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JaneFancher · 04-01-2010, 01:02 PM

Surprisingly interesting thread!

Just a few thoughts from an author caught squarely in the middle of this amazing technological shift.

I have to say that piracy has never really troubled me. I want people to read my books, get excited, and be looking for the next one. Considering what a lousy job the publishers did of accomplishing that, I'll take readers any way I can get them. It's my job to write something good enough that the readers will want to keep me in business, not rip me off

Considering the lousy job most pirates are doing of formatting and editing their OCRs, I'm fairly confident that people who want to reread my books will come to me for the e-book, once they know it's legitimately available.

It takes time...lots of time...to create a good-looking ebook. Most pirates don't bother. Then again, most publishers aren't bothering, either, from what I've seen/heard.

Authors do care about how their books look. We care about ease of manipulation... Closed Circle's first books came out without ToCs. We're struggling now not only to get ToCs in but to make them easily negotiated, in as many formats as we can. In a book with five sections, each with as many as seventeen sub-chapters, this is a trick.

Since CJ, Lynn and I began the Closed Circle project last year, I have been overwhelmed by the support of our readers. They understand the economics...if they don't buy, we can't produce more. It's really very simple. Are we making a living off it? Not by a long shot. Yet. But we don't even have all our (currently pirated) backlist up. We maintain our optimism.

It would be nice....I guess...if the publishers would get smart and realize the value of their backlist in the ebook market, but with the exception of Baen, they're all out for the next Dead Tree bestseller. And if they do get onto the value of that backlist, I'm really afraid they'll find yet another way to screw the author who produced it in the first place.

I consider myself lucky. I own e-rights to all my back list and I've probably already made more on them than I'd ever have made on what a publisher would have given me, even tho their sales would be far larger. This doesn't mean I'm raking it in, not in any sense, it's just that backlist sold for, say, $2.00 a pop would mean I'd make a whole sixteen cents per sale by a publisher. It doesn't take many $5 copies directly sold to make up for that. But then I'm also having to make up for the sales the publisher(s) missed over the past twenty years of not making that backlist available.

(The person who talks so blithely about hundreds of thousands of copies being sold is sadly uninformed about the vast majority of the book market.)

Bottom line, I agree that going after the pirates is a phenomenal waste of publisher time and money.

04-01-2010, 01:02 PM	#48
JaneFancher Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 496 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Spokane, Washington Device: Kindle2	Surprisingly interesting thread! Just a few thoughts from an author caught squarely in the middle of this amazing technological shift. I have to say that piracy has never really troubled me. I want people to read my books, get excited, and be looking for the next one. Considering what a lousy job the publishers did of accomplishing that, I'll take readers any way I can get them. It's my job to write something good enough that the readers will want to keep me in business, not rip me off Considering the lousy job most pirates are doing of formatting and editing their OCRs, I'm fairly confident that people who want to reread my books will come to me for the e-book, once they know it's legitimately available. It takes time...lots of time...to create a good-looking ebook. Most pirates don't bother. Then again, most publishers aren't bothering, either, from what I've seen/heard. Authors do care about how their books look. We care about ease of manipulation... Closed Circle's first books came out without ToCs. We're struggling now not only to get ToCs in but to make them easily negotiated, in as many formats as we can. In a book with five sections, each with as many as seventeen sub-chapters, this is a trick. Since CJ, Lynn and I began the Closed Circle project last year, I have been overwhelmed by the support of our readers. They understand the economics...if they don't buy, we can't produce more. It's really very simple. Are we making a living off it? Not by a long shot. Yet. But we don't even have all our (currently pirated) backlist up. We maintain our optimism. It would be nice....I guess...if the publishers would get smart and realize the value of their backlist in the ebook market, but with the exception of Baen, they're all out for the next Dead Tree bestseller. And if they do get onto the value of that backlist, I'm really afraid they'll find yet another way to screw the author who produced it in the first place. I consider myself lucky. I own e-rights to all my back list and I've probably already made more on them than I'd ever have made on what a publisher would have given me, even tho their sales would be far larger. This doesn't mean I'm raking it in, not in any sense, it's just that backlist sold for, say, $2.00 a pop would mean I'd make a whole sixteen cents per sale by a publisher. It doesn't take many $5 copies directly sold to make up for that. But then I'm also having to make up for the sales the publisher(s) missed over the past twenty years of not making that backlist available. (The person who talks so blithely about hundreds of thousands of copies being sold is sadly uninformed about the vast majority of the book market.) Bottom line, I agree that going after the pirates is a phenomenal waste of publisher time and money. Last edited by JaneFancher; 04-01-2010 at 01:05 PM.