Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
See Charlie Stross's blog post referenced earlier in the thread about some of the steps in the process before a book reaches the stage of actual publication. Tell me which you suggest not be done to save money.
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Dennis
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Streamlining--I would suggest the marketing approval steps be left out (There's the big meetings where they bicker about which books get published and marketing does an analysis). Is that important? Yes, it is--but let's say they're taking a few books through only an ebook release first. Cut some of the overhead meetings. Par down the number of people who have say in art, and so on. Cut back on marketing through channels that add additional cost.
Basically go at some of these books like a self-publisher. Buy cheaper art (I did). Definitely edit and copyedit. Cut it loose to all the major retailers. See which books get some traction and go from there to any next steps. And in fact, this is what some publishers are doing--only they are letting people self-publish, following the numbers and picking up writers when they see success--and then they price the book higher, take a larger cut from the author (because they have to with their overhead--there's only so many people who are going to make a living from a book) and so on. (There's about 5 authors who have recently seen interest from agents and/or publishers over on kindleboards.com--this doesn't mention those already signed like R.J. Keller, Karen McQuestion, Sam...what is his last name--he wrote Metagame, I think the title is. )
I know that some of the largest overhead in a company is salary, retirement and healthcare. People talk about the book cost, but it really is the people cost behind it. You would have to leave out some of the people cost and the one that can be put off until later is probably marketing. Cover art is already being cut drastically down to photoshopping images, so they actually have made cuts there in their cost. I don't *like* that cut, but it is a reality.
It's actually easier and cheaper for me to do it on my own, but I think it should also be easier for small publishers to lower their costs. I just read a post from a small publisher (her company was bought so she is no longer small). Her thoughts on pricing? People won't buy it if we price it too low-we want to look like the big guys so no one thinks we're less.
The smaller (we) are, the more nimble we have to be. And I don't happen to agree with "price too low and no one will buy because it's a reflection on quality." It's possible she is right--but my best selling books are the series that starts at $1.99.
My point is, that if publishers *know* there is a market for books under 5 dollars, they have got to find a way to hit that target--if it's only via ebooks, then they still need to hit that target--or someone else will.
I happen to think there is a market there, which is why I cater to it. But I could be wrong. Maybe pricing the book higher and having that marketing and a publicist is really the right answer.