Terry Goodkind goes self-pub

[MichaelSullivan]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I have never read Goodkind. Not really my thing. But with the Facebook uproar, I checked things out a bit over there and I get the feeling that this self-pub release wasn't very well thought-out. It's kind of playing out like your average indie self-pub, not something I'd expect from someone like Goodkind.

I've read a bit about the roll out and it actually was coordinated - but much is in the hands of the distribution partners and so out of their control. No you can't generally get ebooks into libraries (except through Overdrive which I'm sure will pick up his title soon).

The book has been on the top sellers list of all the sites I looked at - so I think it is rolling out well. Yeah, some foreign sites will be live a few days later -but that is just the nature of the beast.

[Top100EbooksRank]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

So he's all, "Read my book! Read my book!" and they're all "We'd like to but we can't!" This has to be especially frustrating since the book is a prequel to a series they've already gotten hooked on.

If someone has access to a computer with internet connection, they can read the book.

Kindle App for PC works great. No need to buy an e-reader. Some people even read on their smartphone. That's another way.

[fjtorres]

Plus, let's be honest: "Read my book" really means "Buy my book."
If he only cared about people reading it he would've posted it online for free reading.
(Maybe at a fanfic site. )

Goodkind is an author, a Professional Writer.
As in: "gets paid for his work".
It means he gets to negotiate a price for his work, regardless of what somebody else thinks is "honorable", even to "only allow a select few to read".
It means he is also a businessman.
Everybody involved in *serious* business understands that not only can you *not* reach every last potential customer, it is *foolish* to even try.
Smart businesses identify their target/likely customer and do everything they can *reasonably* do to reach out to them and they do not fret overmuch over potential customers. It is about profits, not market share, to put it bluntly. Many a venture has tanked in the foolish pursuit of profitless market share.

In this exercise, Goodkind started by choosing to self-pub.
That right there "lost" him a lot of potential readers.
Then he set a price. (US$8.99, not $0.99 or $2.99, and definitely not $12.99-14.99. That is a statement right there.)
Once he did that he automatically excluded another large chunk of potential readers.

By going primarily ebook, for now, he excluded another large chunk.
Just as by writing in english (no translation on this one) and writing a fantasy also "excludes" potential readers. It's all part of the business plan. And the business plan starts with what you can reasonably afford to do. Pre-printing a hundred thousand copies and shipping them on spec to a few thousand locations is not something he was prepared to do just yet. Just as commisioning spanish or german translations isn't somehing he's doing yet. Those things are not part of his business plan. Yet. (Ventures grow and they expand. Time will tell where this ends.)

Goodkind has a business plan and that plan isn't about looking for readers; he is looking for buyers.
The experiment here is seeing how much revenue his name and product can bring him without the assistance of his traditionalist publisher.

It really isn't all that different from an author with a contract with one trad pub, releasing a book with a different trad pub. Some authors have simultaneous contracts running with diferent publishers and that doesn't usually make news.

Someday soon, hopefully, a (somewhat) prominent traditionally published author doing self pub on the side *won't* be news.
Someday.

For now, though, it *is* news and it is an exercise worth tracking.

[Dallista]

One thing that might also have contributed to the jump in sale 1.5 weeks after the release: the fact that amazon.com had a bug in the system where the book was not available for sale to people registered in certain countries. If your amazon.com account is registered in, for example, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and a bunch of countries in Asia and, IIRC, Australia and/or NZ, you were locked out, and got a message "This book is not available in your region: Europe" (or Asia, I guess).

Took me a while to convince whoever responded to my e-mails at their helpdesk that *yes* the author did intend for the book to be for sale to people in all countries, and the problem was at their end.

Anyway, it still took them 1.5 weeks to fix (and oddly enough, the next day when I looked it up, out of plain curiosity, I got the same message *again*, and now it's fixed again... *rolls eyes*).

I for one am thrilled TG went e-book, as a. it saved me a lot of money (imported hardcovers are not cheap in the Netherlands) and b. I don't like reading print books anymore, anyway. Ereader all the way!

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by Dallista

One thing that might also have contributed to the jump in sale 1.5 weeks after the release: the fact that amazon.com had a bug in the system where the book was not available for sale to people registered in certain countries. If your amazon.com account is registered in, for example, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and a bunch of countries in Asia and, IIRC, Australia and/or NZ, you were locked out, and got a message "This book is not available in your region: Europe" (or Asia, I guess).

Took me a while to convince whoever responded to my e-mails at their helpdesk that *yes* the author did intend for the book to be for sale to people in all countries, and the problem was at their end.

Anyway, it still took them 1.5 weeks to fix (and oddly enough, the next day when I looked it up, out of plain curiosity, I got the same message *again*, and now it's fixed again... *rolls eyes*).

Yeah, experienced this too. I don't think all the eBooks were fixed, only those from which the publisher filed a complaint (we did, Amazon fixed it).

[jbcohen]

I can certainly understand what you mean about not wanting to read printed books. I seem to have developed a rather strong distate for printed books and the fact that I need to proctect them when a quick rain shower happends. Tend to preferr the electronic books, however I refuse to pay more for the electronic book then the printed book. I will simply not buy that book when thats the case. I also have a strict price limit and sorry to say that mr goodkind writes well however his books are too expensive for my tates.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I can certainly understand what you mean about not wanting to read printed books. I seem to have developed a rather strong distate for printed books and the fact that I need to proctect them when a quick rain shower happends.

So what ebook reader do you have that do not need to be protected in rain?