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Originally Posted by charleski
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Thanks for the links. Interesting stuff in there.
Carolyn talked about a $500 advance for Regencies, but didn't say what publisher paid that low.
The other commentary was interesting, but talked about a publisher in the Australian market. It's a smaller market with lower unit sales, so I'd expect lower advances. I think a writer might expect a bit better in the US, if thay can get published in the first place.
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Baen has a highly-stratified publishing strategy. They put out full-price hardbacks for authors with established selling-power and trade PBs for those who sell at a lower level. Their ARC program is a canny way to get the more avid fans to pay for a book twice, and do so with a smile. As you yourself noted, they're actively looking for ways to add value to their books in order to attract customers at a premium price-point.
I'd say Baen's strategy is about as far as you can get from the typical genre-fiction race to the bottom. And it shows in the quality of the work that they publish.
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I think Baen is smart. One discovery they've made is that more people buy hardcovers. The original intent of the Free Library was to promore the paper books, and they discovered that people would download from the Free Library, decide they liked the author, and buy the author's next in hardcover. I can't be certain, but I suspect that Baen ebook sales may cannibalize
MMPB sales, but that Baen will not be unhappy about that.
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Self-publishing is a serious option for some genre writers, take a look at J.A. Konrath's breakdown. It's instructive to see how exquisitely price-sensitive his sales are, demonstrating the extent to which this has become a commodity market. If all the books on the shelf are much the same, then you might as well go for the cheapest one.
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Self publishing might be a good option for a write with an established name and following. Whether it's an option for a new author is another matter.
You can write, self-publish, and sell your own books, but the challenge still remains of letting the audience that might like your stuff know you exist. If you hope to make your
living as a writer, self-publishing is not likely to get you there.
Konrath, for example, has interesting numbers, but he's an established author with a track record and a following. He's built an audience for his Jack Daniels series. Would a new unknown author have his experience? I doubt it.
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Dennis