Big time authors not happy either

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Those authors who did very well with the old legacy methods will certainly support that system. Why bite the hand that feeds them?

Because the hand that "feeds" them is simultaneously the hand the "shears" them?
And the shears are leaving them feeling really cold when they get their ebook royalty statements?

Some authors can smell the coffee better than others and, as the survey says; some established authors are finding their hand-feeding to be less satisfying than it used to be. The grass on the far side of the gate looks tempting and with no gates in place anymore...

It's early.
I'll bet a similar survey in 2016 (with ebooks "espected" to tally up 50% of publishing revenues) will have a very different flavor.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Edward M. Grant

In most industries that would have resulted in internal enquiries and people would have been sacked, up to and including CEOs.

If most industries really do fire staff for missing acquisition opportunities no else spotted, I'm thankful to be a civil servant

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

If most industries really do fire staff for missing acquisition opportunities no else spotted, I'm thankful to be a civil servant

Missing acquisition opportunities includes picking up losers as well as passing on brilliance. Doing it once or twice brings unwanted attention; more than that and you *will* be shown the door. It is common in the entertainment industries like Movies, TV, Sports, etc where there is a fixed acquisition budget and your job depends on how well your choices/reccomendations pan out.

If you're a gatekeeper, you'd better be a *good* gatekeeper.
Cause the beancounters are watching...

(And yes, it *is* a different word outside public service. Salaries tend to be higher but the uncertainty is higher too.)

[Santos]

Originally Posted by Ninjalawyer

The big advantage of a publisher is getting access to their distribution channels and marketing efforts. But if those distribution channels are becoming less and less relevant and the marketing efforts are often a joke (and a joke that the author isn't even consulted on), then it's not that surprising that a lot of authors would be questioning why they're bothering to trade away control of their work for increasingly negligible benefits.

Big publishers won't go away, but I think times are going to get very lean very quickly for some of them. Technology is making what they do less and less relevant and they don't seem to be adapting well to make themselves relevant in other ways.

Agreed and well said. It's so easy to self publish now, with the only downfall of self advertising