Bailout for Books?!!

[Teutonic0]

The switch to electronic print seems inevitable, and some people will always resist these kinds of industry shifts. I'm sure work animal sellers weren't thrilled about the advent of the tractor. My question is whether, and how much, will there always be some sort of demand for printed books (for niche purposes and demand).

But it looks like James Patterson's new book is coming out a week from the printing of the ad, so it's tough to say to what degree he's serious about this, leaving the rest to likely just be a promotional stunt.

[LovesMacs]

I was directed here from another thread that reproduced James Patterson's ad. If he is serious about the survival and growth of literary culture, perhaps he should seek ways to promote reading (that is, the demand side) rather than just publishing (the supply side).

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

If he is serious about the survival and growth of literary culture, perhaps he should seek ways to promote reading (that is, the demand side) rather than just publishing (the supply side).

In this article, he's promoting libraries. That sounds like reading promotion to me.

He is also promoting reading in his day job as an author of highly readable* fiction, widely available from public libraries (including, via Overdrive, as eBooks).

Nonfiction authors often get a large portion of their sales from libraries. Fiction writers -- especially, genre fiction writers like Patterson -- not much. Libraries may even harm Patterson's income by canibalizing sales to individual readers. This is possible with more difficult books, but less likely because of lack of a fan base which will read Patterson's next book even if not free. So Patterson is not acting in self-interest.

______________
* I've never read any of them, but figure they must be highly readable for him to sell so many.

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Absolutely no help whatsoever. It's time they woke up to the realities of progress.

Dylan sums it up best:

Then ya better start swimmin'
or you'll sink like a stone
for the times they are a-changin'

Or as the real Dylan said...

When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Absolutely no help whatsoever. It's time they woke up to the realities of progress.

Dylan sums it up best:

Then ya better start swimmin'
or you'll sink like a stone
for the times they are a-changin'

Again, you are right on target, tree swinger.

[BeccaPrice]

another take on Patterson's ad. I'm not totally certain of the point that's being made in this article, just as I'm not certain what Patterson's point was.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BeccaPrice

another take on Patterson's ad. I'm not totally certain of the point that's being made in this article, just as I'm not certain what Patterson's point was.

My take was that she was subtly and (oh-so-) politely telling Patterson he is "misinformed". That if he bothered to look at what is really going on, instead of relying on what he hears from his "sources", he would see there is no crisis needing him to spend money defending the old guard.

Reading between the lines, the first draft called him all sorts of appropriate names that she carefully edited out before sending it out.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Teutonic0

The switch to electronic print seems inevitable, and some people will always resist these kinds of industry shifts. I'm sure work animal sellers weren't thrilled about the advent of the tractor. My question is whether, and how much, will there always be some sort of demand for printed books (for niche purposes and demand).

But it looks like James Patterson's new book is coming out a week from the printing of the ad, so it's tough to say to what degree he's serious about this, leaving the rest to likely just be a promotional stunt.

I imagine it's not the first time the publishing crowd has had something to complain about either. I mean at one time scribes wrote books by hand then a man named Gutenberg discovered a way to quickly print text on paper. I imagine the scribes (those that lived through the plague anyway) weren't happy about that any more than modern publishers are happy about this new development. One can't remain in the past though. Things always change in one way or another.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Reading between the lines, the first draft called him all sorts of appropriate names that she carefully edited out before sending it out.

Reading between the lines of the web site for her company, its business plan is to get their revenue from authors. This is in contrast to the alleged dinosaurs who, however meagarly, pay the authors. I'm not impressed by a new model where the author pays. For one thing, if the author is directly paying the editor, what editor will stand up to him or her when a major re-write is needed?

I'm currently reading After the Music Stopped, a terrific new book on the extended financial crisis, written by a Princeton economist and published by Penguin. I borrowed the EPUB from the Brooklyn Public Library via the clumsy, but useable, 3M Cloud Library. Maybe author Alan Binder is lying, in his acknowledgements, about how the people at Penguin improved his book, but it certainly is better written than most university press books.

Princeton professors will still be able to eat well, and publish, without the big six. But without publishers who have the resources to do major editorial surgery, no-ax-to-grind public affairs books will be fewer and, more important, worse.

[fjtorres]

Authors have always paid for publishing services.
Traditionally, by surrendering 85% of the book's revenue.
Here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/book...nal-publishers

More recently, *some* authors have been hiring professional editors and artists, etc, for onetime fees and keeping the bulk of the revenues from their efforts.
Others choose to sign up with one of the several subsidiaries of Random Penguin Solutions (Hydra, etc) and surrender control of their copyright for a century plus. (On top of paying in cash and other ways.)

Once upon a time, the BPHs and their brethen were the ony way to get books published and distributed. Those days are over. Authors now have choices; some good, some bad, some awful.

Among those choices, they have the choice that any boss has of accepting an empolyee's reccomendation totally or in part, or ignoring it. Some may think it foolish but it is their prerrogative for paying the bills. And, in the end it is their vision, their talent, their name and their brand that is on the line. Their product, its success or failure, will depend on their choices, not somebody else's.

It's their choice, now; nobody puts a gun to their heads.
Some welcome the new freedom to choose; others are terrified.
Whatever.
That djinn is out of the bottle.

[fjtorres]

This may be what has Patterson (and Co.) fretting:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013...-sellers-list/

Last week self-published authors stunned the publishing world by taking the Nos. 1 and 2 spots on the DBW Ebook Best-Seller list.

This week, David Baldacci’s The Hit (Hachette) is No. 1, ending the reign of Holly Ward’s Damaged; however, this week, Ward brought friends. Five of the top ten best-selling ebook titles this week were self-published, three of them at $0.99 and one of them by a bankable big-six author gone hybrid.

Authors like Freethy have been joined by authors like Ward to make a new class of power-players in publishing: hybrid authors. They publish with traditional publishers when they want to, self-publish when they choose and run their careers like businesses. It might be merely interesting to publishers, retailers and everyone in between if these authors weren’t starting to dominate best-seller lists; it’s more than interesting now — it’s material.

There is room for everybody and everybody's preferred approach...

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

This may be what has Patterson (and Co.) fretting:
http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2013...-sellers-list/

I didn't dig too deeply, but it strains credulity that "The Great Gatsby" is really the #7 best-selling e-book.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

I didn't dig too deeply, but it strains credulity that "The Great Gatsby" is really the #7 best-selling e-book.

Not really. Each high school has at least a thousand copies.

[BeccaPrice]

Isn't there a movie about Gatsby coming out soon? that's probably why people are reading it again. (depressing book.)

[Fbone]

I took Steve's post as having little to do with the author's choices and more about the editor's. What is the mindset of the editor hired by the author? The editor (for a self-published author) may accept manuscripts that are in poor shape and/or they may be too accommodating, cooperative and even a touch dishonest in their work. After all, they want to get paid for the current project and be offered future work. How critical can they reasonably be?

Although, from my web surfing author blogs some authors go without professional editors or find someone to do it for $100. In that case my thoughts are mute.