Author Issues E-Book Challenge

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Ajax

I've never read that book by him, but I decided to pick up the Kindle version from Amazon.

From reading his site he combines the sales from all of the places, so no need to buy straight from his site if you have an account elsewhere.

It appears the Kindle versions are DRM free too just like the ebooks on his site.

[lorddon]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I have both books in paper, but went ahead and bought both in ebook format.

As for some of the comments, all I can say is do you want ebooks or not? The information collected is standard billing info and you can also pay by check or money order. I have yet to buy from someone who didn't ask for the normal billing info.

As far as $5 for a backlist book, well do you want more books or not? If an author can't make enough money to make ends meet, then he is going to move on to a different line of work. This has already happened to several authors who I really liked. $5 is certainly less than you would pay for a paper copy of the book. Yes, I know you payed $7 bucks years ago, so what. I paid 99 cents for my original copies of Moorcock's books way back when they first came out. That's how much they cost back then. The going price for a new copy of the same books is much more now. Heck, if half the price of many ebooks.

One last note. Neither book has any sort of DRM. If you like the author or haven't read the author, but like fantasy, then it's time to put up or shut up. If this doesn't work out for Stackpole and other authors point to this experiment as a reason for using DRM or not publishing their works in ebook format, then you have only yourself to blame.

What pwalker said. It sounded tangentially like something I would read but that was secondary to 1) someone dropping ebooks to the price they should be and 2) releasing them DRM free as well as 3) cutting out publishers who want to keep prices high and take their oversized cuts. For those three reasons I gave the man my money.

[banjobama]

I bought the first Talion book for the challenge, and his book Once a Hero sounded good so, what the heck, I bought that too. Hopefully he meets his goal.

[Clytie]

I'm with pwalker and lorddun. I'm sick of the publishers manipulating the ebook trade so we can't get what we want at a reasonable price (or can't get it at all). I'm sick of them exploiting the author.

His books are at a reasonable price, the author gets the money, and the books are DRM-free. I grabbed both books on offer, plus most of his short fiction. Good value, and the publishers and big retailers don't get a cent.

Interestingly, "Once a Hero", one of the offered $5 ebooks and not a recent title, is currently available in paperback from Borders AU at $50.95 (USD $42.65).

[nashira]

Originally Posted by Clytie

Interestingly, "Once a Hero", one of the offered $5 ebooks and not a recent title, is currently available in paperback from Borders AU at $50.95 (USD $42.65).

And some people don't believe me when I say we get gouged for books over here.

[Skyflyer]

I really hope he gets 10000 sales. Talion: Revenant is one of my favourite books and I have been hoping for a sequel for may years now. I think I have most of Michael Stackpoles books in paperback or trade paperback.

[pricecw]

Always looking for books that look interesting, unfortunately, this one is a paypal required to purchase, so no sale.

[BVLarson]

As I understand it, he's only sold 210 copies, not quite 10,000 he was targeting (source: teleread)... But it is a good effort. It is good to have more "real" midlist authors trying to join into the ebook tidal wave that is just beginning to hit shore.

I hope that more authors like him do get involved. I also hope they realize they will have to start on a long learning curve. They are not likely to find instant success, but will have to try various approaches and learn the ropes. Print success does not guarantee ebook success. You have to be flexible and keep trying things until it starts working for you. Instant riches aren't going to just appear for print authors, it takes real effort.
-bvl

[Scott Nicholson]

If he GAVE AWAY the next book, then it might be a lure. Otherwise, why should a writer have to be bribed to do his job?

I know as well as anyone how tough it is to make money, but I'd love to make $50,000 of new money off an older book. I'd be so happy I would write the rest of my life (which I plan to do anyway). I'm all for creative ways to make money, but this just seems like a publicity stunt and not a true sacrifice to anyone or a gift to readers, because I assume Mr. Stackpole wants to sell 10,000 copies and make $50,000 on the new book, too.

I'm by no means comparing but I sold more than 1,000 copies of my backlist The Red Church this year, and put out its sequel DRUMMER BOY because I am so overjoyed to have readers who support me. In fact, I am planning a book in the series in which my readers co-write it with me and building a fan-fic effort from it. To me, connecting with readers so intimately is the best part of the new Golden Era.

Scott

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Scott Nicholson

If he GAVE AWAY the next book, then it might be a lure. Otherwise, why should a writer have to be bribed to do his job?

I think "paid" is a fairer term, myself.

He's commented that he regards this as an "advance" on the new book. When established authors work with a publisher, the publisher will generally pay them an advance toward a book. The author generally uses that as cheese and bread money while writing said book, then will also get a (small) percentage of the proceeds from the sales.

In this case, he's trying to get rid of the publisher, by kick-starting the advance off of an existing book that folks want an e-version of.


One thing of note: if I recall correctly, Mr. Stackpole used to be very concerned about sales numbers. I recall reading an author's note (and I believe it was one of his) lamenting the whole used book market because the publishers had no visibility of sales in it, so the true popularity of an author was masked. (Of course that ignores the fact that if that weren't so, it would apply across the board to all authors and the numbers would all be higher, but relatively the same as they are now, but I digress).

The point I'm getting at is that Mr. Stackpole has apparently experienced a significant shift in perspective from a place where he regarded used book sales as a threat, to a point where he's willing to not only sell e-books (something that's really scary to a lot of authors), but sell e-books without DRM of any kind.

It seems to me that some appreciation of that journey might be in order rather than kicking the man because he hasn't reached what we might regard as "full enlightenment."


To my mind, if you want the book, and the terms are agreeable, then buy it. Otherwise don't buy it. Griping about the guy only taking baby steps seems to me like ... poor form.



Another point, 10,000 units at $5 is only $50,000 in revenue, not in profit. Using the numbers he gives in his blog posts, if all the sales were through his site, he'd clear 86% of that, or $43,000. Taxes, since he's self employed, run about 1/3 (~$14,000), and don't forget Social Security, it's 8% (of the gross) for the self-employed ($3,440). That leaves a whopping ~$25,227 -- a nice chunk of change, but not all that much for he and his family to live on for a year while he's writing the next book.

Just some things to consider.

[geertm]

I really do not understand it.
A lot of people are complaining about high book prices and publishers.
Here an author is selling his own books for a very reasonable price at his own website. Where you know all the money will go to the author, not to a publisher. And still people are complaining

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by geertm

I really do not understand it.
A lot of people are complaining about high book prices and publishers.
Here an author is selling his own books for a very reasonable price at his own website. Where you know all the money will go to the author, not to a publisher. And still people are complaining

I don't think it's complaining exactly, but more of this feels like...blackmail? I know it isn't and I know that's overstating the situation, but I've heard a few people (fans of Stackpole) who consider this nothing more than that. He won't write X until the fans pony up X amount in sales for a book they might already own. That's bound to annoy some, turn some away and by the sales figures that were mentioned in an earlier post, it looks as if the whole endeavour seems to have failed. His name in print might mean a lot to some, but in the Wild West of digital publishing, he has to earn his spurs with the rest of us gunslingers.*


*That's it, no more Red Dead redemption.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by NatCh

. . . and don't forget Social Security, it's 8% (of the gross) for the self-employed ($3,440).

Actually, I'd like to know how as a self-employed person I can pay just 8% for Social Security. I'm paying 13.6% -- both the employer and the employee's share.

[NatCh]

I may have misunderstood what he was saying, rhadin, perhaps he meant 8% more than the non-self-employed would have withheld from their paychecks. If so, that just makes the numbers worse.

[Clytie]

pricew, he's also released that book (and more) for Kindle, so you can just grab it from Amazon. He gets a better deal if you buy directly from him, though.

I'm definitely in favour of supporting an author who's trying to adapt. Sometimes it's even a bit of support at a key time that changes your life. $5 isn't much to contribute to digital change, you get a great book out of it, and the promise of a long-requested sequel if he can afford to do it.

Scott Nicholson said:

I am planning a book in the series in which my readers co-write it with me and building a fan-fic effort from it. To me, connecting with readers so intimately is the best part of the new Golden Era.

This is great! It's definitely the sort of added participation and expanded medium we can attain via ebooks. Keep up the good work (while I check out your books ).