Every self-publisher gains world market with ebooks
| by Cathy Macleod | June 24, 2008
Ebooks give self-published authors an instant world market. The future of reading is here right now.
In the past year or so, while most booklovers have continued to spurn digital screens in favour of the paperback, the boffins have been busy inventing better gadgets. Now there are many. More to the point, there are ebook shops where authors can list their books. They enjoy professional promotion for the site, and therefore greater exposure than a single personal website.
This happy situation for authors means that good books needn't die for lack of an agent or publisher. The bad ones get a chance, too, but this always happened anyway when agents and publishers controlled the book market. An improvement on lucky-dips at your local bookshop is that most online ebook-sellers allow a free first chapter. This enables a reader to assess the item at leisure, instead of a hasty thumbing while standing in a retail store.
The traditional book market has been damaged beyond repair through publishers and bookshops chasing the big dollar, marketing madly, brand-naming some authors like groceries, and generally snubbing creative beings who simply love to write.
Ebooks come at a price readers can afford, because they eliminate hefty overheads of paper, printing, binding, warehousing, sales reps, distribution, postage and retail markup. Online you will find chain bookshops and big publishers wrestling with the ebook revolution. They're keen to maintain their present monopolies or to create new ones.
Browsing in recent weeks, I have encountered such bookshops offering publishers website shelf space deals similar to the poor returns now busting publishers big and small. Also, there are traditional print publishers who now sell direct from their own website bookshops, including ebooks. But they still need a large profit, and therefore they seek control of their authors by means of tight contracts.
I have also found ebook shops that sell nothing else ' and which charge high for a listing, or for converting to the different formats used by various handheld reading devices.
THE GOOD NEWS is that some ebook shops give free uploading and display. Three that particularly impress me are the following, and I would love to hear of others, at cathy.macleod@optusnet.com.au They'll get a mention at www.booktaste.com the self-publishing free promotion site. Meanwhile, take a look at these . . .
www.smashwords.com located in California and offering 85% royalty, authors deciding the price.
www.bookhabit.com located in New Zealand, 40% royalty, price fixed from $2.50 but rises with increased sales.
www.rspublishing.com.au located in Australia, 70/30 split for $10 novels at 60,000 words, 50/50 split for $5 novellas, and 40/60 split for $2 short stories.
All the above give readers pleasant browsing, easy navigation and wide variety.
As for authors, they enjoy unfettered display, automatic accounting, and payment by credit card or Pay Pal at hitherto impossible returns on their creations.
In the past year or so, while most booklovers have continued to spurn digital screens in favour of the paperback, the boffins have been busy inventing better gadgets. Now there are many. More to the point, there are ebook shops where authors can list their books. They enjoy professional promotion for the site, and therefore greater exposure than a single personal website.
This happy situation for authors means that good books needn't die for lack of an agent or publisher. The bad ones get a chance, too, but this always happened anyway when agents and publishers controlled the book market. An improvement on lucky-dips at your local bookshop is that most online ebook-sellers allow a free first chapter. This enables a reader to assess the item at leisure, instead of a hasty thumbing while standing in a retail store.
The traditional book market has been damaged beyond repair through publishers and bookshops chasing the big dollar, marketing madly, brand-naming some authors like groceries, and generally snubbing creative beings who simply love to write.
Ebooks come at a price readers can afford, because they eliminate hefty overheads of paper, printing, binding, warehousing, sales reps, distribution, postage and retail markup. Online you will find chain bookshops and big publishers wrestling with the ebook revolution. They're keen to maintain their present monopolies or to create new ones.
Browsing in recent weeks, I have encountered such bookshops offering publishers website shelf space deals similar to the poor returns now busting publishers big and small. Also, there are traditional print publishers who now sell direct from their own website bookshops, including ebooks. But they still need a large profit, and therefore they seek control of their authors by means of tight contracts.
I have also found ebook shops that sell nothing else ' and which charge high for a listing, or for converting to the different formats used by various handheld reading devices.
THE GOOD NEWS is that some ebook shops give free uploading and display. Three that particularly impress me are the following, and I would love to hear of others, at cathy.macleod@optusnet.com.au They'll get a mention at www.booktaste.com the self-publishing free promotion site. Meanwhile, take a look at these . . .
www.smashwords.com located in California and offering 85% royalty, authors deciding the price.
www.bookhabit.com located in New Zealand, 40% royalty, price fixed from $2.50 but rises with increased sales.
www.rspublishing.com.au located in Australia, 70/30 split for $10 novels at 60,000 words, 50/50 split for $5 novellas, and 40/60 split for $2 short stories.
All the above give readers pleasant browsing, easy navigation and wide variety.
As for authors, they enjoy unfettered display, automatic accounting, and payment by credit card or Pay Pal at hitherto impossible returns on their creations.
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