Quote:
Originally Posted by axel77
First the ad on the website does what 0.02 cents per click?
And about merchandising, you don't get it, if I'm not Rowling or King, but this is my first book I hope to get some readers for... Nobody is going to make toys for this book, even if its free.
I mean the production of this toys already only starts to make sense if you have hugh quantities.
It doesn't work for 99% of the books out there.
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You know... I promote the idea of patron/sponsoring, though I do not currently have a patron or sponsor. And I may never get one, whether I want one or not. The point to patronage or sponsoring is that someone will provide the money you want to make a profit off of publishing an e-book that no one wants to pay for.
But I never meant to imply that 100% of hopeful e-book authors will be able to go this way. There will be many authors that will seek sponsors or patrons, and be turned down, in the same way that television networks will turn down a pilot for a TV show if they are sure it will not be popular, and therefore will not sell sponsored products. That leaves many people with pilot TV shows, and unread manuscripts, twisting in the wind.
Hopefully, such a situation will mean
mostly good material gets sponsored, and
mostly bad material does not get sponsored, weeding out the bad from the good content. I emphasize "mostly," because we all know the system often passes on potentially good material, and accepts what turns out to be bad material. In some cases, good material simply goes unseen. In other cases, the good material must find another way to get out to consumers... and for e-books, this might mean convincing readers that it is worth... yes...
paying the author directly for the book. (This is the way I sell right now.) Or finding some way to make money that no one else has thought of yet. (It's a young market. There's bound to be ideas no one has developed yet, to profit off of digital material.)
If, someday, the e-book market demands every book to be free, and only sponsored/patroned writers can produce e-books, I will have to search for my own sponsor/patron, and I may very well be one of those left twisting in the wind. Bad luck for me... but as someone pointed out, "the world does not owe me a living."
Bottom line: I can't predict what is going to work for you (or me, for that matter). You have to see what will work for you, based on the quality of your work, and the skill and luck you have marketing yourself to readers, sponsors or patrons. I will have to try the same thing, and at that point, we'll find out whether I'll keep writing, or if this is the last you'll hear from me.