A truly major international author will realize there are bigger rewards with Amazon
An analysis from Europe of Simon & Shuster’s Q1 announcement yesterday:
It does rather leap from the page that “Simon & Schuster’s operating income before debt and amortisation (OIBDA) more than doubled to $7m”, which the publisher said “was driven by lower shipping, production and returns costs because of the increase in digital sales”.
Despite recent attempts to distract us all with talk of piracy and other costs associated with e-books this clearly indicates that is a massive red herring. There are costs associated with e-books, but they are clearly insignificant compared to the benefits.
At one major publishing company that I know of, when editors draw up a profit and loss projection when they are considering acquiring a book there is no column for e-book costs because they are regarded as being functionally zero and are simply dumped on to the hard back costs.
. . . .
The conglomerates dog in the manger approach to the issue of e-books is doing them no favours. The day is fast approaching when a truly major international author will realize they are going to be greatly better rewarded by being published by Amazon because they will offer them a sensible share of the revenues they generate.
The failure to offer major authors equitable escalated royalty rates is damaging decades old business relationships. It is in everyone’s interests to have a vibrant and independent publishing industry – Amazon publishing will likely always be subservient to the retail needs of its parent. But as the gap in potential earnings grows wider, appeals to loyalty look increasingly like they are motivated by self interest.
Passive Guy loves the piece about a major publisher having no spreadsheet column for the costs associated with ebooks because they are so minuscule.
Link to the rest at Future eBook
You should start a betting pool on which 7-figure author will be the first and/or when.
Ten years ago, I would have bet on Stephen King, but I’m not sure today.
Stephen King has already self-e-pubbed “The Plant” selling it via his website over a decade ago. But that was without abandoning his publisher. I could also see him doing going indie now, as he’s always been open to trying new formats, or re-trying old ones (as when he serialized The Green Mile).
And of course he really doesn’t *need* more money, so he could afford to gamble, although it wouldn’t be much of a gamble with his platform.
I think the question in my mind, if I were Stephen King, would be, “how many people, people I like, people I’ve done business with for many years, will be laid off if I leave my publishing house?” But maybe that’s not even in the equation for him.
It sure should be for his publisher, though.
A.K. – Thinking more about your question, I wonder if some big-time author who’s getting short-changed on his/her ebook sales from their publisher might use that offense as a reason to cut the cord.
An angry author might be more dangerous than one who believes indie publishing would generate $4MM per year instead of $3MM.
I sincerely doubt it’ll be about $3mil vs. $4mil. The money will swing the midlisters but not the top tier.
For the top tier it’ll be about creative control.
I think it will end up being someone, as in Barry Eisler’s case, who has already expressed dissatisfaction with things like cover art, publicity, re-titling, editorial changes, etc.
That’s a good point about creative control. I have read that, with all the cutbacks at major publishers, a lot of talent is gone. A top author may be able to hire better-quality people than he/she gets from the publisher.
I also think that a 7-figure bestseller is still going to want to be in bookstores, Costco, WalMart, airports, supermarkets, etc.
This would be possible with the kinds of deals Amazon is starting to make with printers/publishers.
But in order for this to happen, Amazon needs to stop shooting itself in the foot. They lost the Amanda Hocking print deal due to insisting on exclusive e-rights.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is notorious for the lengths he will go to, in order to dominate a market. But he’s going to have to give a little to get a little.
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