The big
storm rolled on through the country. Everyone put on thermals, hunkered down and
suffered through the storm. And now we are in clean up mode with rail links being
repaired along with the sea walls around the harbour. Landslips are being
cleared away so roads can be reopened through the South Island.
In the publishing
blogosphere the talk has been around the examination of eBook royalty numbers
and how the 25% net is a losing deal for authors. Passive Guy looks at the Futurebook article Get your Geiger counter out -It's Toxic. Here is an excerpt.
So, in other words, at these average price points, every time a
hardcover sale is replaced by an e-book sale, the publisher makes $2.20 more
per copy and the author makes $1.58 less. If the author made the same $4.20
royalty on the e-book sale as he/she would have on a hardcover, the publisher
would STILL be making an improved profit of $6.28.
The
comments are coming thick and fast on this topic.
Mike
Shatzkin, Publishing Futurist, has taken a look at this topic as well, with his long view on where publishers should be concentrating and that is out of the royalty percentages game and going to flat fee per copy. However he also shines
a spotlight on how the BIG authors negotiate their contracts and it has nothing
to do with royalties.
Porter
Anderson writing on Writer Unboxed takes it further...The thought shift happens when you realise that Trad Publishing only favours the bestseller. The tier
under is moving away from Trad. What are the consequences?
Last year
it was felt within the self-publishing community that when some of the big
bestsellers started looking at the numbers...they might not be so quick to sign
to a Trad deal. Agent Orange who blogs anonymously is starting to wonder if the Trad publishers have woken up to the fact that with the new options available,
a traditional publishing deal is now just another option for authors and not
the only game in town.
Laura
Resnick has a great post on how Traditionally Published Authors can use SelfPublishing to their advantage.
Orna Ross - taking a look at why you might have to self publish...and what you should be thinking about. And Writers
Digest asks how can the average writer make money with eBooks?
The Guardian has interviewed Kristine
Rusch about what happened when her Smokey Dalton series got picked up by a Trad
publisher. Smokey Dalton is a black PI. Kris is white.... How racist is the publishing industry? I’ve always wondered this myself.
In Craft,
The fabulous K M Weiland strikes again- On Tightening Dialog.
Bookshelf Muse has 10 things you don’t want in your novel.
Fast Writing...and how you can do it?
Novelicious has another post in their 5 tips for writing, series
In Marketing,
Back Cover Copy...how to make it sell your book.
Susan Kaye Quin revisits Setting up yourIndie Business
To Finish,
Have you noticed that English is changing?
MentalFloss looks at 4 changes in the language that have slid by virtually unnoticed.
This could break your love affair with
word games....
maureen
Pic is from Stuff- The day after... not far from where I live...
