Big time authors not happy either

[BeccaPrice]

http://venturegalleries.com/blog/big...t-happy-either

The authors in the survey had agents and major publishing houses. But almost seventy-five percent of them reported that they are considering cutting out their publisher altogether in favor of ePublishing.

323 authors were surveyed.

[Ninjalawyer]

The big advantage of a publisher is getting access to their distribution channels and marketing efforts. But if those distribution channels are becoming less and less relevant and the marketing efforts are often a joke (and a joke that the author isn't even consulted on), then it's not that surprising that a lot of authors would be questioning why they're bothering to trade away control of their work for increasingly negligible benefits.

Big publishers won't go away, but I think times are going to get very lean very quickly for some of them. Technology is making what they do less and less relevant and they don't seem to be adapting well to make themselves relevant in other ways.

[tubemonkey]

I would think there'd be business opportunities for someone to offer proofreading/ formatting/ submission services to the new breed of e-authors. Who needs a publisher?

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

http://venturegalleries.com/blog/big...t-happy-either



323 authors were surveyed.

Thank you Becca. A little googling got me to the actual survey.

http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/blo...rvey-the-data/

ETA: in your post you quoted from your link

The authors in the survey had agents and major publishing houses. But almost seventy-five percent of them reported that they are considering cutting out their publisher altogether in favor of ePublishing.

But I do not see that in the questions and responses.

It is interesting to look at the phrasing of the actual questions and breakdown of responses. Several are worthy of their own threads.

[fjtorres]

Big Time authors are in an odd place: they are brands unto themselves so they are best placed to make a killing off self-publishing while at the same time they have enough clout to negotiate massive lump-sum deals for their books.

It'll be interesting who walks away from the negotiating table first: the publishers or the Big Time authors.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I would think there'd be business opportunities for someone to offer proofreading/ formatting/ submission services to the new breed of e-authors. Who needs a publisher?

Yes there are infinite opportunities. But marketing is another matter and perhaps the most important. Some seem to think that proofreading will be farmed out to the crowd on a per page basis, but I feel that anyone who edits a page needs to have an understanding of the entire work for their edits to have any worth.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Some seem to think that proofreading will be farmed out to the crowd on a per page basis, but I feel that anyone who edits a page needs to have an understanding of the entire work for their edits to have any worth.

per-page editing is not going to be much better than computerized by-word spell-checking or by-sentence grammar checkers. To do more than "first-pass" proofing and go into proper editing you need to read the whole work. (Or Watson-class supercomputers.)

On the other hand, first-pass editing is a suitable entry-level position for a professional editing service. Let the interns clear up the obvious stuff so the experienced editor can focus on the deeper stuff. There's a business there.

The ebook evolution isn't going to stop with "do-it-all-yourself" self-publishers; before the dust settles were likely to see all sorts of new professional services businesses built off the bureau approach. Instead of hunting a cover artist, you sign up a Cover Bureau and their inhouse staff offers up a variety of styles and the author chooses the general type of cover desired, whether photographic, CGI, abstract, etc...

Once the monolithic traditional publishing model is not the default for every author or project, there is going to be a lot of options out there.

[ebusinesstutor]

I liked the quote:

One-third of the authors said they were not consulted about marketing plans.
Almost forty percent of the authors asked, “What marketing plans?”

As a professional marketer I know how critical a good marketing plan is to success. It sounds here like many of the publishers don't have a marketing plan for their author's book except to distribute it to the bookstores.

Publishers should be list building, using social media, connecting with the fan base and using other methods to market the books. Instead, most are continuing to do things the way they always have.

Authors can't become expert marketers, proofreaders, etc. overnight, nor should they. I think we will see an upsurge in services like ebook marketing, proofreading, cover design, etc. for self-publishing authors.

[pidgeon92]

The grass is always greener on the other side.

[crossi]

Do you think some of the big time authors might go Indie and take their long time editors with them? If an editor can get a stable of big time authors they might do better on their own than with a publishing company.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by crossi

If an editor can get a stable of big time authors they might do better on their own than with a publishing company.

Then the editor is a publishing company. That is, until he or she is acquired, and becomes an imprint.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Then the editor is a publishing company. That is, until he or she is acquired, and becomes an imprint.

The editor wouldn't be a publishing company unless they're doing more than editing. They'd simply be a freelance editor.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

Then the editor is a publishing company. That is, until he or she is acquired, and becomes an imprint.

That's a very silly statement. Editing is editing unless you are using a different definition. I know the so-called "editors" at the TPH are really Project Managers, not editors, maybe that's what you mean.

and as far as the O.P. the Big-Time authors shouldn't be happy, neither should the new authors or particularly the mid-list authors....they are all being ripped off by the TPH because until recently they had a captive market and control of the distribution, sales, etc. It is no longer true and unless they come around and change their business model, they will not be in business or will be only a shadow of what they were.

So goes the buggy whip, so goes the dinosaur. The asteroid has struck, some will survive some will not.

[Georgey]

I think that the online business will gradually change the book market, but it will not replace it completely. If we consider that books have already existed in ancient times (of course horribly expensive and inaccessible for the crowd but anyway) it is rather an odd thing to think that it will be replaced by the eBook. It's relevance will change for sure, but it's value will increase.

[stonetools]

Once again, you have to be realistic about these things. Authors and publishers have been having disputes since the year dot. The difference today is the Internet.
Most authors are happy enough with their publishers, and resolve their few disputes "in house": but let an author disagree with her publisher and put out her screed on the Net and its broadcast and rebroadcast by Techdirt,Teleread, The Konrath, and various other forums with an axe to grind against the "BPHs".
Publishers are constrained by custom and the law from telling their side. They can't say, "The author's offering was a pile of crap that no amount of editorial polishing or marketing could make into a success". So their side gets untold.
Its best to have a sense of proportion about this. The poll ends with the question:

If you are writing in 5-10 years, will you still have a traditional publisher? .

48.4 % said yes, 13.8 % No

Sounds like a lot of writers are still OK with trad publishers (and agents).