Quote:
Originally Posted by Pushka
That is such a silly little post, however the others make good points. As Harmon rightly says, while my husband is a best selling author in his category, his genre is the not kind that the 'people must have it now or their life isn't worth living' would buy. So, Blue Tyson, this was not a post about MY husband and ME at all! And nor has he received any 1star reports.
BUT as the partner of the author I have a little more background to what it is like to live with an author, deal with the business of having a book edited and published, negotiate on distribution, and see what the audience think of what has become 'their baby'. Authors genuinely CARE about how people enjoy their books and to see the 1star reviews would be personally devastating. They invest their life into writing books, it takes years to write a quality product, and then to have their efforts undermined by a campaign like this is soul destroying. That is why many of you have reported that the author will write back to you, but the publisher couldnt give a rats.
So any of you know how hard it is to get a book published? Contracts are signed months ahead, and if a series is negotiated, years ahead. And these would all have been negotiated well before the ebook became such an important thing. Authors have VERY little control over how their book is distributed.
I understand your concerns but you are aiming at (and hurting) the wrong target.
|
We are quite aware of all of that.
However, if a company is so hopeless that they can't negotiate changes to a contract for something not exactly new - that has been going on for years?
Does a smart industry do which:
A) Negotiate between major parties so that each gets a cut of sales appropriately, recognising that things change.
or
B) Don't sell anything to anyone, ensuring that they all make less money, and cry about how tough things are and that it is no longer 1989. Ensuring in the process that a market is completely underserved and have people dislike them so much that they will turn to free options, forever.
Publisher strategy to sell fewer books may be deliberate - what are they trying to do? Brinksmanship to see who dies first and they get that market? Or have more authors that 'fail' so they keep getting new cheaper ones. That's possible, I imagine.
Amazon could try a fun experiment random - on an ad hoc basis refuse to ship paper books to the same countries in exactly the same ways publishers are treating the digital product. They are not likely to obviously, but would certainly show how silly it is. Or delay shipping paper books until the ebook has been out for a month. Or they might just be stocking up the champagne for the day Borders dies. An article today about Barnes and Noble propping up their worth with sales of Nooks. So a brilliant idea to retard your growth and profits in this arena.