MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Publishing Industry Myth (half-truth) #1

tyche · 02-06-2010, 07:29 AM

Just like movie and music, the publishing business is built on indenture and they will twist facts to keep themselves not only relevant but seen as the only way to the consumer. In some ways that's true after decades of creating infrastructure to make this self fulfilling prophecy. The Internet can change that radically.

What an author needs is an avenue to reach their readers. Assuming authors want to write and aren't business experts or want to deal with running their own store one of the ways is through major internet content distributors. Apple's App store and Amazon's new ebook offering both give 70% to the owner. There are other options as well.

Let's say you sell your book on Apple & Amazon for $5.99. Your return is $4. You sell 12,500 copies and you've made the 50k advance of olden days.

I don't think we're there quite yet but with millions of devices and growing yearly, it certainly has the ability to turn traditional publishing on its head. Unfortunately, a lot of this is in the authors hands and there will always be enough desperate enough to sign a contract for "guaranteed" money and throw their rights away.

02-06-2010, 07:29 AM	#29
tyche Addict Posts: 227 Karma: 2530 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: PRS-505, iPad	Just like movie and music, the publishing business is built on indenture and they will twist facts to keep themselves not only relevant but seen as the only way to the consumer. In some ways that's true after decades of creating infrastructure to make this self fulfilling prophecy. The Internet can change that radically. What an author needs is an avenue to reach their readers. Assuming authors want to write and aren't business experts or want to deal with running their own store one of the ways is through major internet content distributors. Apple's App store and Amazon's new ebook offering both give 70% to the owner. There are other options as well. Let's say you sell your book on Apple & Amazon for $5.99. Your return is $4. You sell 12,500 copies and you've made the 50k advance of olden days. I don't think we're there quite yet but with millions of devices and growing yearly, it certainly has the ability to turn traditional publishing on its head. Unfortunately, a lot of this is in the authors hands and there will always be enough desperate enough to sign a contract for "guaranteed" money and throw their rights away.