March. I see the point of view of the publisher, but I feel it is a bit narrow-minded. <br /><br />As a self-published author, I'm somewhat in the position of an independent software developer, and I recall some comments made my Marco Armet (creator of Instapaper). His app has been the number one news app on the iPhone for a while now. He has sold ten of thousands of units, and doesn't feel that he's even scratched the surface of the market. (He knows what the market size is because we know how many people have bought iOS devices.)<br /><br />I'd argue it's a similar situation with books/ebooks. If you sell a few thousand copies - and I don't have that many friends! - it probably means the book is good, particularly given that you're just one person and these sales will be due to word of mouth. It suggests to me that its potential market size is huge and it might pay off for a publisher to give that extra push.<br /><br />For my part, I've made a reasonable amount of money over the summer with these books, but I still regularly get emails from people asking when it will be available on a non-Kindle platform. That's more than I have time for right now. I'd love a publisher to help me out with this stuff and get my work to more readers. Of course, the number of readers is my primary goal - and that has been pretty much achieved with my ebook sales, so no complaints.Dr Ian Hockinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09120409886797256087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-74419484853337089662011-09-14T18:19:15.874-05:002011-09-14T18:19:15.874-05:00Adrian, yeah, I thought, "Publishers should b...Adrian, yeah, I thought, "Publishers should be interested in future books, if not this one."<br /><br />But I think everything is in such a flux right now, no one really knows what's going to happen well enough to make it so. We can make some guesses based on the experiences of others, but who knows, in this lightning world, what will strike twice.<br />AEdittorrenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-81275714399149144842011-09-14T14:06:10.472-05:002011-09-14T14:06:10.472-05:00I don't disagree, but to play devil's advo...I don't disagree, but to play devil's advocate...<br /><br />It seems to me the financial sense of the deal depends on specifics that weren't revealed. If the author's direct-publishing efforts are all ebooks, then it seems there could be a financial case for the publisher being interesting in non-digital channels, like paperbacks, audio books, foreign language versions, and possibly film and TV rights.<br /><br />From what I've read, the hardcopy audience and the ebook audience are mostly disjoint sets. Most readers who switch to ebooks don't go back. So if an author has proved themselves a valuable seller to one audience doesn't mean there isn't still a decently- sized untapped market in the other. (It doesn't mean there is, either. I'm just pointing out that the argument isn't clear cut without more details and data.)<br /><br />If the author has done both POD and ebooks, then, yes, there seems to be little leftover for the traditional publisher.<br /><br />Having decent numbers for a directly published book might help when the author has a new book.Adriannoreply@blogger.com