I put a question mark on the title of this post because I’m a writer and we’re not used to happy days. And even if we have them, most of us grump around anyway like the self-pitying louts we are.
NEVERTHELESS… there is a potential bonanza for book writers (or authors, as we pretentious types prefer to call ourselves) in the news that Amazon has gone into competition with the expected Apple tablet and, as of June 30, is offering authors and publishers a 70% royalty for their copyrighted work to be published on the Kindle.
The devil is hugely in the details on this, but this is something of a revolution and could be very good news for writers indeed, but not such good news for publishers. As a relatively established – and suddenly greedy – writer I’m thinking, what do I need a publisher for? Why should I split the 70% with those thieves? For what? Cover art? I can hire someone myself for peanuts (well, large size peanuts anyway). Publicity? I can bribe my fellow bloggers with a flat beer to promote the damn thing. And, okay, a few of those publishers are or have pretty good editors, but there’s always spellcheck and that weird grammar helper on Microsoft Word. (Does anyone know how to use that?) And now Amazon (and Apple) provide the distribution. I don’t even have to lick envelopes. Or pay my daughter to do it.
All right, I’m joking around a bit, but I’m still digesting this. When I was young, I aspired to have my books published by fancy names like Random House and Simon & Schuster and succeeded on occasion, but they only paid a ten percent royalty. The lure was they gave me an advance against those royalties, which sometimes earned out and sometimes didn’t, but that lure is seeming much less appealing at a seven-to-one ratio. It doesn’t even take a scratch pad to do the simple math. Sell fifty thousand downloads of a book for $8 a pop on Amazon and you just made yourself $280,000. This would have been an amazing bonanza for Georges Simenon who wrote his crime novels in eleven days. I’m lazy. It usually takes me six months to write a book. Of course, it could be I won’t sell anywhere near fifty thousand downloads, but the risk involved has suddenly gotten a lot more attractive, just as it has, I assume, for many other authors and would be authors. If publishers wish to succeed in this brave new e-world, they are going to have to drastically alter their royalty schedules. Massachusetts wasn’t the only revolution this week.
UPDATE: I haven’t had time to write about it, but the new POLIWOOD is up – about Oliver Stone and his new “Empathy for Hitler” Showtime series.
this is yet another example of why the internet is the most culturally transformative technology since Gutenberg’s printing press.
writer’s of the world unite — you have nothing to lose but your rejection letters!
“And even if we have them,
mustmost of us grump around anyway like the self-pitying louts we are.”Can I do the cover art?
Thought you’d like that.
The trick with this, of course, is going to be finding a way to find the Good Stuff. Anyone who can successfully write a Nanowrimo novel can publish it to Kindle, and sell copies to their family and friends. Marketing an promotion is a very different thing.
One good thing about this is that without skilled editing good writers will become better writers. Or one bad thing about this is that without skilled editing there’s going to be a lot of bad writing around.
Readers choice.
Well if the tablet is anything like they say it is this writer is going to be happy to have it for writing.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Amazon’s new publishing deal for writers who allow Kindle versions. Its good to see them doing something to help people who self-publish considering they have hurt us once or twice before.
And this is the reason why I love competition. Amazon would never have done this without the threat of competition from Apple….. Writers benefit from higher royalties and consumers benefit from cheaper prices… What’s not to like….. Hail to Capitalism!!
At this point, ebooks are more viable for someone who already has a platform/brandname, like Roger.
As for publishers having good editors, my last book with Berkley, they didn’t even bother, they just published it. So they’re taking themselves out of the loop with their cavalier attitude toward books. Or units as they love to call them.
Sara @ 8:
And vice-versa, as well. If Kindle hadn’t turned out to be the iPod of the reading world, would Apple ever have jumped into the e-reader market? I tend to think not, but apparently it galls Steve Jobs something fierce to have something made by someone else that’s just as popular as Apple gadgets.
Full disclosure: I have a Kindle. I do NOT have an iPod, iPhone, or anything else made by Apple. Does that make me biased? I dunno.
It won’t save anybody. Mass Market no longer includes print. King is a fairly successful writer and 1 movie made him more money then all his books combined. And movies are on the way out.
The big money today is interactive media (computer games). A blockbuster movie might pull down 75 million. A clunker computer game does 150 mill. What will a best seller do? 5 mill? 10?
Publishers aren’t helping. A novel is a novel. It doesn’t matter if you turn a page or touch an icon or scroll. When a publisher (Tor) gives up the traditional form of a novel for a long, never ending list of characters and reams of their development, then the readers will give up on reading. Worse, no new readers will be attracted to reading. If there is no story there, why read it?
The top of the food chain in any entertainment industry are those being entertained. In the publishing industry Readers sit at the summit, with publishers, then editors, then writers, printers, etc,
A computer game is nothing more then an interactive book that can be ‘read’ over and over, with a different outcome. That outcome is based on choices made by the reader/player.
That beats the holy bill-bob ‘ell out of a book that never ends. Never ending stories are good for the publishers. They kill everybody else. Without that everybody else, the publishers will die too.
Rosinante @ 10:
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
The decline of book reading is why Amazon sold 500,000–that’s half a million Kindles in 2008?
The decline of book reading is why Steve Jobs, who in 2007 said, “…the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” is now aiming his new iSlate/iPad/iWhatever squarely at the Kindle and e-book market?
With all due respect, sir/madam, I think you need to re-examine the evidence… or perhaps examine it for the first time, as it appears you’ve missed a few things.
Rosinante, the thing about this is that the barriers to entry are gone. You don’t like where patrick is taking Tor, you don’t need a massive printing operation and a million dollars to take a shot at it yourself. Personally, I don’t think that narrative is dead; I will say that there’s a lot of SF I don’t like being published. I have my own ideas of why. But I can format and publish a Kindle piece on my desktop in an afternoon.
ConservativeWanderer @10
Agreed! You are right! Vice versa is also true. Without Kindle’s success Steve Jobs wouldn’t have ventured into iSlate (or whatever)!! Well may be he would have but he probably would have responded to the tablet success of Lenovo or Asus or somebody running Intel Atom….. So my point is competition works and Capitalism Works for everybody’s benefit.
Full Disclosure: I own a Kindle 2 (with about 250 odd books in it), I own an iPod and I own an iPhone. I also own a Lenovo X200 tablet (awesome machine)….. I don’t discriminate, I buy the technology I like (I have to admit I am a bit of a gadget head but that’s a different issue)
Rosinante:
Computer games are great and also tell stories….but how many kind of stories can you tell using computer games……. not many I am guessing
Also most of them are some sort of role play, fantasy fiction but what about non-fiction works?
Content is always the king….. delivery mechanism can differ…… and if the delivery mechanism for the millions of books that are not action/fantasy fiction, book format is the only content delivery mechanism available currently…. That may change in the future but I don’t see it yet.
1. You might also remember that books and book readers have been on the iPhone /iPod touch since the Apps Store opened; I have three readers in my collection.
2. The “iState” is still conjecture and will be so until 271000hrs Jan 10.
3. When Apple set up the iTunes Store the revenue split was 70/30 of the gross; the Amazon offer appears to be 70/30 net, after expenses.
4. The sales total of Kindles is still somewhat lower than that of the iPod touch.
Cheers
Wow.
Hardly anyone outside of Apple has even seen the thing yet, and it probably won’t ship for another six months… and Amazon is reacting as if Apple already has half the market for ebooks locked up.
I bet the terms Amazon is proposing are a direct match of what Apple is pushing for with the content providers.
The rumors being passed around the industry about this thing must be epic.
Sarah,
“but how many kind of stories can you tell using computer games……. not many I am guessing”
Depends on the game. There are thousands of stories embedded in World of Warcraft – Every quest or quest line tells a story, and while many are repetitive, some are truly amazing in a variety of ways. Funny, sad, inspiring, depressing, paranoid, goofy, etc. And you, as your avatar, directly participate. And while there is not much branching (unlike interactive novels), it can sometimes take a while to figure out what the right thing need to do to finish the quest. And to successfully overcome the opposition in the process.
I have:
Helped conduct an exorcism. Called up demons myself.
Assembled a torn rag doll to comfort a lonely ghost-child.
Rescued people in dire straights.
Been a hero. Been a amoral sleaze.
Been deceived into acting against my interests, and have been grateful for the chance to undo the mistake.
Worked with a teams of players to overcome difficult challenges.
Been witness to many events (but not all, there are too many) that form the lore of this created world.
J. M. @ 17:
Fewer Kindles than iPod Touches? Even if true (and I challenge you to prove your assertion), what’s your point?
Actually, one could add the number of iPods and iPhones to the Kindle sales figures to come to the total number, because Amazon (very smartly, IMHO) introduced a Kindle for iPhone/iPod Touch application quite some time ago.
Therefore, anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch already has a Kindle, thanks to this FREE app.
Okay, now, let’s get back to another point… as Charlie points out above, the barriers for entry have really been lowered already by the Kindle, and with this deal, writing for the Kindle is even more attractive.
As an example, I give you the Kindle SF/cyberpunk eBook MetaGame by Sam Landstrom (I am not Sam, nor do I know Sam at all). If one considers 4 and 5 star reviews positive and 1 or 2 stars negative, the reviews for this book are going more than 5-1 positive, as of right now. I haven’t written my own review yet, but I’d give it 4 of 5 stars as well.
The price point is also incredibly low. I got my copy during a promotion when it was offered free, but even if I’d paid the current $1.59 price, I’d consider that I got more than my money’s worth. Sam shows a quite remarkable talent that, even though it needs some polishing (this is his first book, after all), shows great promise for his future writing work. I am eagerly awaiting his next book, and judging from the reviews, I’m hardly the only one.
The overall point is that here we have a new talent breaking into the book marketplace, thanks to the Kindle. I am no expert on the publishing world (Roger could probably speak more to this point), but I wonder if he could have broken in if he’d had to go through a traditional publisher into traditional print books. Personally, I suspect not.
The Kindle, and other reading devices are terrific for new writers, especially those who went POD; the whole expense of printing and distribution is set aside. Readers are more apt to take a chance on a relative unknown if the cost of doing so is a couple or three bucks for a download, as compared to a $15 paperback, plus shipping and handling. And the more books that a writer has out there, the better the chance that someone will read one, like it very much, and then go for the rest.
Roger, you forget the potential boom for private copy editors. If I were to write a book, I’d gladly pay a bit to have someone whose work I respect read the thing and offer editorial comment and improvements that could enhance its earning potential. And, I believ, so would lots of others who might not ever earn a plug nickel from their work. Once the publishing, promotion, and distribution costs are removed from the equation the pure copy edit function can easilly create a working business model that can thrive in this environment.
Mr Simon,
How about making the Kindle version of “Blacklisting Myself” available to UK readers?
Don’t forget the long tail, which is where a lot of the money is. Having your book available as a download will make impulse buyers and internet junkies like me (who rarely step in real stores anymore) more likely to buy your stuff, even long after you originally publish it.
Those who think spell check and the Microsoft Word grammar editor are a sufficient substitute for a seasoned editing professional are the very ones who churn out the crap that perpetuates the self-publishing stigma.
This is similar in some ways to what has happened with Music. Although the press has focused on the “illegal downloading” aspect of technology, the music industry has also completely lost control of musicians. In the past the record companies controlled every part of the process of making albums. Thanks to new technologies and the internet that has changed. Why sell your soul into slavery when now you can produce, promote, and distribute everything yourself? Many have chosen to do it themselves.
As a full time Indie who offers everything everywhere I can, it’s particularly nice to see Amazon smartening up to the eBook formula.
There are a lot of slightly shady reasons why this 70% royalty requires everyone price their books between $2.99-$9.99, possibly to reduce the number of independent books priced at $0.99 and balance out the top 10 again, but my readers are willing to pay in the $2.99 – $9.99 price range.
Nice to see Amazon wants to stay in the game badly enough to shake things up on their end. Maybe I can eventually start eating hot dogs and spaghetti this year instead of spam and cheesy macaroni as well!
Here is one big devil in the details:
The 70% publisher “royalties” (previously known as “wholesale cost!”) would be based off a list price that’s typically 60% lower than today’s hardback pricing. That cuts publisher gross revenues on hardbacks by 46%, and publisher revenues lead to author revenues.
Currently: Pubs get $12.50 for a $25.00 hardback. Under this price cap scheme, the pub would get only $7.00, maximum. A $5.50 swing to the negative.
Also, Amazon currently loses $2.50 on that book, but would make $3.00 in their new plan. A $5.50 swing to the positive.
So… Basically Amazon is proposing to take $5.50 for each book sold from the pubs’ revenues and add $5.50 per book to Amazon’s revenues.
Authors will then rightfully demand a greater slice of the now-much-smaller-than-anyone-feared pie, putting bottom-up pressure on the pubs. The main bone of contention will be the $2.50 per book landed cost of a hardcover book that is a non-issue for digital downloads. But as shown above, Amazon just took that $2.50, twice over.
Oh yeah, and there’s this: The one area of the book business with any profit margin at all (audio books) is further threatened by the Kindle’s text-to-speech capabilities.
The pubs will choke on this.
Amazon is effectively saying, “Agree to our terms, and in return we promise to cut your revenues in half.” Good for authors? Only if authors truly do not need publishers anymore.
Vegas @ 26:
Spoken like a true elitist.
As I said earlier, I have purchased (albeit for $0.00), downloaded, read, and enjoyed an e-book by a new author that was self-published, and I (who have been reading avidly since I learned to read) could not find any detectable difference in the spelling nor grammar between it and many books edited by so-called “professional” editors.
But you keep on believing whatever you want, and the world will keep turning away from traditional publishers to self-publishing and formats like the Kindle despite you.
Without getting into the substance of the debate, as a literary agent who obsesses about this stuff for a living, I just wanted to clarify some of the points that Roger made above; Amazon may be offering to pass along 70% of revenue to authors/publishers– but Roger’s comment about traditional publishers only paying Authors 10% is a bit of comparing apples to oranges.
Most hardcover authors do, indeed, start off at a 10% royalty– but that 10% royalty is on the publisher’s suggested retail price, which is usually around $25.00. And in general, that royalty rate will escalate to at least 15% after around 10,000 copies sold.
I’m not certain what’s going to happen to the book value chain in the long run; however, I’m fairly confident that authors will continue to be fairly compensated for their work, and will earn in the neighborhood of $3 per copy sold in the first year of a work’s release, and about $1 a book thereafter. To the extent that any of the digital developments provide for authors to be better remunerated for their work, I’m all for it…
Happy Daze for writers? Hah.
If I know just one thing in this world, its Apple, Amazon and the entire software industry is not about to compete to lower their revenue. Cutting the revenue pie bigger for the writers and publishers isn’t where they are coming from. If anything, you’ll be cutting your price just to be on a Kindle or an Apple device.