How much does the average author get paid?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Peadar Ó Guilín

I recently enjoyed Stealing Light.

Thank you (and close enough!).

Edit (self-consciously wiping egg off face): Heh... I thought you were referring to one of my books and bumbled the title. Sorry... and sorry, Gary!

[bob_ninja]

Originally Posted by cstross

In practice, about 70% of the cover price of a book you buy in the shops is eaten by the distribution chain -- ....

That fact brings up the question of why not build a new eDistChain like an open source Amazon type book portal.

I remember years ago buying a CD from mp3.com that had a very simple distribution system, 50/50 between author and the site.

Why can't writer associations come together to build their own site to be administired by a non-profit group? Build it and they will come type pattern. Both writers and readers will naturally come there to have a more direct relationship.

You can still pay editors and this site, but the main portion of the sale price would go to the authors. The site/NGO could organize a pool/marketplace of editors, artists, etc. for eBook preparation.

Then Amazon would loose its leverage as the main/big book portal. Not to mention old distribution chain would treat authors much better when they have alternatives.

[Taylor514ce]

Hmmm. This sure seems like the natural place. MR should setup a bookstore. We already have a phenomenal free e-book library.

[nekokami]

You know... that could actually work. We have quite the market recognition in the world of ebooks, after all.

Would we list the freelance editor along with the author, perhaps? Editors have a lot to do with producing the kind of work I like to read.

Edit: and also the book designer. E.g. having HarryT or Patricia listed as book designer could definitely be a draw.

[Taylor514ce]

I'd love to see our all-volunteer ad-hoc production staff get some paid work by e-book authors and wannabe publishers. TOR? Just outsource that Scalzi and Orson Scott Card backlog to us. We'll be our own customers.

[nekokami]

Two different things: a writer-distribution publishing area (almost like a coop) vs. an ebook publishing outlet for existing publishers. Arguably Fictionwise already provides the latter, but I could see us doing both.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by bob_ninja

Then Amazon would loose its leverage as the main/big book portal. Not to mention old distribution chain would treat authors much better when they have alternatives.

Ooooo! MobileRead is gonna fight Amazon! I'm telling!

But seriously... there's no reason why a setup like that couldn't work, provided the organization had a good way to promote themselves within their non-profit budget. If authors' and readers' word-of-mouth accomplished that, possibly the biggest hurdle would be cleared.

[Patricia]

It does sound a very interesting idea.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Two different things: a writer-distribution publishing area (almost like a coop) vs. an ebook publishing outlet for existing publishers. Arguably Fictionwise already provides the latter, but I could see us doing both.

Hmm, crowd-source editing...it might need some control so that authors don't start singing "Look what they've done to my book, ma...", but there's a lot of folk that might be able to help there, with some guidance.

No?

Cheers,
Marc

[garygibsonsf]

Originally Posted by Peadar Ó Guilín

Yes, you should join us. No taxes for any writer-related earnings (up to EU125,000!) and one month's rainfall in a single day. What more could you want?

I recently enjoyed Stealing Light. And, if the poster just before you is who I think it is, I want to say that I loved Accelerando.

Thank you for your kind comment, Peadar.

[Daithi]

I believe that the main benefit that publishers provide is that they are "Gatekeepers". There are tons of people who would like to be able to write a book, but lack the talent. The publishing houses go through tons of proposals and read tons of manuscripts (or sample chapters), and reject the vast majority of them. The "books" that actually make it into the distribution channel are supposed to be the cream of the crop.

I see a new distribution system coming into play. Authors can now self-publish on Amazon with print-on-demand books and ebooks, and then it is up to readers to review and rate an authors book.

I don't think I'd invest money in a traditional publishing house right now. I think we will see a lot fewer of them twenty years from now.

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by bob_ninja

Why can't writer associations come together to build their own site to be administired by a non-profit group? Build it and they will come type pattern. Both writers and readers will naturally come there to have a more direct relationship.

You can still pay editors and this site, but the main portion of the sale price would go to the authors. The site/NGO could organize a pool/marketplace of editors, artists, etc. for eBook preparation.

Would love to contribute

[garygibsonsf]

Traditional publishing houses aren't going anywhere because they're absolutely and fundamentally necessary to the quality of the books you read, regardless of the means of delivery. There are always people who will manage without, but they are very much the exception. Without publishers, we'd be swimming in an endless sea of junk. We need them to figure out what the good stuff is. Really. Daithi is right to think of them as 'gatekeepers', but the problem with people rating stuff outside of that traditional mechanism is that they're likely to get very tired very quickly of trying to rate stuff that's really bad, and there's a lot of it out there. Way, way, way more than there is of the good stuff.

Even if such a thing happened, people would cry out, 'we need somebody to sort the rare slivers of gold out of this endless sea of kak!' And lo, they would be called Publishers.

On the other hand, you might want to check out www.authonomy.com, recently launched in beta by harper collins in the UK. You can read about it on a website called The Digitalist, run by Pan Macmillan, and which focuses on electronic publishing issues (I've written for them myself): http://thedigitalist.net/?p=215

You currently apparently need an invite to get into authonomy, but the idea appears to be that people can upload their manuscripts and get other people to rate them. The highest rated ones get to the attention of the editorial team. If you think they're just being lazy, you should know the average major publisher receives, I think, on the order of several hundred unsolicited (ie unagented) manuscripts every single week.

But it is, nonetheless, an interesting move; you upload your unpublished novel or sample chapters (apparently they have some system for avoiding plagiarism), let other people read and rate it, and do the same for them. At the very least it's an interesting experiment, and in the direction of what some people here have been talking about.

[nekokami]

I have a hard time imagining anyone with decent taste in books being willing to spend hours each week voluntarily sifting through the slush pile without compensation. And I think it's the sort of activity that one gets better at with more experience, too. I like the idea of professional editors filtering the content I select from to read, even though it's made it harder for me to get into print myself.

I think there are opportunities for different ways of organizing and compensating editors, however. With ebooks and/or POD, perhaps the editors could get a cut of books actually sold, rather than being paid a salary. Editors could form coop groups of editors with similar taste in books, for branding purposes. Readers could rate or group editors, and look for other editors rated highly by people who like the same editors the reader likes. I think it has possibilities.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Daithi

I believe that the main benefit that publishers provide is that they are "Gatekeepers"...

Well, yes and no. Publishers do make decisions as to who would and would not get published... but those decisions weren't based simply on quality, they were really based on sale-ability and publisher profitability... which we all know aren't necessarily the same thing.

With the shifting of the marketplace to a new dynamic, in which the web can be as effective in literature distribution as a traditional publisher, we should expect to see a change in the role of publishers, I'd guess to concentrate on the value-added functions they can provide to the author, including editing and possibly promotion, and leaving the rest to the author or other agencies to provide.