Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks
I don't think it has to be this drastic. Many a small publisher works from POD/small print runs rather than mass market or hardback printing. The reason they do that is because they can't afford to do massive printings/warehousing and so on. If they ever get a big hit or an author that is steadily doing better
they can slowly increase print runs.
No, there is no way to know what the public will love and buy ahead of time--but in this electronic/feedback age, there has to be a way to improve the models. If a single editor can't pick the winners, the expense model has to change. And truthfully, it has changed even before ebooks. In the olden days, publishers used to sort their own slush piles. These days, agents do that work for them--getting a cut from authors for the efforts of networking, selling, knowing the market and so on. Models need to continue changing and they need to include ebooks.
Of course, most importantly, and what started this whole conversation: If there is a customer willing to part with money, find a way to get that customer a product and take their money.
I don't think the model of "buy the hardback because that is what we are selling" will work over the long term. It's possible it may work for a while, and I say that because it worked for a long time with paperback/hardbacks. But I think the audience is more educated about what they want and more used to getting it. We see more than just what a single bookstore or two presents on the shelf. In this age, there are more methods to get things we want as well. It's easier to hear about a book, to find out if your library has it, to find it used and so on. The landscape is changing. Ever so.
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Don't get me started on agents, for me they're a notch below child-molesters (shamelessly stealing a Woody Allen joke and fully aware of the irony too).
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, writers need to be their own publishers. They need to cut these parasitic old industries away from the flesh and start doing all this stuff for themselves. We're entering a very radical time in writing, it hasn't been this way since the 1960's when zines and author-owned publishing companies started to flourish. It's the perfect opportunity for writer and audience to cut a new, fair deal.
I've stopped buying from corporate publishers now, same as I don't buy from RIAA affiliated music publishers. The creators are never paid what they deserve, my money is bypassing the pockets of the artists and going into the faceless coffers of some industry that treats artists like shit.
Four month delays, eight months, two years, doesn't matter any more. I'm no longer a customer and there are more joining me every day.