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Publishing-Online or "Dead Tree" Format?
aliastnb asks "I'm currently about halfway through writing my first novel. After the release of books to the net by such people as Stephen King, I'm wondering if it might be worth my while to cut out the middleman, ie the publisher and release the book online. Trouble is, I'd like to be able to get some sort of reward for my efforts, ie minimise the amount of unpaid-for copies made of the book, and release it to a multi-platform environment - not just Windows software but Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc. Are these goals mutually exclusive and should I therefore approach a conventional publisher, or is there a way for me to satisfy them all?" When it comes to publishing, why limit yourself? There is a "writer's rule" that I've heard from both Emmett and Roblimo recently that "Anything worth selling once is worth selling three times." -- along that vein, why not offer your work in both formats and find out which way is better for you?
Sell it as a dead-tree book, then release it as a textfile over the Internet. This'd be an ideal example to show that people will still buy books even when they can get the content for free. Or, you might try selling it online initially, but don't expect any of the 'secure e-books' to be actually secure against piracy. I.e., don't expect to make money off of the digital version, though you might.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
I love the net, I love the access to information and all that that means. I could stay logged in all day at times. However, short and to the point. There is something about sitting down with a good hard cover book, and slowing the pace down by reading. A couple of hours in a nice chair, a good book, and a little peace of mind does wonders for the soul.
It's funny that you mentioned Stephen King's latest book. You are probably aware that the book reading program was cracked, and pirate ASCII copies of the book have been available on many sites for free. And I'm sure you've noticed all the articles about how enraged many artists are that Napster allows people to rip them off because copying of mp3 files simply cannot be controlled. Do you want this to happen? Once your book is in a digital format, you have no way of stopping it's unlimited distribution.
Bottom line: Stick with paper.
Everyone knows who Steven King is, and when he put his book on the web there were innnumerable puff pieces about it, letting everyone know.
Who is going to know about your book, and where to download it?
Publishers still control the physical distribution network, and the means of advertising a work, don't be too hasty to count them out.
George
As for "cutting out the middleman", by all means go for it -- but here's a question -- why not release through a publisher *AND* online ? Of course, you'll need to insist that the publisher allow you to distribute it online.
As for copy protection, I don't know. You could use some kind of encrypt/decrypt thing, or you could just send it by email if the file isn't too big. There comes a point though when you simply have to be prepared to assume that your customers are reasonably honest.
...why not offer your work in both formats and find out which way is better for you?
Most publishers buy exclusive rights to a book before they will publish it. Aside from publishing rights, it can also include movie and magazine rights. They usually either buy the rights for a period of time (10 years, plus option to renew) or forever. They will preclude your independant publishing of the novel in any medium, including internet.
If you want to publish in both formats, you'll either need to find a publisher which already does this, or publish it yourself in both formats (quite an expensive venture, and often not as much real world exposure).
-Adam
It's pretty funny, actually. It all started when I thought that inflammable was the opposite of flammable...
Publishers are not just tree processors. You're going to run into the same problem that the people on mp3.com run into... no promotion. Who is going to know who you are? It takes expertise and most of all, big $$$ to create a demand for an unknown author.
There is a reason that publishers (and record companies...) get a big cut. They are taking a big risk by publishing you. It's way more likely that your book will crater rather than being even a modest success. That big cut is paying for the failures.
So ask yourself this question: If I self-publish, how am I going to get anyone to read my book? I know for me, I am much more likely to read a new author that has been published by a "real" publisher. At least I know that has gone through a few levels of crap filtering.
--
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Publish the first couple of chapters and then tell people you'll publish the remaining ones when you get a certain amount of money. Keep a counter of how much money you have on your site. If you can't publish, make sure you return the money to people who gave it to you, and go to a dead-tree publisher.
When you get the amount of money you're asking for, still charge a small fee per download. People who gave you money and registered with an e-mail address get it mailed to them for free. A lot of people would prefer to download it from you for $2-$10 than copy it from a friend. Don't encourage, or discourage copying. Just make it clear that you need money to keep on publishing stuff.
Copyright is largely dead. If you publish online, you have to accept this as a fact of life and work around it. People want books and stories. It'll all work out in the end.
As far as format goes... Don't use PDF. That's silly for a book unless it has lots of figures and tables in it. Use HTML or XML. That way, even someone with a PDA can probably read it.
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