Norman Spinrad tries e-book only publishing for new novel

[JeremyR]

Sort of interesting. Apparently he first tested the waters by putting his back catalog up on Amazon and B&N via their self-publishing programs (helped by using pirate scanned copies). But now he's going to try putting out a semi-new novel that way.

Okay, to be honest, he's not the biggest author around, but I certainly have heard of him, he's probably most famous for writing an episode of the original Star Trek ("The Doomsday Machine").

http://normanspinradatlarge.blogspot...ks-is-now.html

Now I’m trying a quantum jump experiment. As far as I know, the first time that a writer of reputation has launched a self-published ebook original first American edition of a major novel.

The novel is MEXICA. The definitive story of Cortes’ conquest of Mexico. The novel was published in Spanish in Mexico where it’s been a best seller. There is a film adaptation in the works in English by El Uno productions in Los Angeles. The novel was written under contract to a British publisher and published in the British rights area, but it bounced all over New York, and I and my agent were unable to find an American publisher, the general rejections being on the grounds that American readers wouldn’t be interested in an historical novel about the key event in Mexican history, this in a country where there are at least 40 or 50 million Mexican-Americans fluent in English whose very culture and ethnic identity were the result.

Finally, in angry desperation, I allowed the Brits to export small numbers their edition to the US. And the novel is now completely out of print in English, including an ebook version done by the British publisher and reverted.

So now I’m offering a first American edition as an ebook on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and maybe, as warranted, elsewhere. I’m pricing it at $9, way below the purchase price of what was the disappeared British ebook.

Anyway, interesting contrast between him and Charlie Stross, (whose blog is where I heard about this first). Some of Stross's work isn't available (including a gap in a series), so someone suggested why not simply have his publisher post the pirate copies. But he didn't think much of that idea, then someone pointed out Mr. Spinrad did just that. And I guess worked out well enough for Mr. Spinrad to try it with this book...

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Sort of interesting. Apparently he first tested the waters by putting his back catalog up on Amazon and B&N via their self-publishing programs (helped by using pirate scanned copies). But now he's going to try putting out a semi-new novel that way.

Okay, to be honest, he's not the biggest author around, but I certainly have heard of him, he's probably most famous for writing an episode of the original Star Trek ("The Doomsday Machine").

http://normanspinradatlarge.blogspot...ks-is-now.html



Anyway, interesting contrast between him and Charlie Stross, (whose blog is where I heard about this first). Some of Stross's work isn't available (including a gap in a series), so someone suggested why not simply have his publisher post the pirate copies. But he didn't think much of that idea, then someone pointed out Mr. Spinrad did just that. And I guess worked out well enough for Mr. Spinrad to try it with this book...

Interesting. I hadn't looked at Norman Spinrad's output on Amazon. I wonder it they're Drm'ed. If not, I might buy a few and see if they need better proofing. If so, i could proof and return to Mr. Spinrad...

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Interesting. I hadn't looked at Norman Spinrad's output on Amazon. I wonder it they're Drm'ed. If not, I might buy a few and see if they need better proofing. If so, i could proof and return to Mr. Spinrad...

I'm not sure, but I think the Amazon versions could be topaz, because they only list file size. Since I have a Nook, I'd be buying the ePub version anyway. Since I hate replacing my paperbacks with ebooks priced several times higher than my original purchase price, I'll probably pass on his backlist, especially since my favorite Spinrad novel, Bug Jack Barron, isn't available.

There's also an amusing dialogue on Spinrad's blog between Spinrad and the trolling gadfly Bowerbird over the pricing of Spinrad's work. Bowerbird apparently was the person who suggested to Spinrad that he use pirate copies of his work as the source for his ebooks. I think that Bowerbird is correct that a lower price will sell more copies, but I'm not convinced that, per Bowerbird's example, lowering the cost from $9 to $3 will sell more than 3 times as many books. I suspect many people who would consider buying Spinrad in ebook are people who already own his DTBs, and like me, debate the cost of replacement. Some authors price their backlist ebooks at a discount to new mass market paperback prices, Spinrad's pricing them at par, and the big publishers have "Classic SF" lines, where they are pricing the works of dead SF authors at trade paperback prices. Who is right? The sad fact is that as backlists get converted to ebooks, either by publisher, author, or pirate, the competition for the consumer's limited dollars by both new and old books gets fiercer.

[ATDrake]

They're DRM-ed for each one I checked (no "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" in the Product Details). Though probably not Topaz, since those are "Print Length" only and the Spinrad books come with a File Size, which means Mobi.

As for pricing, while I liked his work well enough, I personally didn't care enough for what I tried to pay $9 a pop for it especially with DRM restrictions, though I suspect real fans having problems tracking down paper copies would consider it a bargain.

$4-8 per book depending on length, age, and general availability, and overall quality (the newer and hard-to-find Mexica book should be priced higher, a "common" work like The Iron Dream, which I originally read in the library's hardcover copy and later got from their book sale in paperback for 50 cents should be lower, at say $5-6 since it was widely printed a number of times but is a "classic", and $4-ish for Deus X, which was pretty short, as I recall) seems like a better balance than the $3 that this "Bowerbird" was advocating.

Though admittedly, if Mr. Spinrad did price his backlist at $3 or thereabouts, I'd probably pick a bunch of them up even with the DRM.

It's only a little below what I'd be willing to pay for interesting-looking older titles I haven't read in paperback at the used bookstore and I'd consider it a fair enough price for an e-book version with usage restrictions and no equivalent resale value from an author I mildly enjoyed, but aren't particularly attached to otherwise.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

The sad fact is that as backlists get converted to ebooks, either by publisher, author, or pirate, the competition for the consumer's limited dollars by both new and old books gets fiercer.

On the money (have some karma).

I agree, with one small correction: the competition for consumer's eyeballs gets fiercer, as ebook reading devices have opened the doors not only to new releases, not only to backlists of the authors still out of the public domain, but also to electronic public libraries and massive electronic libraries of public domain work.

The convenience of almost instantaneous access to public and net (public domain) libraries makes it even more challenging to sell a new title.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

They're DRM-ed for each one I checked (no "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited" in the Product Details). Though probably not Topaz, since those are "Print Length" only and the Spinrad books come with a File Size, which means Mobi.

As for pricing, while I liked his work well enough, I personally didn't care enough for what I tried to pay $9 a pop for it especially with DRM restrictions, though I suspect real fans having problems tracking down paper copies would consider it a bargain.

$4-8 per book depending on length, age, and general availability, and overall quality (the newer and hard-to-find Mexica book should be priced higher, a "common" work like The Iron Dream, which I originally read in the library's hardcover copy and later got from their book sale in paperback for 50 cents should be lower, at say $5-6 since it was widely printed a number of times but is a "classic", and $4-ish for Deus X, which was pretty short, as I recall) seems like a better balance than the $3 that this "Bowerbird" was advocating.

Though admittedly, if Mr. Spinrad did price his backlist at $3 or thereabouts, I'd probably pick a bunch of them up even with the DRM.

It's only a little below what I'd be willing to pay for interesting-looking older titles I haven't read in paperback at the used bookstore and I'd consider it a fair enough price for an e-book version with usage restrictions and no equivalent resale value from an author I mildly enjoyed, but aren't particularly attached to otherwise.

Thanks ATDrake. Sorry Mr. Spinrad. No purchase, no free labor. I don't buy DRM. (Although a copy of Agents of Chaos would have been nice.)