‘There will be no more professional writers in the future’

[xg4bx]

"Ewan Morrison is an established British writer with a credit-choked resume and a new book out, Tales from the Mall, that the literary editor of the venerable Guardian newspaper hailed as “a really important step towards a literature of the 21st century.”

By his own account, Morrison is also being driven out of business by the ominously feudal economics of 21st-century literature, “pushed into the position where I have to join the digital masses,” he says, the cash advances he once received from publishers slashed so deep he is virtually working for free.

From the heights of the literary pantheon to the lowest trenches of hackery, where contributors to digital “content farms” are paid as little as 10 cents for every 1,000 times readers click on their submissions, writers of every stature are experiencing the same pressure. Authors are losing income as sales shift to heavily discounted, royalty-poor and easily pirated ebooks. Journalists are suffering pay cuts and job losses as advertising revenue withers. Floods of amateurs willing to work for nothing are chasing freelance writers out of the trade. And all are scrambling to salvage their livelihoods as the revolutionary doctrine of “free culture” obliterates old definitions of copyright."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/...rticle4441060/

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I feel bad for journalists but I think authors are probably going to do alright. Heck they have even more options now than they did before. I'm not going to buy drivel just because it's cheap.

[taustin]

Some authors are certainly doing all right. A few have become millionaires just from ebook sales. Even more traditional authors are doing as well as they always have - not well for most, but the best sellers make plenty. Makes me wonder what Morrison's doing wrong.

[Tomsk]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

...., the cash advances he once received from publishers slashed so deep he is virtually working for free.

I guess authors are joining the rest of the working class.
Do the work first, then get paid.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

Authors are losing income as sales shift to heavily discounted, royalty-poor and easily pirated ebooks.

I'm a bit confused by this. Why are ebooks "royalty-poor"? I thought ebooks generally commanded higher royalties, whether traditionally published or self-published.

[Top100EbooksRank]

These authors are doing all right self-publishing and get 65-70% royalties off the sale price. A few self-published millionaires among this list.

http://selfpublishingsuccessstories.blogspot.com/

The "200,000+ self-published ebooks sold" club:

Barbara Freethy - over 2 million ebooks sold (April 2012)
Amanda Hocking - 1,500,000 ebooks sold (December 2011)
John Locke- more than 1,100,000 eBooks sold in five months
Gemma Halliday - over 1 million self-published ebooks sold (March 2012)
Michael Prescott - more than 800,000 self-published ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
J.A. Konrath - more than 800,000 ebooks sold (April 2012)
Bella Andre - more than 700,000 books sold (May 2012)
Darcie Chan - 641,000 ebooks sold (May 2012)
Chris Culver - over 550,000 (Dec 2011)
Heather Killough-Walden - over 500,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
Selena Kitt - "With half a million ebooks sold in 2011 alone"
Stephen Leather - close to 500,000 books sold (Nov 2011)
CJ Lyons - almost 500,000 ebooks sold (Dec 2011)
J.R. Rain - more than 400,000 books sold (Sept 2011)
Bob Mayer - 347 sold in Jan to over 400,000 total sold by year's end (Dec 2011)
Rick Murcer - over 400,000 ebooks in one year (May 2012)
Tracey Garvis-Graves - sold more than 360,000 copies of her first novel
Tina Folsom - over 300,000 books sold (October 2011)
J Carson Black - more than 300,000 books sold (November 2011)
Terri Reid - 300,000 sold (May 2012)
Marie Force - 300,000+ sold (June 2012)
Liliana Hart - "my total sales for one year have now exceed 300,000 books (June 2012)
T.R. Ragan - 293,202 books sold (May 2012)
B.V. Larson - over 250,000 books sold (Dec 2011)
Kerry Wilkinson - more than 250,000 books sold (Feb 2012)
M. R. Mathias - "I'm up to nearly 250k (in just two years) (June 2012)
H.P. Mallory - more than 200,000 ebooks sold (July 2011)
Scott Nicholson - Just guessing, I'd put my worldwide sales total between 200k-250k
David Dalglish - more than 200,000 (May 2012)
Antoinette Stockenberg - total sales stand at 216,686 (June 2012) - private email
Cheryl Bolen - 200,000 sold (June 2012)
Jennifer Ashley/Ashley Gardner - 200,000 sold mark in early June 2012 - private email
Nick Spalding - "I'm lucky enough to be in the 200,000 + total sales club now (June 2012)"
Catherine Bybee - nearly 200,000 of the novel Wife By Wednesda (Jan 2012)
Jamie McGuire - hundreds of thousands of copies sold of Beautiful Disaster
Hugh Howey- crossed the 200,000 sold mark in June 2012

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I'm a bit confused by this. Why are ebooks "royalty-poor"? I thought ebooks generally commanded higher royalties, whether traditionally published or self-published.

Well, he's really complaining about the lack of a huge advance.

the cash advances he once received from publishers slashed so deep he is virtually working for free.

Theoretically, it's simply getting your royalties upfront, but unless the book is a huge hit, the author comes out well ahead. Because in books, authors generally don't have to repay the advance if they got overpaid.

So basically, he's really complaining that being a literary guy with lots of contacts in the book industry and being a darling of reviewers, he now actually has to sell books, not just be an "artist".

[cfrizz]

Ehh, sounds like another disgruntled old fart who refuses to change with the times.

[MikeOxlittle]

This guy is a tool.

“I’ve been making culture professionally for 20 years, and going back to working on spec again seems to be a very retrograde step,” Morrison says.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Top100EbooksRank

These authors are doing all right self-publishing and get 65-70% royalties off the sale price. A few self-published millionaires among this list.

http://selfpublishingsuccessstories.blogspot.com/

The "200,000+ self-published ebooks sold" club:

<here a list of 36 authors>

I love these kinds of posts that are made to prove that success is just around the corner for self-publishing authors. Smashwords alone has more than 50,000 authors and nearly 140,000 books listed. Who knows how many more authors there are that are exclusive to Amazon. But just using the 50,000 Smashwords authors, the 36 success stories represent 0.00072% of authors -- not very good odds in any gambler's book.

The reality is that very few authors will be successful as self-publishers.

The statistic I'd like to see is how many of these successful self-publishing authors became self-publishing authors and successful without first having been published by a traditional publisher. What I mean is this: How much of, for example, Konrath's success is based on his having first been published traditionally and having built a fan base that way? I don't doubt that Konrath has added tremendously to that starting fan base, but it is generally harder to start from zero than from something.

I'd also like to know how many of the successful self-publishers are one-offs; that is, successfully self-published 1 ebook and then saw a decline in sales of subsequent ebooks or simply didn't publish additional ebooks.

[kennyc]

Yeah, a bit of a whiner methinks. The industry is changing, not just because of ebook, but the entire internet/web capability of delivering information. There are also very few buggy-whip technicians around these days.

Meh...

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by rhadin

But just using the 50,000 Smashwords authors, the 36 success stories represent 0.00072% of authors -- not very good odds in any gambler's book.

The reality is that very few authors will be successful as self-publishers.

That's a fair point, but what I'd like to know, and haven't seen anywhere, is how those figures compare to traditionally published authors. What percentage of traditionally published authors sell 200,000+? I have no idea, but I think it'd be informative to find out.

All that said, though, how many authors sell 200,000+ is of less interest to me than how many authors make a living from writing.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by rhadin

The statistic I'd like to see is how many of these successful self-publishing authors became self-publishing authors and successful without first having been published by a traditional publisher.

Being published by a corporation might have been an advantage in the days when they actually promoted the writers they signed up, and it's still the only way your books have any chance of getting into book shops for a few weeks, but it's becoming less and less of an advantage all the time.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I'm a bit confused by this. Why are ebooks "royalty-poor"? I thought ebooks generally commanded higher royalties, whether traditionally published or self-published.

The Pie is now split into far more pieces.

It may ultimately also be a bigger pie, but without the cost wall that used to limit the number of books offered, the pie is just going to be split into so many pieces that most pieces will be smaller than the pieces authors who managed to get published used to get.

This turn of has been forecast by many of us who started collecting ebooks back in the nineties and before. A lot of people discounted the thought back then. They aren't jeering at the thought anymore.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Yeah, a bit of a whiner methinks. The industry is changing, not just because of ebook, but the entire internet/web capability of delivering information. There are also very few buggy-whip technicians around these days.

Meh...

The divorcee next door has been trying to catch a milk man for a week.
She looks so desperate.
Life just isn't what it used to be...