This is the second in a series of essays on electronic publishing. The first essay can be found here.
With electronic books gaining traction, the entire publishing landscape is starting to change. These changes are happening with considerable momentum, like a big rig rolling down a gradual slope. It isn’t moving very fast yet, but it has a lot of mass.
These changes will have permanent effects, and the big losers are going to be the traditional publishers that insist upon keeping the old business models. That’s not to say that traditional publishers are ignorant of the value of electronic rights. They are well aware that e-rights are valuable. That’s why, in some cases publishers are claiming e-rights even though they did not acquire those rights in the original contract with the author. Random House clearly recognizes the value of electronic rights.
Aside from the control aspect, the importance of who owns electronic rights comes down to money, plain and simple. Traditional publishers give royalties for print work in the neighborhood of 10%-15%. For electronic copies, royalties have gradually moved a little higher.
Electronic-only publishers, which are becoming more common, grant royalties closer to 45%-50%. On the surface, that sounds like a good deal. But wait, there’s more.
Amazon.com will now act as publisher, allowing an author to upload their own material with a 70% royalty on copies sold. With the growing understanding of how these files are built (thanks in small part to a tutorial I published earlier this year called eBooks for the 21st-Century Author) authors can now offer electronic books on their own web site, cutting out all the middlemen and making the royalty 100%.
The money trail clearly leads the author closer and closer to self-publishing, so why would anyone stay with a traditional publisher? The reasons are several.
1. For a new author, self-publishing retains a stigma because this is traditionally the path taken by authors who can’t publish a book any other way.
2. Books sold through a publishing house are professionally edited.
3. Publishing houses act as a high-pass filter, screening out most of the poorly-written material.
We’ll touch on those points individually in a minute. First, let’s discuss the misapplication of the traditional publishing model on electronic book publication. The typical argument from traditional publishers involves overhead. This model requires offices in pricey New York. It requires print over-runs that are delivered and shipped back with covers stripped if they don’t sell. It involves warehouse space for all the printed books and raw materials for printing them (either directly or indirectly). It involves paying for truck drivers and other associated costs to deliver books. It involves editorial staff and layout staff to prepare the manuscripts.
Of all these overhead costs, only one necessarily translates into electronic books–editorial and layout costs–and these folks can be located anywhere in the world when working electronically. All the other overhead costs vanish. Publishers have said in the past that the formatting makes up for the bulk of the overhead for an electronic book. I don’t think it’s as much of an expense as the publishers claim.
I have taken a 7000-word short story manuscript and created formatted PDF, ePub, and .mobi files (including new cover art) in under an hour. By hand. I could easily do the same for a novel in a week. While I have yet to be satisfied by any automated way to do this, the software is improving all the time. Amazon will take a file in specific format and convert to proprietary Kindle format automatically. Smashwords will take a specially-formatted file and convert into over a half-dozen different formats. I don’t buy the expense of formatting argument.
Let’s look at those traditional publishing advantages a little closer.
1. For a new author, self-publishing retains a stigma because this is traditionally the path taken by authors who can’t sell a book any other way.
This is probably going to continue to be a stigma for some time. The reality truly is that anyone can publish anything from the Great American Novel(TM) to a Honey-do list. A self-publishing unknown author with decent material will need to do something prove their material is in the small population of the pareto principle.
2. Books sold through a publishing house are professionally edited.
This, I think, is the most viable argument for going through an established publishing house. It’s the quality control factor. While time can distance an author from his/her work allowing self-editing, there is always a certain blindness to flaws with an author’s own work.
One way to work around this is for authors to work in teams, editing each others’ works. It’s a solution with a lot of potential pitfalls. Paying an independent copy-editor is another possible solution, but that adds expense. Adding expense diminishes the returns of self-e-publishing. Still, for a younger author who intends the work to remain available for decades, it might be worth the expense.
3. Publishing houses act as a high-pass filter, screening out most of the poorly-written material.
When everyone and their grandmother can publish anything, there will be a low signal-to-noise ratio. The eBook-buying public will need a way to distinguish the gems from the rubbish. Right now, word of mouth plays an essential role in this area. In the future, book reviewers will add their opinions to the mix.
Here, the try-before-you-buy concept that has been pioneered by people like John Scalzi, Scott Sigler, Mur Lafferty, and Michael A. Stackpole is an important tool for writers without a track record to slowly build an audience. Ask any of them how quickly their online presence grew and none will tell you “instantly.” It took time.