Slashdot Mirror

He wrote a short story on amazon about pooping on the sidewalk, the one reviewer gave it 2 stars.

That was The Cabbage Patch Doll Fight: A Christmas Shopping Tale, about the Cabbage Patch doll in the early 1980's. Overall rating for that ebook is 3.5 stars.

He wrote on slashdot that the problem was that $1 ebooks just aren't popular anymore.

The problem is 1) people are unwilling to pay $1 for 1,000+ words, 2) a $1 dollar ebook can only be discounted to FREE, and 3) I'm no longer a big fan of FREE. My solution is to commission new artwork, consolidate my titles into fewer ebooks (2,500+ words), and raise the price to $1.99.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a long article on how the business change over the last 50 years and why indie authors need to develop their own personal brand.

http://kriswrites.com/2017/06/07/business-musings-brand-image-brandingdiscoverability/

The reviewer said they were expecting a story, but it was only a short transcript of a vague memory.

You would think that the price and the word count in the description would give hint that this ebook wasn't a magnum opus. It's easy to write a critical review when it doesn't cost you any money.

Actually, this is BEGINNING to change, but it will be QUITE some time before it shows up in academic publishing.

In Fiction, there are quite a few authors who primarily e-publish fiction and sell through Amazon and Barnes&Noble. and are making, if not megabucks, at least decent earnings (one author I'm personally familiar with has made in excess of US$ 100K this way. . . )

Kristine Kathryn Rusch often blogs on the topic. . . .

Authors are likely getting the same cut (or less). So that mostly leaves lining the pockets of Amazon.

If you put aside the top publishing companies, as well as the top bestselling authors, many/most authors are getting a better deal with ebooks than with print books. What's happening is that since the distribution/production costs have gone down, Amazon is offering authors a higher percentage than they normally get from a traditional publisher. I suspect some publishers are doing likewise to prevent authors from ditching them and selling directly on Amazon.

In any case, we're straying away from the point. If you want to know why the big publishers are charging as much, I suggest you read these articles. In a nutshell, the big publishers did not anticipate the change occurring as rapidly as it did, and had made several long term (e.g. 20+ years) financial commitments (norm for that and other industries) back in the early 2000's. They can't dump a lot of their facilities as a cost saving measure as they've committed to paying for them for the long term.

Amazon came and messed it up for them (and I'm not sympathetic to the publishers). But the point is a lot of other forces come into play in determining the final cost. Had the ebook revolution not occurred, they would have lost had they not made such investments. It was a gamble they were used to making, and they played the wrong hand.

The Guardian article being referenced is probably Dan Gillmor's The great ebook price swindle. You can find a lot more about this by paying attention to the online writings of various authors, including Kristine Kathryn Rusch who write about the business of writing as well as being a (widely) published author.

Anyone wanting to know how the publishing industry works, including the reasons why and why not to use traditional publishing, should read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog "The Business Rush: On Writing."

How to evaluate a traditional publishing company
The dangers of self-publishing with Amazon
Negotiating with publishers (read the second part, too)
How to make traditional publishing writer friendly

In short, if you want to publish your work, read Rusch first. She's worked in the industry for 30+ years. BTW, you may want to buy some of her sci-fi books, too. :-)

Anyone wanting to know how the publishing industry works, including the reasons why and why not to use traditional publishing, should read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog "The Business Rush: On Writing."

How to evaluate a traditional publishing company
The dangers of self-publishing with Amazon
Negotiating with publishers (read the second part, too)
How to make traditional publishing writer friendly

In short, if you want to publish your work, read Rusch first. She's worked in the industry for 30+ years. BTW, you may want to buy some of her sci-fi books, too. :-)

Anyone wanting to know how the publishing industry works, including the reasons why and why not to use traditional publishing, should read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog "The Business Rush: On Writing."

How to evaluate a traditional publishing company
The dangers of self-publishing with Amazon
Negotiating with publishers (read the second part, too)
How to make traditional publishing writer friendly

In short, if you want to publish your work, read Rusch first. She's worked in the industry for 30+ years. BTW, you may want to buy some of her sci-fi books, too. :-)

Anyone wanting to know how the publishing industry works, including the reasons why and why not to use traditional publishing, should read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog "The Business Rush: On Writing."

How to evaluate a traditional publishing company
The dangers of self-publishing with Amazon
Negotiating with publishers (read the second part, too)
How to make traditional publishing writer friendly

In short, if you want to publish your work, read Rusch first. She's worked in the industry for 30+ years. BTW, you may want to buy some of her sci-fi books, too. :-)

Anyone wanting to know how the publishing industry works, including the reasons why and why not to use traditional publishing, should read Kristine Kathryn Rusch's blog "The Business Rush: On Writing."

How to evaluate a traditional publishing company
The dangers of self-publishing with Amazon
Negotiating with publishers (read the second part, too)
How to make traditional publishing writer friendly

In short, if you want to publish your work, read Rusch first. She's worked in the industry for 30+ years. BTW, you may want to buy some of her sci-fi books, too. :-)

Kris Rusch has been specifically writing about the change in the publishing/writing business for about past 6 months or so.

Very interesting, inspiring and great work.