HarperCollins returns to Full Agency pricing

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

I don't know that I would be horrified, especially with a money making opportunity. But I would be cautious. I'd imagine that some authors would be happy to do it, others perhaps not.

BAEN runs a reader community where authors routinely upload snippets of unproofed works in progress. David Weber once uploaded the entire manuscript by accident. It was, of course, removed fairly quickly. There was enough interest in it that it was added to the eARC release.

Contrary to popular myth, experienced writers can and often do produce publication ready first drafts. Especially with modern on-the-fly spellcheckers and grammar checkers at their command.

I've only bought a couple of BAEN eARCs (Weber and Drake, to be exact) and found them to be almost indistinguishable from the final release, with maybe a handful of glitches. I have found more and more egregious problems in allegedly edited books from other publishers.

[fjtorres]

From Digital Book World, June 2014, while US trade publishing has grown significantly since 2006, the BPHs have gone stagnant except for the Fifty Shades spike:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014...actually-make/

The chart (non inflation-adjusted, btw) says it all.

Mergers, price hikes, conspiracy, shifting consumers awsy from cheap mmpb to exoendibe trade paperbacks, with big lottery winner spikes, and still their combined numbers are flat.

Not. A . Healthy. Segment.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Mergers, price hikes, conspiracy, shifting consumers awsy from cheap mmpb to exoendibe trade paperbacks, with big lottery winner spikes, and still their combined numbers are flat.

That's probably not actually too bad during a global recession, when many people have less money to spend on luxuries (which is what most book sales are).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's probably not actually too bad during a global recession, when many people have less money to spend on luxuries (which is what most book sales are).

By the US trade business has *grown* in that time.
There are more people buying books than ever and the total market has grown.
What is happening is the growth is not coming in their segment.

And it really goes back to before the recession, 2006, 2007, and even earlier.
Nate the great covered this in his blog last year:

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/0...ustry-numbers/

They are squeezing more money out of their remaining customers to stay afloat but the number of customers is declining with the increased prices.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can you give an example of this, please, Jon?

http://www.amazon.com/Different-endi...sin=0307710300

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

http://www.amazon.com/Different-endi...sin=0307710300

Thanks. That's certainly not normally the case with eARCS.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks. That's certainly not normally the case with eARCS.

No, it's not, but I wonder if it will become more common with the way things are published these days. Ha!

I'd like to give another Nod to Baen's forum and publishing. I learned a lot from Baen's Bar. Its participants when I was on there were very generous with their time (and their criticism). It's learning by fire, but it's definitely learning. Because of it, I think there are writers from there who can put forth fairly "solid" drafts for the editor. They may or may not employ beta readers before that draft or use other mechanisms to get the draft closer to publication-ready. The thing is, once you've been on a place like Baen's Bar for any length of time, you learn some valuable lessons about writing tools (and I mean techniques not software type tools.) It doesn't produce instant stars, but it does allow a writer to polish a process and learn the value of beta readers, another set of eyes and to some degree it teaches how to string together a good story. It is especially useful for short story writers and those in the fantasy and sci/fi areas.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's probably not actually too bad during a global recession, when many people have less money to spend on luxuries (which is what most book sales are).

Hum, in 2006 they had 8.624 billion in sales and 817 million in earning, in 2013 they had 9.262 billion in sales and 1.007 billion in earnings. If that's stagnate, then there are a whole lot of companies out there that would like to be that stagnate. The big five publishers are mature companies. Mature companies rarely show massive growth gains that start ups can show. It's a lot easier to show 100% growth when you are talking figures in the thousands and when you are talking figures in the billions.

[DiapDealer]

Stagnate = verb
Stagnant = adjective

We've had this conversion before.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Hum, in 2006 they had 8.624 billion in sales and 817 million in earning, in 2013 they had 9.262 billion in sales and 1.007 billion in earnings. If that's stagnate, then there are a whole lot of companies out there that would like to be that stagnate. The big five publishers are mature companies. Mature companies rarely show massive growth gains that start ups can show. It's a lot easier to show 100% growth when you are talking figures in the thousands and when you are talking figures in the billions.

And the deflation of the buying power of a dollar was what during that same seven year period?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

And the deflation of the buying power of a dollar was what during that same seven year period?

$1 in 2006 was the equivalent of about $1.16 in 2013.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can you give an example of this, please, Jon?

Here is an example from Carrie Ryan.

http://carrie-me.blogspot.com/2010/0...our-third.html

Step nine: Advanced Reader Copies. Generally I think the ARCs are created from the initial type-set pages BEFORE they've been proofed by anyone. This is why there can be so many errors in ARCs and also why the ARC isn't always the same as the final book (I rewrote part of the ending of The Dead-Tossed Waves at this stage which is why the end in the ARC isn't the same in the final book).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks. That's certainly not normally the case with eARCS.

True, it's not normally, the case, but you have no idea what changes there will be unless you read the ARC and the release.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

True, it's not normally, the case, but you have no idea what changes there will be unless you read the ARC and the release.

I might be mistaken on this, but at one time, I believe that you got the final release as well as the ARC from baen. It doesn't seem to still be the case and who knows, I may be mistaken, but that's what I remember. I do have both ARC and final released book for most of the ARC's that I have. For the most part, I haven't noticed any differences.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Stagnate = verb
Stagnant = adjective

We've had this conversion before.

Who made you the grammar police. Or is that the grammatical police?