Author Book Publishing

Pat here:


While Amazon and Macmillan and Apple publicly tear at each other throats, and Google and Authors’ Guild wrestle over the goldmine of literary cyberspace, authors are quietly setting up bookstores on the sidelines, building the publishing industry of tomorrow.

Yes, readers can already find author-published e-books on superstore websites like Fictionwise and Amazon, the big forums encouraging authors to venture into e-publication.  Except authors pay a high premium at these sites for the simple privilege of placing a title there, often 70% of sales.

Others of us have decided there is no reason we should pay 70% of our hard-earned money to do what we can do ourselves. Equally, there is no reason for readers to have to pay the inflated price for that 70% cut. So we are gathering together to experiment with author co-ops like bookviewcafe.com, or distribution centers like AwritersWork.com.  Essentially, what we’re doing is eliminating the middle man. We’re taking titles that have already been edited, revised, and proofed, sold in paper, then returned to us, and we’re reformatting and selling them as e-books for lower prices than the big guys offer.

What we’re learning is that it’s not as cheap to sell e-books as we’d hoped, but we can still make more money doing it ourselves while keeping prices substantially lower.   (image to right is my attempt at creating a cover for an anthology of historical novellas.)

Take a look at the two sites I mentioned. Bookviewcafe.com is mainly fantasy, science fiction, and paranormal. Today is the grand opening of Awriterswork.com, and for the moment, they’re romance-oriented, but the diversity for a start-up is promising.  Drop by and tell them hi and welcome them to cyberspace!

The variety of authors on these sites is phenomenal, and the prices are below anything Amazon is currently offering on comparable quality. And much of the material is not available elsewhere—pretty good for a cutting edge frontier store!

BVC is already publishing some original fiction. AWW has some original nonfiction, as well as newly released backlists, plus anthologies of novellas and short stories that have never appeared in the same editions before. (As much as we wanted to put up each story for 99 cents, we learned it cost as much to put up a short story as a full book, so it was cheaper to collect the stories.) If you find a favorite author on any of these sites, you only have to sign up for a newsletter to learn of their next release. Can you envision a future where you may never have to go to a bookstore again? (image left is a combined attempt by several authors at creating new cover art for Merely Magic)

I know the print model is still out there. Print-On-Demand books are already on the way for BVC and may be in AWW's future. But as e-readers and netbooks and iPads become prevalent, more and more books will find their way into the hands of readers via technology. We’re hoping readers will discover it’s cheaper to buy direct from the source, but right now, it’s a brave new world out there, and we don’t know what will happen.

Obviously, I’m fascinated with change and not everyone is. But if you can’t buy some of these books anywhere else, why not take a look around?  Now’s the time for readers to speak up and steer the future toward the next generation of publishing, so what directions would you like to see us try?

Comments

[Linda Banche]

Whenever I find an author I adore, I want her entire backlist. Up to now, if the book was out of print, I had to buy a used book, and the author got nothing. That's assuming I could even find a used copy that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I would rather buy the e-book and let the author make some royalties. Pat, LOST LOVE is on my list. I want your, and all the other Wenches', Signet Regencies.

As for e-books changing the world, I certainly hope so. I'm e-pubbed--e-pub, not self-pub. I haven't paid a cent to get pubbed, an editor edits my stories, a cover artist makes a cover,and I do receive royalties. Everything is the same as for a print pub. While I don't claim to be in the same league as the Wenches, I work very hard at my stories, and I would like to make more than a little money.

[theo]

Pat, I wish you all the best! ePublishing is the future. Of that, I have no doubt, though I have to say, I don't have but a few now because I have nothing but my computer or cell phone to read them on and frankly, my eyes can only take so much of that.

I'll definitely keep an eye on both sites though and hope to watch them grow quickly. :o)

(and someday, maybe I'll see a book of my own there! ;o) )

[NinaP]

Prof Pat, I think this idea rocks!

With the way this economy is, anything I can get for less has my attention. And knowing my favorite authors are getting more makes it feel that much better.

I just came back from AWritersWork. I like it. Nice clean site (though nothing I clicked on worked which probably has more to do with my PC). If I may suggest, spin the site's presentation away from the author (and the act of writing) and focus it more on the reader/buyer by showing/talking about the high quality of available works, saving him/her money, your available download formats, etc… Putting prices, blurbs (and maybe a link to an excerpt) on page one would propell the site miles down the road.

Here’s another idea. Sell monthly (prepaid) subscriptions. For X dollars (say the price of two paperbacks) allow the reader to do X number of (say 10) downloads in a month. The chances of every subscriber doing 10 downloads every month is… unlikely. And the rest, as they say, is in the bank.

:-)
Nina

[Lyn S]

As soon as they make an eReader that is bubble proof, I will switch. The idea of an electronic device and my bath, just scare me. However, I would finally not run out of shelf space. The best of both worlds -- bubble bath reading and unlimited shelf space.

[Lyn S]

I adore the printed word. I read compulsively. But this article that came up on an education blog regarding storytelling, makes me think that the paper book I like so much is becoming a thing of the past. How would the training of the next generation of writers change your colleagues?
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/2010/02/new-slide-the-storytelling-challenge.html

[NinaP]

Lyn S said..."The best of both worlds -- bubble bath reading and unlimited shelf space."

Could try tucking that electronic baby in a Ziploc. :-)

Nina

[Patricia Rice]

It's been so hectic behind the scenes after the AWW launch that I completely forgot I was blogging today!
Yes, I think e-publication is the wave of the future, so Linda, you're on the right track. Only small presses and e-publishers have the ability to try new and different these days. The numbers may still be small, but they'll grow.

Nina, we tried to make the site more reader-oriented but we're authors, so our marketing skills are problematic. "G" One of the downsides of DIY. I'll pass on your suggestions, but we're still in babystep stage. Everything will take time.

I've been studying the e-reader issue for a vacation we'll be taking in a few months. I'm wishing I had one of those tablet computers. They look like the best bet. But they're too pricey for the Queen of Clumsy to trek around with just for reading books.

So I second the Ziploc recommendation. The good e-readers have touch-screen access. Just press through the baggie!

Oh and Linda, for instant gratification on the Signets, check out Regencyreads.com. My Regency backlist is there with hundreds of others!

[maryjoputney]

I greatly admire Pat and other authors who are pioneering new ways to get their words to readers, though I'm too lazy to try it myself.

But I did become one of the first buyers at AWritersWork.com because I was waiting for the site to go live so I could buy YOU'RE MOVING WHERE? by Harlequin author Karen van der Zee.

I know the author slightly, and that she's Dutch born and she's married to an American diplomat. For years on the Ninc loop, I've been reading her posts from wildly exotic locations. Now I FINALLY get to read her non-fiction account of all the places she and her husband have lived and worked.

The fact that such a book can now be published is clear proof of the service such sites offer. May all the authors on A Writer's Work prosper!

[Sherrie Holmes]

Pat, one of the nice things about e-books for those who like that sort of thing is that you can increase the size of the print if your eyes are bad. (When my eyes are bad, I send them to their room)

Thank you for being a pioneer and showing authors how to take control of their backlist in a way that benefits all!

[Patricia Rice]

LOL, Sherrie, I wish I could send my eyes to their room when they're bad instead of punishing them with work. "G"

And yes, the ability to publish books with a limited audience is a distinct advantage. And sometimes that audience is much larger than NYC believes--anyone can take a look at Belle Books and what a few competent authors havee accomplished to see that!

[Linda Banche]

Well, I bought LOST LOVE and I'm happy with it. I remember a couple of the stories, but I'm glad I have them now.

AWritersWork.com is a very nice site, everything worked fine when I bought the book. And I like the covers. Sometimes, e-book covers aren't very pretty.

Will AWritersWork.com have a mailing list? I signed up at bookviewcafe.com for theirs, but I don't see one for AWritersWork.com

[Andrea Penrose]

Pat, thanks for such an interesting update on e-book publishing. Seeeing as everyone else in the industry is trying new innovations, it makes sense that the authors look to see how they can empower themselves. I'm really intrigued by the sites you mention, and think the potential for being entrepreneurial is huge . . .

There are, of course downsides too. I just heard a lecture the other night by a Pulitzer prize winning journalist who was bemoaning the explosion of self-published content. He worried that without the structure of editors, proofers, fact-checkers, etc. that the quality of writing was going to drop dramatically. Right now, it seems these books are all "professionally" produced, but in the future, things may get muddy.

Still, it's a really interesting development. Please keep us posted.

[Patricia Rice]

Linda, on the right side of the home page there's a link for signing up for the newsletter. That should alert you of new releases. And thank you for trying the anthology! And for having read some of them in their original editions. I thought the stories were old enough to deserve a new generation of authors. Now I must think about what to put up there next.

Andrea, yes, the muddying of the waters between professional and unprofessional publishing will create a difficult transition. But it may be needed to clear out the creative morass created by NYC's demand for bestsellers. Somewhere, a happy balance must be struck!

[Anne Gracie]

Pat and co, all the very best with this venture. I think it's fabulous that authors can republish their out of print books. When I find an author I like, I search for their backlist, and often it's just not obtainable -- or sometimes, as it was before they reissued the Eva Ibbotson books, the used copies cost a bundle.

If I had the rights to my out of print books, I'd be joining you like a shot, but I don't.

MJP, I loved hearing Karen Van der Zee's travel stories when I was on a loop with her, so I'm off to check out her book.

[Janice]

Can I imagine a world where I no longer have to visit a bookstore? Well, yes -- there's amazon.

But if you mean an end to brick & mortar bookstores, then I'm agin it.

E publishing is swell for niche genres (trad regencies & conspiracy theories, for instance) and I think that's a good thing - but an end to stores where one could go and browse, meet other people in person, talk about books, see new material, make new discoveries? Geez, I hope that never happens!

[SonomaLass]

I love the idea of having e-book versions of out-of-print books available. C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher and Lynn Abbey are doing it over at http://www.closed-circle.net/, too. I hope to see more authors doing this with their reverted rights.

Thanks for posting on this; I have another place to shop!

[liz m]

I'm totally in favor of more available books. I tend to buy up the backlist of a newly discovered author as well, and I'd much rather buy it from the author than ebay.