Quote:
Originally Posted by plib
No. I don't.
I mean authors like Bernard Cornwell, George R.R Martin, David Weber, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Eric Flint, John Ringo, Lee Child, Mary Higgins Clark, Nora Roberts/J.D Robb, Rachel Maddow, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Michael Connelly, Stephen King, - add as many more as you like.
They don't need the BPH any more. Once their current contracts expire they can self publish and hit just as many Amazon best seller lists as they do now. Even the up and coming indies know they have more muscle in negotiations than at any time previously. What was it that it took a major publisher to hook Amanda Hocking? $2 million? And she was one of your indies who was presumably incapable of "using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation", who they only managed to catch at the top of the curve.
If the BPH want to catch/keep popular authors then they're going to pay through the nose or they're going to lose them, because they're not the only game in town any more. Either way their profits are going to take a major hit. They probably will survive in some form, but not in any way close to their present structure.
And books using "correct spelling, grammar and punctuation" will continue to be written. Just as they were long before the BPH ever existed.
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Well, just as an aside, Janet Evanovitch has been raking in advances that are so larcenous that there is some speculation that her new publishers are actually losing money publishing her. When her old shop, which paid her $40 million for four books of decreasing quality refused to pony up $50 million for the next 4, she walked out.
Granted she might make more as an independent, but that's not guaranteed. According to her former publisher, her last few books only sold about 919,000 copies, so her after costs commission would have to be more than $12.50 a book to match her current PBH advance.
Author's like that are one of the reason the industry is in the toilet, in my opinion.