Writing

Last edited Mon Sep 24, 2012, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)

This isn't just about publishers pricing their books higher. It's about them COLLUDING. Agreeing to never price their ebooks lower (or allow discounts) in an attempt to control the ebook marketplace.

They've never seemed to have a problem with discounts on PRINT books, however. So why is that?

Because this has nothing to do with books, and everything to do with trying to hold on to a failing business model. Publishers are becoming largely irrelevant thanks to technology, and they're using illegal scams rather than do the hard work and find a new business model.

That said, here's the line that really slays me:

"Yes, it's a GREAT time to be a lousy self-published author. But will the rest of us -- consumers and writers alike -- actually find it a better place just because we can now buy a crap e-book for 99 cents?"

For one thing, many, many self-publishing authors are not "lousy." And the price range of self-published books is anywhere from 99 cents to $5.99. If readers keep getting burned at the 99 cent level, they will stop buying those books. Nobody is forcing them on you.

As for this particular writer, I've been published multiple times by Big 6 publishers. In fact I still have a book coming out in January of next year. I've also now begun self-publishing titles and am making up to $50K a month and have had more exposure as a writer than I've ever gotten with my traditionally published books.

So the answer is YES, writers—and, I believe, readers—will find it a better place. I already do. Are you aware that most traditional published writers have to have a day job in order to survive? Thanks to self-publishing, many writers are now working full time at their craft and making a good, living wage.

Then there's this:

"But there'll be no neighborhood bookstore. No bookstores at all. And you'll have an online choice of a hundred million e-books written by a whole host of Uncle Joes, books indistinguishable from each other because no one has vetted them, edited them, or put their seal of approval on them."

Do you REALLY think traditional publishers are going to stop this from happening? They are rapidly moving toward ebooks. Many are making ebook only deals with authors. One Big 6 publisher even bought a self-publishing firm to go after that market.

I have been told by more than one industry professional that "ebooks are the future." So all of this wailing about bookstores has absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand. Print books will die out just as DVDs and CDs are slowly dying out, because it's the natural progression of things.

As for a "seal of approval"—do you seriously think that a publisher's seal or approval is worth anything? Have you seen what publishers are publishing these days? Does the "seal of approval" on 50 Shades of Gray make it a good book?

The seal of approval comes from READERS. THEY decide what they like and don't like. And any self-publisher worth his salt is making sure that his books are properly edited. So what exactly does a traditional publisher offer him?

"And if they want to price their product higher than the dreck books, why shouldn't they be able to?"

$9.99 is still higher than most self-published books. Nobody's saying that publishers have to charge 99 cents. With most retail products, the manufacturer gives the retailer a SUGGESTED RETAIL PRICE and the retailer is free to price the product however he feels will sell the most units and still make him a profit. And that's all this is really about.

I assume by "dreck" books you mean self-published titles. I hear this a lot, but it seems to me that the Big 6 publishers are just as capable of publishing dreck. Like 50 Shades of Gray. Or Snookie's latest novel. Or thousands of over pieces of crap that are churned out by publishers ever single year.

You seem to take the attitude that only publishers can save the world from a glut of crappy books. I'm sorry, but that's completely false. Did you know that some of the greatest and/or most popular authors the world has ever produced were self-published? Here's a partial list:

Gertrude Stein

Zane Grey

Upton Sinclair

Carl Sandburg

Ezra Pound

Mark Twain

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Stephen Crane

Bernard Shaw

Anais Nin

Thomas Paine

Virginia Wolff

e.e. Cummings

Edgar Allen Poe

Rudyard Kipling

Henry David Thoreau

Benjamin Franklin

Walt Whitman

Alexandre Dumas

William E.B. DuBois

Beatrix Potter