Best-Selling Author Refuses $500k; Self-Publishes Instead 290
Last week we discussed an IT book author's adventures in trying to self-publish. Now, an anonymous reader points out an article examining another perspective:
"Barry Eisler, a NY Times best-selling author of various thriller novels, has just turned down a $500,000 book contract in order to self-publish his latest work. In a conversation with self-publishing aficionado Joe Konrath, Eisler talks about why this makes sense and how the publishing industry is responding in all the wrong ways to the rise of ebooks. He also explains the math by which it makes a lot more sense to retain 70% of your earnings on ebooks priced cheaply, rather than 14.9% on expensive books put out by publishers."
And when he... (Score:2, Interesting)
Publisher's attitude is for you to bend over..... (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Add another 200 pages
2. Create an online website
3. Create an online test bank
4. They would forward $5,000 of my expected earnings in order to perform the years worth of work.
5. Hand over complete copyright to them
6. If they decided that any changes were required, I would have to pay for the changes regardless if I agreed with them or not.
I told the VP what I thought in the most appropriate terms and stated that I would give the book away rather than have anything to do their company. So since 2000, the book Introduction to Data Communications [sait.ab.ca] has been free online to anyone who wishes to use it. I used to make pocket change from the Google adds and for the last couple of years, instead of Google adds, I advertise the programs that I teach for at the post-secondary institute.
Fun Interview, If a Bit Long (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmmmm... Slashdot appears to have eaten my original comment. I hope my comment was yummy and filling, Slashdot.
Anyway... I read the interview earlier today and it's a pretty good read, if a bit long at somewhere over 13,000 words. Konrath is preaching his usual gospel, but it was nice to get Eisler's perspectives on the publishing industry and its inner workings. He drops a few entertaining links as well; one chronicles his struggles with a French publisher who bought the rights to one of his books. They went to the hassle of translating the book, only to put a cover on it that depicted a chartreuse garage door with a security camera. I have no idea what sort of through process led to that decision, but I'd kind of like to know.
I'm actually pleased as punch to see Barry Eisler doing so well, and doubly pleased that he's shifting to self-publishing and being so vocal about it. I met him back in 2003 shortly after his first book, Rain Fall, came out. I was working at a bookstore a few miles from his house, and he'd drop through to sign copies and urge us to sell more. I got the impression he was just a genuinely nice guy, and he even humored me when I asked for advice in getting an agent.
That said, I'm more than a bit jealous, too. He released a short story on Kindle this year, and it's apparently on track to make $30,000, while I'm struggling to sell a dozen copies of my sci-fi novel [amazon.com] a month. He's a really good guy, though, and I wish him the absolute best as he dives head first into the self-publishing world.
Re:big diff: editors are actually important (Score:5, Interesting)
Lies Incorporated springs to mind. Another PKD novel.
First few chapters are relatively sane. As are the last few chapters. In the middle is pure PKD weirdness, only even more directionless and bizarre than usual (IMHO). Then I noticed that the weirdness and the last few sane chapters start with the same paragraph.
So then I finally read the introduction, that says the book was originally published after a brutal pruning by the editor. Later, when PKD got a bit more famous, he managed to get the middle stuffed back in for future print runs.
The editor was definitely right that time.
Re:big diff: editors are actually important (Score:4, Interesting)
Because editors cost money, even when you're friends with a few. ( And I'd never ask a friend to edit my work for free as anything other than a mutual crit. )
You could always offer them a cut. If it takes you 3 months to write, and it takes them 1 week to edit, offer them about a 12th of the overall profit (which means you're about equal in terms of reward-per-hour). If thee book's a runaway success you can make them rich, if not then they get a trickle of pocket money for their trouble.
Re:big diff: editors are actually important (Score:4, Interesting)
Gharr... stupid AC login (or lack thereof).
We're an independent publishing/writing team here, everything still goes through multiple edits, proofings and all the same stuff, it's essential to edit (doing your own editing is like testing your own software - it does not work!).
It costs anything between $1000 and $5000 to get a started after you've paid for editing/coverart/PoD-setup but it's a small upfront cost to pay compared to what you lose when a publisher just sits on your work.
The tide has begun to swing around - with no shortage support and cooperative marketing groups/forums on the net now the publishers really are going to have to fight to get a hold of the next group of big writers. The thing is, if the publisher is already trying to make you a sweet deal, then it's a deal you don't actually need.
Paul - http://elitadaniels.com/ [elitadaniels.com]
Re:big diff: editors are actually important (Score:4, Interesting)
Crowdsource it. I'm a huge fan of podiobooks.com -- alot of the books presented there (for free mind you) often end up to proper book deals and the final version is often changed significantly as a result of feedback from the listener community.
My understanding is that the Nathan Lowell's and Scott Siglers of the world are doing fairly well for themselves by giving it away for free. It's not unlike the Freemium business model that companies like Evernote use: Free gets as many ears and eyeballs as possible and easy marketing. A certain percentage will recommend it to friends, since it was free and, hopefully, good. That gets you even more ears/eyeballs. A certain percentage of the overall will be such big fans they'll want to buy proper print copies or kindle versions or whatever and, even though you're giving it away for free, you end up selling more copies than you might have otherwise.
Impossoble Licensing Agreement (Score:1, Interesting)
I can not read the book. I can not accept the license [sait.ab.ca] that requires my moral values to coincide with those of the author. For example, "That your family is first and foremost the most important thing in your life." makes not much sense to me, with no wife, no kids, parents dead, and the rest of the family not interested in much contact, and residing in a different country anyway.
Although he means well with it, I find such licensing an offensive intrusion in my life. If my employer would put up conditions like "That you will exercise your body as well as your mind" I would certainly tell him to stay out of my private life.
Some of the points are blatantly impossible. For example, "That you will defend the rights of those who are unable to defend themselves". Note that there is no provision to make this apply only occasionally, only when practical or even possible. Thus, anyone who is not defending the people in Libya, in China, and in Afghanistan, at the same time, is in violation of the license.
Moral principles are fine, but trying to enforce them as a condition for reading a book is absurd. If that is the price for reading the book, I rather keep my freedom!
Re:big diff: editors are actually important (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're an author, have you considered bartering?
Let's put it this way. Say you have three author friends. Pass your book to each of them to proofread, and in turn proofread each of theirs. It's win-win, it costs nobody money, and you get the value of a different perspective. I often am in the situation where I am too blinded by my own bias and can use the outside perspective on something I've created.
Not a new idea. I know this is not an exhaustive list by any means:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_circle [wikipedia.org]
I'm surprised that none of the ebook publisher sites have automated this process, or that I've never heard of them automating it.
The other side is I really like Nathan Lowell's work, and I would even pay a modest fee to proofread / edit his work before its released. The way he ended "owners share" was pretty much a big WTF and probably could have benefited from some review. Which brings up the topic that beyond simple grammatical correction, I'm not sure crowdsourcing will give useful results unless you're going for super formulaic pulp. I'd probably have to sign a NDA, ok whatever. For anything other than your Very First Book if you can't find one or two fans on the entire freaking internet, including friends, relatives, fellow authors, and coworkers, then, yes indeed, you have very big problems. BTW slightly on topic, Nathan Lowell had a cool interview on the linux link tech show podcast a couple months ago, I don't recall exactly but I think similar issues were discussed.
Arguing that paid editors exist therefore lone wolf authors absolutely must pay them, is probably going to work about as well as arguing paid software testers exist, therefore lone wolf programmers absolutely must find a way to pay them.