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Originally Posted by Trenien
Isn't your ultimate goal "earning money from being read"? If it was "being read" only, you'd just give your books away and that'd be it, wouldn't you?
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Yes, earning money is good. I simply meant I'd rather make money with my stories... and I don't care if they're bound in paper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenien
Where I think you're mistaken is in thinking that somebody reading an ebook without paying for it means one lost sale period. In the realm of books, the example given above and a few indirect evidences from Baen tend to show that's not true. As far as I know, there's no data for movies, but plenty with music that show the same thing.
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I do realize that such people may recommend me to others... but so do people who pay for books, who, I might add, may be a bit more discerning about a product they had to pay for. In addition, on this forum we've heard from plenty of people who have obtained an e-book without paying for it, but have not gone out and bought the printed book... even when they said they planned to. So, having someone read a book for free doesn't guarantee a single sale, either.
Life's too short, and I'm just one guy. I'd rather concentrate on paying customers, and numbers I can track, instead of invisibles I can't track.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trenien
Now, of course, it appears you're favoring ebooks not only because of the convenience for self-publication, but also out of other, more ecological concerns. In that case your problem seems to figure out a model where you can use the essentially free distribution to your advantage. To be clear: as I understand, you don't earn enough from your books to live off of them, which seems to indicate your current "I sell ebooks and only if you buy one copy should you be able to read it" isn't good enough.
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It's good enough for me, as it's just supplementary income at this point. Since I don't have to do this just to pay my mortgage, it's cool. If someday I decide I need more, I would find a publisher, patron, or advertiser, set up a contract, spend all my time writing, and that would be my life. In the future, it just might be.
For me, this is future speculation: "Let's see if I can get this to pay off during my golden years." It's not panning out yet... neither did a lot of authors, who took years to make it big enough to give up their day jobs. But I've got time to try a few things and see what works, and if I play my cards right, I might at least earn a nice supplementary nest egg for retirement. No pressure.
Almost forgot:
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Originally Posted by Trenien
Doctorow would call you mistaken. Actually so would Neil Gaiman. |
Neil and Cory are already famous, are already dedicated to selling printed books, and see e-books as a promotional tool. If you're not printing, that model won't work for you. And even Neil understands:
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I'm one of those authors who is fortunate enough to make my living from the things I've written. If I thought that giving books away would make it so that I could no longer make my living from writing and be forced to go out and get a real job -- or that other authors would be less likely to be able to make a living -- I wouldn't do it.
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