Quote:
Originally Posted by DawnFalcon
Yea, thing is the market's changing.
For one, the darknet means that misbehaving slits your own throat when it comes to profit in a way which just didn't happen a few decades ago.
For two, there are new ways to find authors which don't rely on boom or bust major author funding. Baen's Universe didn't publish new authors for fun, after all. (Well it was fun as well, but you take my meaning!)
Heck, John Ringo was found because he was part of the community around David Weber. The 1932verse's Grantville Gazette, and associated novels, grew out of a community.
More, bluntly, I am yet to be convinced that the majority of "publisher" functions couldn't be done work-for-hire, as they effective are in, say, much of the pen and paper RPG industry.
samstod - But why are sales like that? Oh yea, one factor: SHELF SPACE! This does not apply to ebooks... (screen space, yes, but there are ways to show things in ways which are considerably superior to a shelf...)
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Certainly they *can* be done work-for-hire, the question is how many new authors can afford to hire them done? And, if they aren't done, how many new authors will *ever* sell enough books that they can afford to hire them?
Sure, some will mortgage their homes (assuming they own one in the first place) to come up with the money-and many more won't. Banks certainly won't lend money to new authors, but publishers will. So maybe this change you're predicting will change publishers from companies who help authors finish, promote, print, & sell their books into companies that give money to authors so they do those things themselves? Not likely, IMO-most authors simply aren't good at those jobs. So they'll either hire publishers to do them, if they can afford them, or they'll 'hire' the publishers for an ownership stake in their book-as they do, in effect, now.
It's possible that the market itself is changing. You mention what I call the 'universe' concept, in sci-fi. That does appear to have been successful-but it doesn't attract me. Too difficult to tell whether or not I'll like a story. Although some 'universes' have multiple storylines that intertwine (such as the Honorverse, branching into the Wages of Sin & Saganami series) but most end up with a main series plus a bunch of short stories of *very* mixed quality. That's why I've read many of the 1632 books, but not any of the Grantville Gazette collections.
And I refuse to read Star Wars or Star Trek. I'm sure there are a few gems among those-but it would cost me way too much in both time & money to find them among all the schlock. So, sadly, the 'universe' concept of finding new authors just doesn't work for me. Maybe I'm wrong-maybe it's the way the industry is going, but I do hope it won't arrive until after I've stopped reading (about the time I stop breathing).
I'm not sure Baen is a good example of publishing in general, although I can't prove it either way. My impression, however, is that sci-fi readers (all Baen's customers, AFAIK) are more supportive of their authors & 'their' publishers than readers in general are (probably because the 'general' publishers tend to ignore sci-fi).
They are, of course, an excellent example of how ebook publishing should be done-and probably will be done, eventually. They're ahead because sci-fi readers, again-IMO, tend to also be early adopters of new technology.
So, for the above reasons, I pretty much exclude Baen when I talk about publishers, in general. And that might be a mistake on my part-if the publishers (including Baen) would open their books we'd really have a better idea of how justified their claims are, as well as whether or not Baen's success is due to a different business model or simply to a different market. But they won't, so all I can do is guess-and my guess (FWIW) is that Baen's success is due to their market. But I could be wrong.