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Originally Posted by krischik
and Pirate Bay.
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Honestly, I'd be honored to have my stuff up on the pirate bay. Yes, that seems a bit counter intuitive, but think of it this way. If pirates (while that's not the correct term for them, since everyone here calls them pirates anyways, I may as well use the term, even though it's grammatically and technically incorrect) won't share your stuff, then it's either not worth sharing, or you're not known well enough to be worth pirating. It's sorta like all the copycat acts in the music industry. The more people there are doing covers of your songs, the more popular you likely are. The same goes for books. If you're not worth pirating, they won't pirate you. So if you get pirated, consider it an achievement.
And no, I'm not condoning piracy. I'm merely pointing out a fact that pirates only pirate what they feel is worth something. The only exception might be if you're offering something they feel is worth it for free from another location. If it's free, and easy to get, they won't pirate it usually.
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Originally Posted by AnemicOak
It's kinda already happening, in Romance anyway (which is way ahead of other genres as far as ebooks go for the most part). There are a number of authors who write for digital first publishers who have then moved to big pubs. From what I've read some pubs are actively farming those small pubs for authors.
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Oh, so we're seeing this kinda movement in the romance world? Well then, we all know where to watch to see what's going to come down the pipe for the rest of the industry. It's nice to have a genre or group who's the forerunner of what will happen to everyone else. Then we know what to expect.
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Originally Posted by Redfox
Forgive my ignorance, Steven, but those numbers you quoted are huge compared to traditional dead-trees sales for new authors, where selling 10k is considered good. Is that half a million books spread across multiple titles? And what cover price are we talking about? I know Joe Konrath finds that cheaper ebooks sell in higher volumes, but there must be some sweet spot between "too close to paper prices" and "so cheap it must be $h!t"  |
I don't know if it's dead tree only sales or not. I just know the numbers quoted to me. I'd say it's a safe bet to count both types, given the uptick in ebook sales these days. And those numbers are based on single title sales. Yes, I understand that's huge sales for a new, relatively unknown author. But, the big houses don't care. If they're talent scouting you, and they want to know if you've got what it takes, they want to see raw sales in respectably high numbers.
From what I've been able to find, unless you're in some kind of niche genre with low potential sales volume, even new authors with the big houses clear 10,000 books a year. That's only 835 books a month, or about 28 books a day. Dude, I can clear that many copies per title in just three months by working the convention and book show circuit. And that doesn't count bookstores and online sales. So a good book and good marketing will easily get you those numbers.
So if you're not selling books, you're either doing something wrong, or your book needs some work/improving. That's why the BHP's consider such large numbers as a sign that you're a worthwhile investment. Because if you can't clear that many books on your own, you're not worth their time.
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Originally Posted by L.J. Sellers
Agencies setting up publishing ventures, particularly for manuscripts they love but can't sell, is becoming a trend. This may be what keeps agents relevant in the near future. It will certainly change their relationships with publishers.
L.J.
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So in other words, the big houses won't take the risk on new, unproven authors, or good manuscripts they're afraid won't sell, so they create independent subsidiaries that take all the risk for them, and if it's a boom, they get all the benefit/praise, and if it's a bust, they lose nothing. Smart. Kinda like a farm club for publishing. It would be interesting to see where this goes.
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Originally Posted by HamsterRage
...The recent flood of new devices and price drops for eReaders is going to be an extinction event for the big publishers.
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Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
That's what people thought about record labels 10 years ago, and they're still around...
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Darn, you beat me to it! lol.
Yeah, it's true that big labels on the music side of things are hurting from the shift to the new model, and while a few of them will die, the rest will merely move into niche markets not yet touched by the new model, or they'll change to the new model that caters directly to artists with services rather than recording contracts. I see the publishing world going that direction eventually as well.