Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Aw, shoot. I missed the big power play. I missed the announcement from the traditional publishers that sought to delegitimize all nontraditional publications and those who perpetrate them. I missed all the fire and brimstone and denunciations. I missed all the fun.
|
Apparently you did.
Here's a chance to catch up:
http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2...in-publishing/
The establishment has good reason astrouturf and FUD indie efforts because the danger to them is real, as pointed out recently by Harlequin:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...-at-harlequin/
Quote:
Sales and income at Harlequin were down again in the fourth quarter and for all of fiscal 2013. The company has seen revenues decline steadily for the past five years as both ebook sales and the rise of indie authors have affected Harlequin’s business.
.
.
.
As for 2014, Harlequin’s leadership expects sales to stabilize despite declining ebook prices and the rise of self-publishing. The average price of a best-selling ebook has been hovering around $6.00 for most of 2014. It currently sits at $6.57.
|
Indies may focus on commercial genre books, but the establishment makes a lot of its money from and their business model, much like broadcast TV, needs mass volumes of sales. Indie fragmentation of the market is not good for tradpub bottom lines.
As for Harlequin, well, they are reaping the result of their oh-so-clever self-dealing contracts and 4-6% royalties. Worse than their declining revenues is their documented decline in submissions.