Quote:
Originally Posted by murg
While there can be costs associated with self-publishing ebooks, there are higher costs associated with semi-pro (and pro) video production. For example, just the number of crew involved in the shooting is at least 10 people, all of whom expect to be paid.
One would expect that self-published ebooks are at least at the semi-pro level of quality. I realise that some are lower than this, but then again, some professional video/movies aren't even at the semi-pro level.
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I'm not sure why book publishing should be compared to video, but I do know at least one author who paid a model and photographers for a cover shot/shoot because he couldn't get the cover he wanted any other way. (And it turned out badly after all that). That means at least one model and one photographer and someone to do the photoshopping so it couldn't have been cheap. With publishing these days there is also audio--which we are expected to do ourselves. We have to hire a voice actor after sorting through options and either pay for that or find one willing to do a royalty share. Those costs can be prohibitive considering that audio is a much smaller market than reading books.
I have been on enough writer forums that I can also say it isn't mostly the successful authors paying high prices for ads/marketing. In fact, I'd venture to guess it is the complete opposite. Those who are successful may do an ad or two, but their visibility comes from rankings, word of mouth, reviews and so on. It's those of us who lack visibility who are often enticed to spend money on ads--big money, small money--whatever an author can cobble together. The ad sites aren't making their money off the 10 percent of highly successful authors. That wouldn't be enough ads...
