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Books and e-Books: Who’s The Biggest Loser?
On the face of it, developments in digital publishing have signaled a decisive victory for aspiring and professional authors in recent months, judging by recent announcements:
Amazon recently declared that it’s Kindle e-book reader was its overall bestseller by number of units shipped and total revenue generated. According to a MarketWatch article, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently mentioned during the company’s Q3 financial results (ended Sept 30, 2009) call that the Kindle is now the most popular product on its site by unit sales and dollar value across all product categories. Analysts expect that the e-book reader and ebooks will fuel the online retailer’s next stage of growth.
Google announced details of its upcoming Editions service, to be launched next year, which will allow ubiquitous access to books on web browsers and other devices. In a recent announcement, Google Book Search’s publisher partnership program head Tom Turvey said the new Editions service would kick off with between 400,000 and 600,000 books in the first half of 2010.
Consumer electronics giant Sony has judged the e-book reader segment important enough to take some focus off its television and Playstation projects to develop it’s Reader product. According to the Wall Street Journal’s WSJ.com, Sony had sold about 300,000 units of the product from its October 2006 launch till end 2008. (The WSJ.com post is currently unavailable online)
With e-book readers experiencing a boom, writers might be looking forward to a boom for their wallets.
Whether you’ve already had a few published books under your belt, or you’re working on your first book, you will be wondering: What’s not to like especially with Google Editions’ payout model?
With Google Editions, the revenue split of 55% to Google and its distribution partners and the balance 45% going to your pocket is more than just making about half the revenue from your sales, it breaks the historical monotony long held by publishing houses. Most published authors receive a fraction of the value of books sold. It’s not uncommon for an author to receive a $0.50 to $1 royalty fee for each copy of a book sold. If you’re a superstar author such as JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of wizardry books, or king of horror, Stephen King, you’ll have more room to maneuver.
In fact, the 45% royalty that Google Editions looks set to payout looks like the perfect out for many budding authors to quit their day job and do the “writing thing”.
Before you fire your boss, take note of a couple of big holes in the new business model.
#1 Quality, quality and quality
Someone investing a couple of hours reading a book would prefer a good book, over a poorly-written book in most circumstances (a fetish for spending reading kitschy/trashy romance/potboiler novels notwithstanding).
Yes, the possibility of self-publishing will break the hegemony/monopoly of the publishing houses, especially since manuscript acceptance rates of 1 in 10,000 are not uncommon. But just because you get to publish what’s in your mind, i.e. the “great American novel”, doesn’t mean that anyone else is going to like, or buy it. If your book meet Joe Public’s quality standards, you’ll have the consumer telling you “No”, rather than the publishing house.
The refund policies aren’t out for Google Editions yet, but judging by Sony’s ebookstore policy on refunds: “Please confirm all purchases before you complete them as all sales are final. There are no refunds for digital content.” It sounds like you can’t give a refund for a poorly-written book, but if everyone and his brother is blogging and tweeting about how badly your book sucks, you can expect sales to suffer.
#2 But I only like to write…
Assuming you’re going the self-publishing route and making the decision to avoid giving the publishing houses your fat writer’s paycheck, means having to ensure quality on your own.
There’s a myriad of service providers online to find proofreaders, book editors, designers and other specialists to make sure your novel looks like more than just a Microsoft Word document converted to Adobe PDF. Hint: the lack of a cover and extensive use of Times New Roman size 12 font throughout the book are dead giveaways…
Being able to post an accurate job description, screen service providers, screen competitive bids, and manage the team you’ve hired, will require more project management skills, than just being a dang good writer.
#3 Traffic Generation and The Lesson from Satellite TV
With the launch of satellite TV a couple of years ago, the complaint shifted from “There’s nothing to watch on network TV”, to “I’ve got 500 channels on satellite now, but there’s nothing to watch”. The lesson? Having lots of choice is always a good thing, but being able to stand out from the pack will play a direct impact on your sales.
Remember back in the early 1990s when there were just 20 websites in your niche? And you would make bank even if you had a garish bright yellow website and a couple of typos liberally sprinkled across your site? Google Editions may be that way too…for the first week or two.
Being able to market your book successfully means being able to put together the elements of a cohesive and integrated marketing plan. Almost every blogger or twitter user will be able to publish some content and generate a few random sales, but if you’re planning to make writing a full time gig, you’ll need a whole lot more marketing mojo in your corner.
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E-Books: The Bottomline
Here’s what e-book have going for them:
* More money in your pocket: The technology has eliminated the brokers and middlemen from the traditional book publishing ecosystem.
* Write what you like: You’re not constrained and restricted like you would have been if you had signed on with a major imprint.
But like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben would say “With great power there must also come – - great responsibility!”
The balance of power and more importantly, profit, comes with the writer’s responsibility for viral/guerilla marketing skills. If you decide to DIY everything, you’d need to have decent editing, project management and marketing skills (the majority of which most writers lack). If you’re not represented by a publishing house, which invests heavily in a publicity campaign, you’ll have to find alternatives since most bookstores will probably not arrange “e-book signings” (especially if it’s a product which they don’t sell), unlike an author with a published paperback or hardcover novel.
In my opinion, unless self-published writers have the whole package, including management and social marketing skills up their sleeves, they might end up being the biggest losers in the new e-book paradigm.
I still prefer books on e-books..
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