One of the largest independent erotic romance publishers-- Ellora's Cave, who puts out both digital and paperback editions-- recently announced that they were going to reduce their prices-- Here's a quote from Jane Litte's Dear Author blog:
Ellora’s Cave’s pricing at retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble has been outrageously high. This is because EC’s existing contracts pays royalties based on the cover and if EC lowers the retail list price then (according to how the contracts are structured) EC would lose money on the sales at third party retailers. The stated goal is to lower prices but “adjust royalties so that EC makes no less than it does now and the author makes more that currently due to increased sales.” The internal email goes on to state that ten authors have been recruited to test a lower price point with a reduced royalty rate of 30% cover price. At the lower price, EC will need to have “at least two-and-a-half times more sales from the vendor sites to compensate for the lower per-sale income.”
The whole post is here: http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2011/03/09/wednesday-midday-links-upcoming-rt-convention-avon-impuls e-ec-lowers-prices/
Erotic romance is a big seller in digital. However, as Jane noted, EC's prices were considered outrageously high at between $2.49 for a short short story (Called *ahem* Naughty Nooners) to $15.95 for novels over 100k words.
The fact that they are even willing to test this with a few authors is significant of the need for lower prices in order to move downloads. An author chimes in on the posts stating that her book with EC at $11.98 on Amazon had sold dismally compared to her other "more reasonably" priced work.
I think, not all, but a significant number of ebook buyers are very cost conscious, especially when they are buying genre for leisure reading.
I bought five independent Kindle books this year. Two were some of the best writing I read this year, two were entertaining and fluffy, one was extremely painful. Very, very, very painful. Hint: if the sample sucks don't be optimistic and think it will get better.
J. A. Konrath blogs here: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/ He give excruciating detail about his experiences as an author including numbers both from his trad publishers and his current situation.
There's also a guy named John Locke who was a niche insurance salesmen and now has 7 books on the Amazon Kindle top hundred bestselling books. There's a guest blog post by him that is fascinating.
I admire librarians. They are the first to stand up for the free distribution of information and the protection of the privacy of their patrons. If you had Googled you would have known who Matthew Goins was and that he has a history of work with libraries and librarians.
I'll never forget checking up on a new medication that I had been placed on and discovering (on the internet)that the company was paying doctors $100 per patient up to a certain number of patients to put people on the drug. That was in the late 90's. I immediately asked for something with a generic equivalent-- especially since the new drug had a very weird side effect involving dropping my body temperature.
EU authorities this week raided a bunch of publishers-- the ones who have admitted it were in France-- looking for evidence of price fixing with digital books. There's a separate investigation going on in the UK.
There isn't color eink yet-- at least its not on the market at a reasonable price, but tablets show pictures nicely. I have a 10.5 android tablet I use for viewing graphic intense books. In fact I prefer it because I enlarge detail. There is also a dedicated Nook color although I think that ereader may be heading toward tablet status. I've seen it but it's smaller than my android although it is priced quite attractively.
Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
I keep hearing that about editors. If you would read Ms Hocking's web site, she has in fact employed an editor-- in fact she wasn't happy with the job the first one did so she brought another one in to clean up.
A lot of employees from publishers are unemployed and some clever ones are offering their services to indie authors. This also includes graphic artists doing some very good covers (although Hocking did her own at first) and agents who are brought on board to negotiate derivative rights.
The author now gets placed in the position of employer as opposed to being treated like an employee by the publisher.
Considering that NASCAR actually entered into a relationship with Harlequin Romance to produce romance novels with NASCAR theme but "Nascar has put some limits on these branded Harlequin books in order to maintain its family image: no booze, no drugs, no sex." I'm not sure who the average NASCAR fan is now.
Sensible thing would be an in camera hearing where the Judge alone looks at what was posted-- without handing over any personal information-- and determines if it goes over the line.
If it was only that one line then defense is grasping at straws.
There's a lot of sanctions between slap on the wrist and permanent disbarment. I would not be surprised if the judge in this case didn't refer him to the ethics committee without waiting for someone else to file a complaint. I could see him at least being required to have a supervising (competent) attorney if he wants to continue practicing law.
Freelance editors already are available. Many small digital presses have been using contract editors for years now. Writers can also designate what kind of editing they want-- line editing or just copy editing.
Should cut down on authors complaining that their book was essentially rewritten by the publisher's editor.
It's that security theatre you all are always talking about. Same reason that the guard in a local government office waves his magic security wand at me when the public is around but ignores me when there is no one else to see. Everyone has to be seen to be treated the same.
You don't practice law do you? Electronic filing and notification by email from the Court is the only way that the Federal Court system wants to communicate now. Between parties service is still by regular mail.
Many states are heading (if not already there) the same way.
And most of the time it's not bad. But when it goes bad it goes very very bad.
The picture of my house was taken about three years ago and it looks terrible. We've done a lot of work on the house and landscaping since then and hired and hired a much better lawn care person. I want to show it off on Google.
Massive lack of knowledge about jurisprudence (ha!) and history of juries. Juries in the US/British system developed from both Germanic tribe custom (Anglo Saxon) and Greek custom of using respected citizens as fact finders in legal cases. This evolved into the modern system of the jurer as the trier of fact while the judge deals with the law of the case.
Each side presents jury instructions including definitions of words that are considered important citing statute or case law in support of the definition desired. The Judge after discussion with both counsel if needed then instructs the jury as to the law of the case that they are to follow.
A definition from the internet does not take into consideration the fact that many words when used in a legal sense become "terms of art" with specific meanings when used in a case-- hence jury instructions.
Can't use a dictionary, can't use the internet. Low tech or high tech, it doesn't matter.
I'm going to really show my age. Smurfs were being sold in college bookstores before they were made it into cartoons. They stocked them next to Hello Kitty!
Google books value for me is access to oop books and emphera that have been long ago purged from my local public library due to the lack of circulation. It would take a lot of digging in a University library to come up with popular male fashions from 1911, but I found it on Google in a few seconds from a period source, i.e., not a retrospective look at male fashions for the second decade of the 20th century which has been run through the filter of time.
I also had the pleasure of running into a book scanned by Google about a notorious crime in England, written by an acquaintance of the family involved and with notes hand written by the author of a later account of the events. The book had come from his personal library. That was a treasure.
I guess that is the photoshopped picture below the statement in red print:
Disclaimer– exclusive original content copyright and property of Internet Network News, LLC and Blinkoncrime.com. Reproduction of this article , ANY OF IT’S Conclusions, comments or CONTENT, in whole or in part, without proper attribution and source link is strictly prohibited without prior written permission. Onionesque this time, had to. Photo below is a combination of parody and actual images, posted publicly, without copyright or instruction to not 'reproduce.'"
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Re: Re: Is he serious?
I've spent the afternoon listening to Pandora and looking up singers I particularly enjoyed on Amazon.
On the post: Cheap eBook Authors Realize Even Cheaper Is Even Better
Re: from the editor's desk
On the post: Cheap eBook Authors Realize Even Cheaper Is Even Better
Re: Re: Re: Re:
There's also a guy named John Locke who was a niche insurance salesmen and now has 7 books on the Amazon Kindle top hundred bestselling books. There's a guest blog post by him that is fascinating.
On the post: Librarians And Readers Against DRM [Updated]
This site: http://librarianbyday.net/2011/02/25/publishing-industry-forces-overdrive-and-other-library-ebook-ve ndors-to-take-a-giant-step-back/ might help you understand that this is a big issue for librarians and library users.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8357983/EU-raid s-publishers-in-ebook-price-fixing-probe.html
On the post: More Authors Realizing They Can Make A Damn Good Living Self-Releasing Super Cheap eBooks
Re: Photos
On the post: More Authors Realizing They Can Make A Damn Good Living Self-Releasing Super Cheap eBooks
Re: They may sell a lot but the product is still amateur
A lot of employees from publishers are unemployed and some clever ones are offering their services to indie authors. This also includes graphic artists doing some very good covers (although Hocking did her own at first) and agents who are brought on board to negotiate derivative rights.
The author now gets placed in the position of employer as opposed to being treated like an employee by the publisher.
On the post: Can Someone Explain How Sponsoring NASCAR Is A Good Use Of Taxpayer Funds, If Funding Sesame Street Is Not?
Considering that NASCAR actually entered into a relationship with Harlequin Romance to produce romance novels with NASCAR theme but "Nascar has put some limits on these branded Harlequin books in order to maintain its family image: no booze, no drugs, no sex." I'm not sure who the average NASCAR fan is now.
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Re:
On the post: Can A Judge Force A Juror To Reveal Facebook Account Info?
If it was only that one line then defense is grasping at straws.
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Re: Indpendent Editors
Should cut down on authors complaining that their book was essentially rewritten by the publisher's editor.
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Re: Re: The Real WTF
Many states are heading (if not already there) the same way.
And most of the time it's not bad. But when it goes bad it goes very very bad.
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I Want the Street Scene Car to Come Back Thru!
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Each side presents jury instructions including definitions of words that are considered important citing statute or case law in support of the definition desired. The Judge after discussion with both counsel if needed then instructs the jury as to the law of the case that they are to follow.
A definition from the internet does not take into consideration the fact that many words when used in a legal sense become "terms of art" with specific meanings when used in a case-- hence jury instructions.
Can't use a dictionary, can't use the internet. Low tech or high tech, it doesn't matter.
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On the post: New Research Suggest Google Book Search Helps Publishers A Lot More Than It Hurts
I also had the pleasure of running into a book scanned by Google about a notorious crime in England, written by an acquaintance of the family involved and with notes hand written by the author of a later account of the events. The book had come from his personal library. That was a treasure.
On the post: Lawyer For Mother Accused Of Killing Baby, Threatens Separate Lawsuit Over People Copying His Facebook Photos