The morality of circumventing geographical restrictions only to buy cheaper ebooks

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Soldim

I do care for the authors and understand they want to sell books for a reasonable price. If they set a reasonable prince, generally decided together with their publisher, you really think they object to someone buying their books for that price?

Personally, I strongly doubt any author prefers me to download their books as you advocate.

Authors and publishers are free to set different prices for different markets -- and I am free to choose the market where I buy a book.

The author has no say in the price set when the deal is done with a traditional publishers. None. Several authors have tried to talk their publisher into doing sales and such and most of them aren't given the time of day.

As for caring about the author and assuming others buy the books, even with the prices for trad books, I can name three authors off the top of my head--wonderful and good authors--who had to stop writing to earn a living a different way. The average midlist authors (ones you find in the bookstores that are not best sellers) do not make enough money to earn a living.

There was an article on Galleycat yesterday where two authors were interviewed. They are doing well now, but that was not always the case. It's hard to make it in any business, but writing and other arts are about as difficult as it gets.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by caleb72

I actually wonder what the impact would be to having only global publishing rights. Has anyone tried to project how that would change things? Do you think it could wipe out the presence of bigger publishers in smaller countries? Could there be any impact on the availability of English works (for example) in other languages?

I don't know of a publisher who has tried it because in the past there's distribution issues. They have to find a local publisher to the region. That said, Amazon is doing it with both their print (POD) and their ebooks. But that is going to impact mostly self-published or backlist authors who do control price. As an indie, I can charge different prices in different regions for both print or ebook. I pretty much let the exchange rates dictate the prices (meaning it's a straight across equal deal) but in the case of ebooks on some publishing platforms, there is a different "lowest price possible." Specifically kobobooks comes to mind. I can't charge less than .99 pence for example (even though given an exchange rate, I think a 99 cent US price is closer to 79 pence.)

So there are some things that make pricing a bit wonky.

Will what indies are doing impact prices? I think so. Sure, some people won't read indie work, but there are a lot of readers looking for free and bargain books. It may not sustain indies in the long run, but it does pressure publishers to compete at least on occasion (sales, to get visibility, etc.)

I don't think any traditional publisher is nimble enough to change the way things work now. They may attempt to buy ebook rights for all geos and sell that, but printing is more complicated unless they choose to do some sort of POD deal.

[fjtorres]

The Galleycat article is a great read:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...rs-earn_b77578

The reddit thread in question puts publisher "contributions" in perspective:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...s_here/cc5i036

To break numbers down a bit more.
Mass market paperback sales are generally 6% - 8% of list (which is generally $7.99 so $0.48 to $0.64. But if sold at a high discount they can be 6% to 8% of NET so cut those numbers in half.
Trade paperback sales are the same % but since they sell for more $15 - $16 - you earn $0.90 - $1.28 if sold at "normal discounts" - see above for how that can be highly reduced.
Hardcovers usually start at 10% and go up to 15% if you sell a certain number of copies. If a hardcover sells for $25.00 the author is getting $2.50 to $3.75 a book.
ebooks are 25% of NET which is 70% of list price which nets out to 17.5%. A $7.99 ebook earns the author $1.40

There are good reasons why going author-publisher Indie is so attractive to writers.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The Galleycat article is a great read:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...rs-earn_b77578

The reddit thread in question puts publisher "contributions" in perspective:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...s_here/cc5i036



There are good reasons why going author-publisher Indie is so attractive to writers.

Bingo. I can make almost 35 cents a copy for a 99 cent book. Sure, it's not even pizza money until I sell a lot of copies, but it's inline with what my trad peers are making. I'll never be in hardback, but I can make almost that much in commissions from a 2.99 book. And that is Pizza money!!!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The Galleycat article is a great read:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat...rs-earn_b77578

The reddit thread in question puts publisher "contributions" in perspective:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...s_here/cc5i036



There are good reasons why going author-publisher Indie is so attractive to writers.

Although I'd like to note on the Galleycat article -- I could live on 2k a month. I haven't gotten there with my writing yet, but I've definitely seen the fluctuation with the earnings. It goes up and down month by month. Planning is impossible for the most part.

[xendula]

I always thought it would be a good idea if authors set up a way to send money via Paypal on their websites, and I'm not just talking self-published authors (is that being used synonymously to "indie authors" here, or is there a difference between self-published and indie?).

I've read a lot of books from my library after which I was thinking that I should purchase the next book they publish, but that I'd much rather get the book from the library and donate the full purchase price to them directly. The same goes for great audiobook narrators.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by xendula

I always thought it would be a good idea if authors would set up a way to send money via Paypal on their websites, and I'm not just talking self-published authors (is that being used synonymously to "indie authors" here, or is there a diffence between self-published and indie?).

I've read a lot of books from my library after which I was thinking that I could purchase the next book they publish, but that I'd much rather get the book from the library and donate the full purchase price to them directly. The same goes for great audiobook narrators.

Traditional published authors are usually not allowed to sell the ebooks directly. They can sell print copies in most cases, but it can be a hassle given the whole post office thing. They also have to order and pay for them upfront, another hassle.

Yes, indies and self-pub'd are used interchangeably (at least by me).

It is time-consuming and requires some technical expertise to set up a storefront and most buyers seem to prefer the bigger retailers. Only a handful of people who have purchased my earlier books tend to buy from my storefront. Most of them are in countries other than the US as well. I've had a few Kindle owners write and say they would buy from my site, but don't know how to transfer the file. I actually get this a lot because I pre-release titles first from my own store sometimes. That results in some people getting impatient because they don't want to try to side load.

For a lot of authors I think they have to weigh the pros and cons of spending time on a storefront versus writing the next book, versus marketing the current one, versus a day job, etc. It's hard to be all places!

[K. Molen]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Traditional published authors are usually not allowed to sell the ebooks directly...

For a lot of authors I think they have to weigh the pros and cons of spending time on a storefront versus writing the next book...

Xendula can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she was saying authors should set up a store front, just a way to send them money. It could really be as simple as a Paypal donate button.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Xendula can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she was saying authors should set up a store front, just a way to send them money. It could really be as simple as a Paypal donate button.

Oh yes, that would be. But if you wanted to buy their next book direct, that would require contacting them in the case of a trad published author or a storefront for an indie.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Although I'd like to note on the Galleycat article -- I could live on 2k a month. I haven't gotten there with my writing yet, but I've definitely seen the fluctuation with the earnings. It goes up and down month by month. Planning is impossible for the most part.

That is why many don't quit the day job even when making (relatively) good money: uncertainty over sales. Unless you have your "thousand true fans" and are prolific enough to have multiple new releases each year there will be peaks and valleys. And being that productive mean full-time writing.

Something of a chicken and egg quandary, no?

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That is why many don't quit the day job even when making (relatively) good money: uncertainty over sales. Unless you have your "thousand true fans" and are prolific enough to have multiple new releases each year there will be peaks and valleys. And being that productive mean full-time writing.

Something of a chicken and egg quandary, no?

Yup. And mix in some carts with no wheels, a horse that runs faster than the cart can handle (thus the lost wheels), a barn door that may or may not be open and a match waiting to be lit.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by K. Molen

Xendula can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she was saying authors should set up a store front, just a way to send them money. It could really be as simple as a Paypal donate button.

Yes, that's what I meant.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That is why many don't quit the day job even when making (relatively) good money: uncertainty over sales. Unless you have your "thousand true fans" and are prolific enough to have multiple new releases each year there will be peaks and valleys. And being that productive mean full-time writing.

Something of a chicken and egg quandary, no?

Which is the problem a publisher can solve by advances and multi-book contracts. This is one of the intended purposes with a publisher.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tompe

Which is the problem a publisher can solve by advances and multi-book contracts. This is one of the intended purposes with a publisher.

Unless your name is Rowling or King, the current publisher advances are of US$2-3k, which won't keep body and soul together very long.

Which is why the typical trad-pubbed midlisted has a day job.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by tompe

Which is the problem a publisher can solve by advances and multi-book contracts. This is one of the intended purposes with a publisher.

That's the point of the article. A 2k to 5k PER YEAR advances don't do a thing to solve the problem. The one author has years where he makes 70k and years where he makes 7k. And this is after YEARS of publishing traditionally. In the early years he was probably making 2k or nothing.

I'm reading a blog of an author right now who is waiting to see if his current book will be accepted. He has contracts and all the usual bells and whistles, but there's still an acceptance process. The thing has been sitting with his publisher for a couple of months already. He might find out if it's accepted and a pub date in another 6 months. Meanwhile, he has that day job, does some self-publishing, etc. This is not a career for the feint of heart.