E-book or not...

[Jack Teeter]

I believe there is a good market out here in cyberspace for e-books!

What the idnustry needs is innovators who think outside the box. And not just computer geeks either (although they ARE more profit oriented...). While the industry needs the technology to succeed (geeks like me!) what it most desparately needs is someone who is ARTISTIC--not artsy-fartsy, but an innovator!

Come on! Step and give me your best shot.
We've all got innovations we'd like to discuss. Let's step up and slam some ideas around!

[Joy Calderwood]

You expect us to give away our ideas? ;-)

I agree with you about the many potentials of electronic books, Jack. And I'm interested in hearing other people's ideas. :D

[Jack Teeter]

Seems like anything on the WEB is fair game. But hopefully, good point. I don't want to have my ideas stolen either.

[YvonJCormier]

Hi Jack,

You are not alone. There are many innovators in the writing world who wish to try new things and side step the claws agents, publishing houses and so on. Your friends rhetorical question of giving ideas away is also a reflection of the common mindset of authors and the clannish mistrust of bringing something genuine out in the open. Most would rather pursue small publishing houses because it's easier to have an original work in print through a legitimate yet not conglomerate house. This way it's done in a timely fashion, yet without costing more than it's worth. This is where electronic publishing could be a bridge to augment sales for the artist, yet add a second layer to the physically printed books market. Sure makes the publisher happy too. Electronic publishing is low maintenance in that it requires database storage and back-up coverage only.

It takes a fearless perception to realize that the thinking behind a given patent idea is what makes it unique, not so much the package itself. Anyone can potentially recreate person A or person B's ideas. HOWEVER, there will always be something missing or askew. This factor of what's missing I refer to as the DNA of thinkers thoughts. With this thought in mind, you'll know no one can every duplicate what you've originated.

Now as the challenge question, how to take full advantage of the e-commerce of e-books. First off, the reason why writers, artists et. al. have been driven to e-book publishing is mostly because, a) publishers have between a 1 to 2 year waiting period even if you are on their publishing schedule, b) Most publishers will not take a risk on a no name author who has no selling potential: your work already having a following really gives you an edge., c) The other thing is many self-publish/vanity press type houses are willing to sell what you give them, even if it is a piece of crap wrapped in a gold box. As for the e-book route, you can sell your work for much less and sell it in portions. The only problem is that most folk are used to grabbing a book from their local Barnes & Noble where they can see it without light delay from a screen or monitor.

Taking a quick skip to the meat, I think you'll see e-book publishing as a secondary venue to follow physically published trade books. This way your work hits multiple markets simultaneously. This includes pod casting, broad band radio shows where your work was converted to audio file. Besides e-books being perceived rightly as secondary market for authors, it could grow more if a few major authors or big name houses made e-publishing one of their front line distributions. Music is now done this way too. You don't need to necessarily buy an entire CD or album from a store or web site. You can literally buy one song at a time. This way the artist gets more profit and the music is easily accessible to all. How this approach would translate in book world is yet to be revealed.

Just imagine selling a chapter at a time. Hell would serve chilled mint julips first. Yet, you could sell short fiction, short stories, poetry, and essays one or so at a time. Think in terms of selling a small set of the given art pieces. For example, you have a 250 page novel where it's really a collection of short stories. The buyer wants to purchase your work. Now, how in Gods name does he or she do it? The first 125 pages will cost say $4.75. Sounds cheap, I know. BUT, the reader has a deal. If he or she likes the work they can buy the second half in 30 days for $5.00; plus no download fee. Even offer a free software update and download for those whose system can't read the written files. The other trade might be the buyer is only paying to subscribe to a readership of the given book, in installments. To protect the artists rights, the website needs to install a print blocker for those who haven't paid for their media. Meaning, if Sue or Joe Blow accessed a sample of chapter one, signed up for buying the first half, and then didn't pass credit check on pay pal their printer drivers would be blocked so as to not allow theft. This last nugget is what's going to make it all work. You sample an author, you don't pay and you can't print. You buy an authors work, you get what you pay for and are allowed to print only that. Still a little gray on how micro commodification, meaning selling in portions...will affect interest of customers. Most are picky and want something for nothing anyway. So this just might work.

Like I said, this sounds more doable in terms of short stories and the rest. The trick is working how it's sold without turning off non-computer folk. At the same time most aren't used to having their literature or other works so micro managed when it comes to just plain buying a book.

[Jack Teeter]

Yvon,

Virtual Tales is doing the serial thing. They give the first chapter free and sell the rest in installments.
I have no feel for how they are doing in sales.

[YvonJCormier]

Hi Sela,

I like your enthusiasm. You incidentally hit on the real problem with e-publishing---actually reading an on screen view of work. It's difficult on the eyes. This sounds minute when you're coming from what will sell and who will get better royalties. I already touched that when I'd mentioned e-publishing gives you more profit up front. Didn't have the numbers though. Glad you added the math logistics:)

Again, the big wall for authors on the traditional publishing route is if you are not already somewhat recognized, the publisher is reluctant to take your book deal on because he/she is worried they can't develop your image for selling and who's going to buy a relatively unknown authors work?

By the way Sela, what's the selling cost for a novel as an e-file? How do they break it down? I'm curious to see how the profit breakdown works.

Also, do you have a bead on what the number difference is in actual readership distribution on traditional publishers with fiction versus e-publishers with the same genre? Is there a significant audience difference; meaning do more tend to read traditional in print or do you see a strong rise toward reading e-published work?


Glad to read another thinkers thought.


Yvon

[YvonJCormier]

I almost forgot the marketing end of things:) And please do forgive this quarry being one of
multiple areas. They are typical concerns....

Since I'd worked at a commercial bookstore, we used to get the catalogs of upcoming books. In these catalogs, one could see how many hundred thousand dollars went into add promotions, and marketing alone to get the product awareness up was a lot of work. This is where much of the profit for the author ends up going. Not to mention the agent and so on.

Even though the profit gain and quicker turn around time sound awesome, my question is does the e-publisher set you up with book signing tours, how much of their time goes into marketing your work to places other than the online booksellers? Like NPR or other radio announcements. My concern is having to put much more time into marketing my work than actually writing more new works. If I'm having to pump my books, yet get more profit on advances, am I really gaining profit in the end? Sometimes it seems better to let the marketeers do their work and me do mine, which is to write. This quandary came up for the husband and wife team who wrote Celestine Prophesies. They marketed their book by printing on demand. Then loaded their station wagon up and hit all the privately owned book stores they could. After this, a major house offered them a sign on deal. Their only choice at that juncture was, "do I spend most of my time marketing, or do I actually write more books?" This is kind of what I'm looking at. Don't mind marketing, but sure would like to still be able to commit more to the source of the deal...writing:)
If there's an e-publisher or several who will take on some of this, I'll go to them and consider business. I'd really rather deal with e-publishing but am wary of the above mentioned questions.

Hope you can help in terms of answers related to e-publishing.


Yvon

[Jack Teeter]

Marketing is a tough task. Aspen Mountain Press has an author Yahoo Group where their authors trade tips on getting reviews, setting up blogs, holding online meet-the-author chats. I guess one could take the Paris Hilton approach and do something really stupid to get noticed and then add: oh, by the way I've got this book...

[Jack Teeter]

Also, in terms of which genre is selling, I get the impression the erotic romance way ahead of the rest of the field.
JackT

[Jack Teeter]

Sela,
Some of the authorware software has pages that appear to turn in slow motion and many vendors allow for the reader to select fonts and colors. That helps the visual thing.

[Jack Teeter]

Hi Sela,
Vanity publishers certainly introduced a lot of junk into the publishing world. The problem is identifying which is the good stuff. One good aspect of ebooks is the price. Spending five bucks on what turns out to be crap is more palatable than, say, twenty-five.

I think the ebook publishers are missing a golden opportunity, though, by sticking to text only. I'm writing a few of my books with pop-up images, music clips, and voice over comments from the characters.

Another concept I'm trying is adding Q & A. I'm thinking a parent with a child who is struggling with retention would buy a mystery that had questions at the end of each chapter -- using humor and the aforementioned tech touches might keep a youngster interested enough to answer the questions and keep reading.