[QUOTE=BillSmithBooks;853929]...the publishers have the exclusive right to publish those works (because the authors are suckers)...[quote]
That's a bit harsh, don't you think? A lot of backlist is trapped in old contracts made at a time when the home computer, let alone the internet and ebooks, wasn't even a glimmer on the horizon. Even contracts made in the last ten years were made before writers truly began to comprehend how the ebook market was going to go. And bottom line, I WISH publishers would come up with an equitable solution because the last thing I want to be spending my time doing is setting up yet one more website, converting ebooks and doing all those things I think the readers deserve to have. I'm a writer, not all these other thing.
Publicity is the hardest because at heart, we writers are hermits.
At Closed Circle, we're going the DRM free route because we want to work with, not against, our readers. But in doing that, we're cheating ourselves of exactly those benefits of new technology that every other entertainment source revels in. How many copies of the same movie have people bought because they went from tape, to dvd to blueray?
Frankly, we respect our readers. Most authors do, whether they've taken a year out of their writing schedules, as we have, to learn and try to understand the ebook market, or not. Most we talk to are watching CC carefully to see how it works out for us. But it's scary, it's confusing, and it's a hell of a lot of work.
All I'm trying to say is, please don't draw conclusions unless you've walked in our shoes for the past ten years.
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In turn, it's time to make stars of the authors (mostly independent) who do get it. When you find someone you like, buy their books. Tell your friends. Promote their works on your blogs and Facebook posts, etc. -- tell your friends, "You have got to read this."
Turn the people who "get it" into the big stars of the publishing world.
If a few of these books hit best-seller lists and achieve high sales levels, the readers and authors have made their point and the industry cannot ignore those successes.
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Can't argue with that!
