Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
Getting a little off thread here, but a number of years ago, when talking about ebook piracy, Tim O'Reilly said "The real problem for most authors isn't piracy, but obscurity". I would expand on that a bit and say that the biggest reason that some quality authors never made it big is discover-ability rather than anything else. How do you manage to catch your audience's attention in a sea of dreak? It was true prior to the indie movement and it's 1000 times more true now.
Prior to ebooks, an author had a very short window for readers to find their books before the book stores started shipping the unsold books back, with ebooks, an author now can develop a following more slowly. But that assume that readers can find those authors in the flood of ebooks.
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This is very true and one of the reasons I got into ebooks in the first place (as a writer). Discovery (bad or good) was easier because the selection was smaller. There's a similar, but not as easy, opportunity with audio right now--but the freedom of pricing isn't there and the ease of getting to market isn't there either. It takes almost as long to get a good recording of an existing book as it does to write an entirely NEW one--OR you have to pay in the neighborhood of 1500 (and up) to get the book recorded--that means you can get discovered, but alas, you aren't making money because 1500 is quite a bit to earn back when you get 35 percent (and that might be 35 percent of 2.99 if Amazon puts it on sale). With ebooks, good editors could be found for 200 to 500. Artwork? It ranges from 100 on up. That's half the cost of audio.
It is hard to find the good books and it is harder now than it was a few years ago (For me anyway). I am asked now and again why I don't make my first in series free, but it's largely because it's not a good "discovery" mechanism now. There's so much free stuff, it's actually likely to be IGNORED because it's free. Sure, you get lots of downloads, but if the book is never read, no one will go on to buy the next book.
I do agree discovery is a huge issue for writers, but I also think piracy is a problem (not a help) to authors. I have heard all the arguments about discoverability via piracy and whatnot--but I don't buy that argument. If a pirate talks about a book he/she found, he's also likely to pass that book on or tell people where he/she got it for free. I think most pirated books are pirated BECAUSE they have already reached a level of "DISCOVERED" --not the other way around!