Wow. You are completely wrong and have no idea why.
The agency model is when the publisher chooses the end price and the seller keeps 30%. So when the publisher sets the price at $15, Amazon gets $4.50 and the publisher gets $11.50.
Under Amazon's wholesale model, the publisher was paid half the hardbook price, which was around $15 to the publisher and Amazon sold the book at whatever price it wanted.
Under the Agency model, both the publishers and the author make less money, but for some reason they prefer that over making more money, all because they didn't want Amazon pricing below what they thought was a price that would keep people buying paper books.
You are correct. That money is still in the economy. Unfortunately, that money is no longer going into the growth portion of the economy. The money that is being paid to patent trolls is helping to stagnate the economy.
On the other hand, when a "pirate" takes money that the would have otherwise spent on movies and spends it elsewhere, it is often spent in growth areas such as technology.
I never said there were guarantees. I said that there is no luck. A successful writing career comes to those willing to work hard for it.
I compared the traditional route to luck as it plays out more like a lottery in which you toss your manuscript out to as many publishers as possible and pray that you get a contract.
With the self pubbed route, you go directly to the market and write until you have a hit that the market likes. What differentiates this from the traditional route is that even if you only sell a few copies of failed books, you have still sold some and they are making you some money. The traditional route finds that you have a lot of failed transcripts sitting around doing you no good.
If you're willing to trust and use iBookStore, Amazon, and B&N. Some of us don't thanks to their DRM. I buy books from them, but I'd never sell my works through them.
Interesting comment considering a few things: 1) Amazon's DRM is optional and set by the author/publisher. As a self pubbed author, you don't have to use DRM. 2) There are alternative sellers that don't use DRM such as Smashwords. So there are non-DRM options available as a writer.
Now the idea that you are willing to buy a DRMed book but not sell one is also interesting .You are willing to be the victim of digital abuse but not the abuser. Very interesting indeed.
Even if I did publish through them, I'd have to be pretty damn lucky to sell enough units to recover what I had to put into it myself.
Not lucky, just willing to work for it. Many authors are making 5-6 figures a year self publishing. They are able to do this 1) because their price is low enough for large sales. 2) they are willing to put themselves out there and market their books. 3) They write more than 1 book a year. Many write as many as 1 a month.
Luck has very little to do with self published success. I think you would find that luck plays far more a factor in traditional publishing.
Re: Re: Re: Books don't cost all that much to print.
I don't understand this idea that you need 1000 or even 100 people to make a successful book. Many self pubbed authors are making 5-6 figures a year selling books that had a creator of one maybe 2 or 3 depending on cover art and illustrations. If it is possible to make 5 figures going it alone, why go the publisher route and potentially make less due to the overhead cost of the publishing house?
"Oh, eBooks are zero-cost publishing." Yeah, until you bring in the time and effort it takes to write, the proofreading (professional proofreading costs money), the time and effort it takes to make a professional-looking product masters, money needed for any illustrations not made by the author, server and bandwidth fees, transation fees attached to sales, sales taxes, income taxes... There's a LOT more cost to writing than anyone is willing to acknowledge. Especially if you want to self-publish on an open platform.
There are a lot of costs to everything, but a lot of what you list are not expensive or are paid for during the whole process. Let's look at a few:
server and bandwidth fees, transation fees attached to sales, sales taxes, income taxes
All these costs are covered by the seller, whether that is Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords. It all comes out of the 30% cut they take. So all that is accounted for.
professional-looking product masters, money needed for any illustrations not made by the author
These can easily be contracted out for a an upfront fee. For example, I was recently made aware of a friend of JA Konrath who does professional ebook cover design for a flat $150 ( http://www.extendedimagery.com/ )
An illustrator can also be easily found and funded. There are a lot of places around the internet where you can find very creative and very professional looking amateur artists who would be willing to illustrate a book for a flat fee or even a small percentage of sales (15% for example). These costs are not astronomical and can easily be made.
the proofreading (professional proofreading costs money)
Proofreading and editing can be relatively expensive, but are again a one time cost. You could even crowdsource the proofreading and editing if you wanted to save all costs associated with it. It just takes a creative mind.
As for the time and effort it takes to write, that is what the 70% of the ebook is meant for. To pay the author what the market thinks that author's time is worth. The more books you sell, the more the market values your work and the more money you make.
There are not a lot of costs that can't be covered easily by the 70% of the $10 or under price of an ebook.
Self published authors have found that the sweet spot for novels is around $3. They have learned that any higher than that cuts the amount of sales so far down that the higher revenue per book is countered by the reduced sales. Many self pubbed authors are making a good living selling at that price. To think that publishers couldn't do well at $10 is somewhat idiotic.
All of that ain't cheap, why do people forget those costs?
No one is forgetting those costs. However, the hosting costs are a fraction of the cost to print, warehouse, distribute and sell physical books. Of course those digital costs are usually covered by the ebook seller (Amazon, Apple etc) and come out of the 30% they charge in the agency model.
The publisher agent and other fees are the primary reason why the costs are kept artificially high. Those are the vast majority of the cost of the book, cutting into the amount paid to the author.
Yes. Because Facebook has a team of 2 million patent lawyers just trawling the USPTO for patents to steal. I mean, why waste all that money on R&D and developers when all you need is a 2 million lawyer team to help you steal innovations.
Sorry to hear you lost your job. Unfortunately that happens when technology progresses. It happened all those years ago when the cotton gin was invented. All the cotton pullers lost their jobs because automation made it faster and easier to clean and prepare cotton for industrial use.
It happened when Ford began using an assembly line to manufacture cars. It happened when robotics was introduced to that same assembly line. It happens all the time.
As humans, we are a tool using species. One of the unique things about the tools we use is that they get easier to use and more productive at the same time. It happens all the time.
The key thing about this progress is that we can either complain about it and long for the good old days when we understood and were used to the way they were, or we can move on and make our lives better.
Four months ago, the phrase "Fus Ro Dah" had no market value for Zenimax. Four months ago, they considered it nothing more than one of 200 Dragon Shouts in a game they made. Do you think that they should be able to have a monopoly on something that they had ZERO hand in making? I certainly don't.
If they had truly valued this as a brand they could monetize, they would have done so 4 months ago when it was created. Not today after it has already been established in the marketplace by people who recognized its value four months ago.
E. Zachary Knight (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 11:51am
Re: Re: Made A Quick Petition
Petitions are not publicly searchable until they reach a certain threshold of signatures. I think it is around 100. Can't remember exactly. This is meant to weed out the junk and spam petitions.
E. Zachary Knight (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 11:12am
So when is Columbia going to apply for statehood? They seem well on their way to submission to the US federal government. Why not make the relationship official?
E. Zachary Knight (profile), 13 Apr 2012 @ 11:10am
Re:
The problem is that you and this report are based on an assumption of causation when at best we have a correlative relationship here. So there is no real answer to how much change there would be if IP laws did not exists because there are too many other variables to take into account.
They registered it because they don't want anyone else using it in a different, unlicensed game that would take away from sales.
You know what's really really funny about that line of reasoning? There are over 200 Dragon commands in the game and this is the only one they are filing a trademark for. The only reason they are doing this is to control its use as a meme. Seriously, check out the 6 filings. Half of them are for merchandising. If that is not a mad dash to cash in on a meme, then nothing is.
Who are they to say that a meme can't make money? They didn't create the meme. They didn't spread it. If someone wants to make money on the meme and the wider community doesn't like it, the community will solve the problem. They don't need a trademark to police the behavior.
Perhaps it would help your argument if you could type in coherent sentences.
I am really struggling to parse your thoughts.
With piracy, there are measurable net gains for content producers who are more open and accepting of sharing of their work.
With banning a class of people from a social or gaming network, there is no measurable gain for those networks or those that use them. The threat that a kid would be targeted by a predator still exists no matter how many registered sex offenders you ban. The fact remains that there are predators that are not on the registry that are still using those services.
Fighting piracy and persecuting registered sex offenders to nothing but stroke the egos of those who perform the actions. Neither action provides a positive benefit to society.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: OMG. JUST STOP.
The agency model is when the publisher chooses the end price and the seller keeps 30%. So when the publisher sets the price at $15, Amazon gets $4.50 and the publisher gets $11.50.
Under Amazon's wholesale model, the publisher was paid half the hardbook price, which was around $15 to the publisher and Amazon sold the book at whatever price it wanted.
Under the Agency model, both the publishers and the author make less money, but for some reason they prefer that over making more money, all because they didn't want Amazon pricing below what they thought was a price that would keep people buying paper books.
On the post: CISPA Has NOT Been Fixed; It Could Allow The Gov't To Effectively Monitor Private Networks
Re: On the other hand...
On the post: Fark's Drew Curtis Explains How To Beat A Patent Troll (And Live To Tell The Tale)
Re:
On the other hand, when a "pirate" takes money that the would have otherwise spent on movies and spends it elsewhere, it is often spent in growth areas such as technology.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I compared the traditional route to luck as it plays out more like a lottery in which you toss your manuscript out to as many publishers as possible and pray that you get a contract.
With the self pubbed route, you go directly to the market and write until you have a hit that the market likes. What differentiates this from the traditional route is that even if you only sell a few copies of failed books, you have still sold some and they are making you some money. The traditional route finds that you have a lot of failed transcripts sitting around doing you no good.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Re: Re:
Interesting comment considering a few things: 1) Amazon's DRM is optional and set by the author/publisher. As a self pubbed author, you don't have to use DRM. 2) There are alternative sellers that don't use DRM such as Smashwords. So there are non-DRM options available as a writer.
Now the idea that you are willing to buy a DRMed book but not sell one is also interesting .You are willing to be the victim of digital abuse but not the abuser. Very interesting indeed.
Even if I did publish through them, I'd have to be pretty damn lucky to sell enough units to recover what I had to put into it myself.
Not lucky, just willing to work for it. Many authors are making 5-6 figures a year self publishing. They are able to do this 1) because their price is low enough for large sales. 2) they are willing to put themselves out there and market their books. 3) They write more than 1 book a year. Many write as many as 1 a month.
Luck has very little to do with self published success. I think you would find that luck plays far more a factor in traditional publishing.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Re: Re: Books don't cost all that much to print.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re:
There are a lot of costs to everything, but a lot of what you list are not expensive or are paid for during the whole process. Let's look at a few:
server and bandwidth fees, transation fees attached to sales, sales taxes, income taxes
All these costs are covered by the seller, whether that is Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords. It all comes out of the 30% cut they take. So all that is accounted for.
professional-looking product masters, money needed for any illustrations not made by the author
These can easily be contracted out for a an upfront fee. For example, I was recently made aware of a friend of JA Konrath who does professional ebook cover design for a flat $150 ( http://www.extendedimagery.com/ )
An illustrator can also be easily found and funded. There are a lot of places around the internet where you can find very creative and very professional looking amateur artists who would be willing to illustrate a book for a flat fee or even a small percentage of sales (15% for example). These costs are not astronomical and can easily be made.
the proofreading (professional proofreading costs money)
Proofreading and editing can be relatively expensive, but are again a one time cost. You could even crowdsource the proofreading and editing if you wanted to save all costs associated with it. It just takes a creative mind.
As for the time and effort it takes to write, that is what the 70% of the ebook is meant for. To pay the author what the market thinks that author's time is worth. The more books you sell, the more the market values your work and the more money you make.
There are not a lot of costs that can't be covered easily by the 70% of the $10 or under price of an ebook.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Books don't cost all that much to print.
On the post: If Publishers Can't Cover Their Costs With $10 Ebooks, Then They Deserve To Go Out Of Business
Re: Re: Help me out here...
All of that ain't cheap, why do people forget those costs?
No one is forgetting those costs. However, the hosting costs are a fraction of the cost to print, warehouse, distribute and sell physical books. Of course those digital costs are usually covered by the ebook seller (Amazon, Apple etc) and come out of the 30% they charge in the agency model.
The publisher agent and other fees are the primary reason why the costs are kept artificially high. Those are the vast majority of the cost of the book, cutting into the amount paid to the author.
On the post: Facebook Has Been Sued Five Times For Patent Infringement In Two Months Since Filing For Its IPO
Re:
On the post: Another Reason Why DRM Is Bad -- For Publishers
Re:
It happened when Ford began using an assembly line to manufacture cars. It happened when robotics was introduced to that same assembly line. It happens all the time.
As humans, we are a tool using species. One of the unique things about the tools we use is that they get easier to use and more productive at the same time. It happens all the time.
The key thing about this progress is that we can either complain about it and long for the good old days when we understood and were used to the way they were, or we can move on and make our lives better.
Personally, I am on the side of moving on.
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re:
If they had truly valued this as a brand they could monetize, they would have done so 4 months ago when it was created. Not today after it has already been established in the marketplace by people who recognized its value four months ago.
On the post: CISPA Authors Launch Twitter Account To Preach False Merits Of The Bill
Re: Re: Made A Quick Petition
On the post: Colombia Rushes Through Its Own SOPA In An 'Emergency Procedure' To Appease US Ahead Of Obama Visit
On the post: Ridiculous White House Report Pretends Getting Copyrights, Patents & Trademarks Means You Benefit From Them
Re:
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re:
You know what's really really funny about that line of reasoning? There are over 200 Dragon commands in the game and this is the only one they are filing a trademark for. The only reason they are doing this is to control its use as a meme. Seriously, check out the 6 filings. Half of them are for merchandising. If that is not a mad dash to cash in on a meme, then nothing is.
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re: Re: More plausible explanation
http://www.cafepress.com/+fus-ro-dah+t-shirts
Just one example. There are many many more out there.
On the post: Zenimax Files For Trademark On A Skyrim Internet Meme
Re: More plausible explanation
On the post: New York Convinces Game Companies To Kick Registered Sex Offenders Off Gaming Services
Re: Re: Re: Re: Double punishment?
On the post: New York Convinces Game Companies To Kick Registered Sex Offenders Off Gaming Services
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I am really struggling to parse your thoughts.
With piracy, there are measurable net gains for content producers who are more open and accepting of sharing of their work.
With banning a class of people from a social or gaming network, there is no measurable gain for those networks or those that use them. The threat that a kid would be targeted by a predator still exists no matter how many registered sex offenders you ban. The fact remains that there are predators that are not on the registry that are still using those services.
Fighting piracy and persecuting registered sex offenders to nothing but stroke the egos of those who perform the actions. Neither action provides a positive benefit to society.
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