First, let me say I have a hardcover book (co-written with Jennifer Cruise) coming out from St Martins (MacMillan) on 16 March: WILD RIDE. Am I worried? That’s six weeks away, light years in the electronic world. Unfortunately, six weeks is nano-seconds in the publishing world.
Also, let me disclose that in the past month I have released four backlist titles directly onto Amazon Kindle, Smashword and other publishing platforms with any twelve backlist and some original works planned in the next several months. In fact, I have, in essence, become a publisher as well as an author.
I’ve been in the publishing world for 20 years. When I teach, I always say the one adjective to describe publishing is slow. The one to describe publishers is technophobic. Three years from idea to bookstore. 1 year to write the book. 1 year to sell it. 1 year in production. Except I just put three books on the market in one month. Hmm. Well, they did take several months to write. The only publisher I’ve experienced who ever used Track Changes and electronic manuscript was F&W (Writers Digest). Way back in 2002 with my Novel Writers Toolkit. My head exploded when I saw it, because I had no idea what they had done to my manuscript. Every NY Publisher I’ve worked with (and there are many) still use a single, paper copy of the mss, with a rubber band, pencil marks and stick-ums. Think they’re embracing the changing technology?
My last blog post was about the “Perfect Storm” in publishing. It’s already happening in England and this spat between Amazon and MacMillan is a hurricane moving onto radar screens.
What authors can’t do is think they’re on the sidelines looking at the radar screens as all these storms converge. Or worse, that we’re in the eye of the hurricane. This is a tremendous time of change in publishing. I know Robert Gottleib of Trident, a very smart man on publishing, pooh-poohed the whole eBook thing recently at Digital Book World (I didn’t really see any quotes from AUTHORS on all these panels, which is curious), asking why everyone was worried about something that takes up roughly 3% of the market for books. I think we’ve got the first answer to that. Because this fight doesn’t just affect eBooks from MacMillan, but all books from MacMillan on Amazon.
Also, change is coming exponentially, not linearly. eBook sales are expected to double in percentage every year and I think that’s a low estimate as everyone is focusing too much on the platform (iPad, Kindle, flat rock, whatever) and not on CONTENT. You can read an eBook on your laptop, your desktop, your cell phone, hell just about electronic device, except your toaster.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Authors produce content.
Readers consume content.
Everyone else is in the way to an extent. Yes, we need agents and publishers, but their roles are changing. As we said in the Infantry: Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
In all the conversation about who gets what % no one seems to be falling on their sword to make sure AUTHORS get more money.
I look at change as opportunity. There are many things I don’t control as an author. I don’t control what Amazon does (except choose not to buy there as a reader). I don’t control what MacMillan does (except choose not to get published there as a writer). The power to say no is truly one that authors have, but not very profitable.
What I do have is the power to do is study the changes, sit down with others and war game (yes, Jenny, I still wargame in the Tao of Bob) and try to figure out where things are going. I see tremendous opportunities coming for authors. Who can produce good content (which means less than 1% of everyone with a manuscript sitting on their computer in their pizza box lined basement while mother pounds on the door upstairs).
So. Authors. Write like the wind, but a good wind. And don’t expect anyone else to take care of you. Lead.
So say we all. So says Cool Gus.
Cool Gus
Tags: agents, amazon, authors, kindle, MacMillan, publishing
Great discussion on Amazon/Apple/Macmillan in your Warrior Writers’ group, Bob. And congrats on WILD RIDE!
As a followup to the WW discussion, I just spent 20 minutes checking some facts.
Terry Bucknell has a long post hosted by SFWA at http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/why-my-books-are-no-longer-available-on-amazon-com/.
I searched for him on Amazon and 9 of his books are available there.
Granted, they’re available from “other sellers.” Amazon is not directly shipping Macmillan books itself or providing Kindle versions. Buckell does explain that in his post.
But the books can be bought on the Amazon site. Reader reviews are there, the author page is there, new and used editions are for sale. Some are available for Amazon’s “free super saver shipping.” You can “Look inside!”
I spot-checked a couple of other Macmillan authors with similar results.
Macmillan is still getting the benefit of Amazon’s huge customer base. Potential readers who search for Macmillan books are directed how to buy them.
That’s a bit different than the impression I had from the buzz that Amazon had blacklisted Macmillan titles altogether.
There is a snide little sidebar on the book pages: “Tell the Publisher! I’d like to read this book on Kindle.” Very funny.
BTW, some Kindle-compatible Macmillan titles are available from Fictionwise’s Kindle Store.
Does anyone know whether Macmillan titles already sold to Kindle users have been removed from their Kindles?
The publishing WILD RIDE continues.
Great discussion. Thank you for this information. E-publishing and electronic devices like Kindle are definitely going to take up more and more of the market, probably exponentially. And while actual printed books will still have a large market share, for awhile, electronics is going to very much change the face of publishing. It’s so easy, when you want a book right away, to just buy online and download, even without a special device to read it. In whatever form we buy the books, though, we’ll still need the gatekeepers–agents and editors. With some books, I will definitely still want a physical printed copy, but now I can also have more books than I have physical space for, which is excellent. Nice to have options.
On another topic: Just noticed you’re going to offer a brand new book, BLACK OPS: CHASING THE GHOST on your website. Fabulous!! I would LOVE a copy of this, so can hardly wait for the March release!!
Well that didn’t take long. Amazon already caved to MacMillan. Frankly, I don’t think they think it’s worth the negative publicity.
Crusie.
How soon we forget.
Humor, har.
Nice post, Bob, as usual.
Just had to mention, though, that Berkley has been doing electronic edits with track changes for several years, ever since they experimented with an author in Australia and discovered how well it works. In fact they moved on to full electronic galleys as of last year, using e-notations on the pdf.
What that does, however, is force authors to have/use the latest version of Microsoft Word. Pricey.
On a slightly different topic: I was just re-reading the Lost/Atlantis page of your website. Your books were written 5 years before Lost–the similarities are obvious, glaring. It’s outrageous. How can they do that.
I love your enthusiasm when your brain is working on ongoing changes and you find a new, challenging direction to go in. It’s always an intelligent, well-thought-out wild ride!
Thanks for sweeping us along with you.
Catching up on your blog is actually scaring me a bit and I am darned glad I will be attending your WW in a few weeks. I think you’ve help me add another dozen questions to my list.
Thanks for the updates!
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