Pricing eBooks and Self-Publishing

Date 3/3/2010

I've said this before - but it bears repeating ----     

The fiction writing (the majority of publications) is the one with the biggest explosion of eBook publishers - many started by frustrated authors. Some of these houses are huge now (Elorah's Cave --- wasn't that over 7 million $$$ 2 years back?) -- and many now do POD (Print on Demand - book not made until ordered) - and some even have moved to distribution to bookstores - but the "official" writing groups do not honor them (no editors, no awards, no contests, etc.) because they do not pay an advance - they pay per book sold and they pay at a higher rate.

This has now collided with the "traditional" publishers - traditional publishers pay an advance however pathetic. The traditional houses are scrambling - linking to vanity presses (ebooks and POD) (Harlequin et al) - claiming they own book rights that didn't even exist (Random House) or outright theft (Google books for one). Lawsuits are flying. Authors are in an uproar. Major conferences are losing editors - Harlequin was tossed from RWA - and therefore attendees.   (So far, all four of my books have showed up at Google, they are on-line at Amazon and I only put one there, and who knows where else they have been ripped off. Time for a lawsuit?)
   
The big writing groups are holding "emergency meetings" in January (2010) and changing rules.      
     
You can bitch and moan, but the "traditional" houses are fighting for their lives, ditching established authors, dropping editorial support, no marketing for anything but the blockbuster market lead, and very very few "new" authors.      
     
By the time they get done, there is NO DIFFERENCE from selling to a traditional house or an new eBook house except the missing advance - which is pathetic for a new author anyway. For the educated, experienced author, they have to establish their market, do self-promotion and go through all the hoops a self-published person does.      
     
Bottom line - the lines are already blurred. They are about to vanish.     
     
Sit back - watch the changes unfold - ride with it if you can - and let's turn our attention to REAL problems.     
     
Like Piracy. Traditional houses get ripped off too. The major writing groups need to turn their attention on that problem. The person who buys a PDF and then posts it on eBay - over and over (she's well-known for doing this evidently Ð like a sexual predator no one is watching Ð where is the prosecution?) - the sites that grab eBooks as soon as published - the college student who puts textbooks on-line for free because they are stupid, immoral little jerks. The music industry has nothing to the rip off factory for books - ebooks or otherwise.      
     
ANY book can be scanned to PDF - ANY book. Print books are ripped off all the time. eBooks are ripped off within 24 hours.      
     
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01ebooks.html?pagewanted=1??     
     
I thought this was a very good article -

if you don't understand the cost of doing a book - this lays it out very well.