LA Times: Joe Konrath can't wait for his books to go out of print.

[durkinrobinson]

Maybe the big (and smaller) publishing houses will take more chances on new and promising writers. One can dream, right?

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If they are going to go Amazon exclusively, all I can say is I hope they fail bigger then they could ever imagine.

I can agree with this – not really for the formatting issues but more for the “out of the frying pan and into the fire” idea. It would be simply exchanging one gatekeeper for another – just one less organized and less focused.

Originally Posted by Fbone

Also, how does going online only serve the physical bookstore shoppers and public library visitors?

This is the other reason I’m not a big fan of Amazon & Apple getting exclusive deals with authors. Both of these companies have shown themselves to not be library friendly (although I admit not being library friendly is in their best interests). If agency publishing disappears and the dominate form of reader is the Kindle or some iThing, what happens to public libraries?

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

A very US-centric view as usual.

Well, it was the LA Times.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

I think the question that has to be asked is, how will the volume be handled? I read the NY Times Book Review, but that obviously represents only a small fraction of the books out there. I don't think having even several dozen reviewers that you look to will be enough to tell you if a particular book is any good. The book might be great, but it might just have never gotten on any particular reviewer's radar

True. I guess what I'm looking at is that somewhere at some point something will happen that will create a whole new gatekeeper that will make the lower quality indie and self published books easier to spot than they are now. Then again, that may turn out to be something that the reader will be responsible for. IE, if the book you're checking out hasn't at least been reviewed by a reputable source, then nobody will touch it. Of course, that again assumes that most readers would take the time to actually research a book before reading it too, which is unlikely. I'm not saying they'd be lazy. I'm simply saying that most won't do it.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

True. I guess what I'm looking at is that somewhere at some point something will happen that will create a whole new gatekeeper that will make the lower quality indie and self published books easier to spot than they are now. Then again, that may turn out to be something that the reader will be responsible for. IE, if the book you're checking out hasn't at least been reviewed by a reputable source, then nobody will touch it. Of course, that again assumes that most readers would take the time to actually research a book before reading it too, which is unlikely. I'm not saying they'd be lazy. I'm simply saying that most won't do it.

I think the most likely system to be used would be something like Amazon's (and other online retailers) where the customers review the books. The problem with that system is that, as we've discussed in another thread, "popular" doesn't always equate to "good". But on the positive side, with that system you get a review to go along with the rating that might tell you if the reader knows what he/she is talking about.

[ProfCrash]

In the future we are going to see businesses set up where they offer various levels of services for the independent author. The most basic level would be simple proof reading and formating. Clean up the errors and format the e-book so that when it is sold it is in good shape.

The second level will be proof reading, formating, and editing. The author gets some feedback and can make the changes they are comfortable with.

The third level will be proof reading, formatting, editing, and help with marketing. The company would find websites to advertise on and maybe some print ads.

If more of the popular authors go this route then I can see them looking for exclusive deals with specific companies. Amazon is the largest bookstore with an international audience. Signing an exclusive agreement with Amazon would probably get the authors a large chunk of the profits and would give them access to the international market. It is not a bad move for the author and a great move for Amazon.

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

In the future we are going to see businesses set up where they offer various levels of services for the independent author. The most basic level would be simple proof reading and formating. Clean up the errors and format the e-book so that when it is sold it is in good shape.

The second level will be proof reading, formating, and editing. The author gets some feedback and can make the changes they are comfortable with.

The third level will be proof reading, formatting, editing, and help with marketing. The company would find websites to advertise on and maybe some print ads.

If more of the popular authors go this route then I can see them looking for exclusive deals with specific companies. Amazon is the largest bookstore with an international audience. Signing an exclusive agreement with Amazon would probably get the authors a large chunk of the profits and would give them access to the international market. It is not a bad move for the author and a great move for Amazon.

Maybe I shouldn't've been, but I was surprised a couple of days ago to learn that Amazon was partnering with another company (whose name I can't remember) to offer to take the e-books that authors uploaded to the DTP site and make them into print books to be sold on Amazon. I think that's really kind of huge....

It would be my hope that the services you mention above would be sold separately, rather than as different levels of service bundled together. It would be nice if authors had easy access to editing so that more good material could be produced. I personally think one of the big things that gets shortchanged in the e-book process (under the instant publishing model, anyway) is the revision process. Every writer needs a critical eye on his/her work, and it's not good when first drafts get put up for sale, which I think might be what happens, in some cases.

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

If more of the popular authors go this route then I can see them looking for exclusive deals with specific companies. Amazon is the largest bookstore with an international audience. Signing an exclusive agreement with Amazon would probably get the authors a large chunk of the profits and would give them access to the international market. It is not a bad move for the author and a great move for Amazon.

Somewhere upwards in this thread I wrote the slightly peevish post that the discussion is very much centred on the US. I'm sorry, but I have to repeat myself. Amazon isn't remotely the huge player in some major markets as it is in the US. Amazon basically doesn't exist in the German ebook market because it doesn't have any German content. To my knowledge it is the same in the Japanese market. So that's a no-show in two of the biggest international markets. Same in the French market. It isn't nearly as important in the German paper book market either, as most Germans have a book store in walking distance that can get them most books for the same price overnight as well. An exclusive agreement with Amazon would lock the authors out of most of the relevant markets. Why should popular authors consider that as an attractive proposition?
What about translations? Would Amazon handle these as well? What would be the difference to traditional publishers in that case?

[ProfCrash]

I know Amazon is not a huge player in Europe at this time but that is going to change. Amazon has one of the few international e-readers with 3G or WiFi access. Just reading this board you can see more and more people in Europe buying Kindles because the Amazon bookstore is pretty darn good and because the device is easily used when travelling. As the Kindle grows in use throughout Europe, Publishers will probably make the decision to make their e-books available through Amazon in order to maximize their profits.

I have no idea how geo restrictions influence this mess. For example, are there different contracts signed to release a book in France then in Germany then in the UK? I also don't know how different countries laws regarding the pricing of e-books plays in all of this.

The difference with an individual author chosing to self publish his e-books through Amazon, or any other book seller, and not using a Publisher is that the individual author should be able to determine what markets the book is available in. So a French Author who controls his e-book rights should be able to chose to publish with Amazon and make that book available in France. If I was a well known author and realized that I could make 70% royalties for the sale of my e-book self publishing through Amazon, I would seriously consider going that route. If enough authors in Europe start to do that, then the EPub/Mobi debate for Europe becomes as meaningless as it is in the US due to books being available across formats and the e-reader picture in Europe changes pretty drastically.

[CommonReader]

This is an English language forum. Users from Continental Europe who are buying the Kindle are most likely attracted by the easily available English language content for the Kindle. However, these users represent only a very small segment of the market. As long as there is no content in the national languages the Kindle will remain a fringe phenomenon. Obviously the publishers seem to be keen to prevent Amazon from achieving the same strong market position it has achieved in the US.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by bhartman36

I think the most likely system to be used would be something like Amazon's (and other online retailers) where the customers review the books. The problem with that system is that, as we've discussed in another thread, "popular" doesn't always equate to "good". But on the positive side, with that system you get a review to go along with the rating that might tell you if the reader knows what he/she is talking about.

I think that if we have any kind of gatekeeper (and I'm not at all sure that we will if we go by the experience of people who self-publish their music), it would most likely be something that Amazon (or a similar large retailer) would establish. Maybe there could be an "Amazon Indie of the Month" award, with a blurb on Amazon's front page. I have a hard time seeing other options really cutting through the noise.

In the future we are going to see businesses set up where they offer various levels of services for the independent author. The most basic level would be simple proof reading and formating. Clean up the errors and format the e-book so that when it is sold it is in good shape.

The second level will be proof reading, formating, and editing. The author gets some feedback and can make the changes they are comfortable with.

I'm not sure that we will, although it is much needed. Most indie authors may never find themselves in a situation where they can afford these services, or they may not want to take the risk. I'm not at all convinced that indie authors are going to have much real impact on publishing. 270,000 books are produced in the US alone every year. No one has time to read any significant portion of that. The problem is not that there aren't enough books; the problem is that it is hard to dig through all of the existing books to find the 10 or 20 or 50 or 100 books you'd like to read in a given year.