Hatrack River Writers Workshop: The times they are a'changing...

This is topic The times they are a'changing... in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

From todays Publisher's Weekly:

quote:
Harlequin is the latest publisher to sign on with DailyLit, the new service that sends daily e-mail and RSS feeds of book installments to subscribers. Under the agreement, 100 Harlequin backlist titles will become part of the DailyLit service and Daily Lit will make 20 frontlist titles available on a monthly basis. Most titles will be priced under $5 and will be delivered in daily installments of 1,000 words to a customer's computer or handheld device.
Other publishers that have agreements with DailyLit include Globe Pequot, Berlitz, Baen Books and Chronicle. The service has attracted about 100,000 users since its launch earlier this year.

News to me. You can count on Baen to be at the head of the pack when it comes to electronic sales though. I was fascinated.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited December 14, 2007).]

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Wow, this sounds pretty cool. I was actually thinking about doing something like this. Back in the day they used to run serial stories in the newspaper (i.e. Charles Dickens). They don't do much of that any more, but I thought, well, can't a Web site do that? Instead of a newsletter you get a weekly installment of a story.

I'm sure my idea isn't that new, but I'm glad some of the larger presses are picking up on it.

Stuff that's written serially is different than just chopping up chapters though. That would be my main concern.

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited December 14, 2007).]

Posted by Marzo (Member # 5495) on :

This is interesting, and while the $5-per-book price (is that only for the backlisted Harlequins, or everything?) makes me clap as a reader, it kind of makes me fret as a writer.

I just listened to a podcast interview with George R.R. Martin the other day, and he mentioned that although he does sell audiobooks and I think some web-based media editions of his work, his royalty slips still show a huge gap between 'real' books and digital format ones. Maybe that will soon change? Hopefully not under the price tag of $5...

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

There are two issues with the lower price tag. Obviously, production costs are lower for the electronic product so the profit margin may actually be higher and generally the royalties to the author are much higher. For my own novel which will be electronic and pod, the epub royalties are 38% which is about average. They tend to run in the 40% range.

Piers Anthony has done quite a bit of writing about epublishing and has several epub novels out. He agrees that sales aren't even close to those of print. But the sales are going up so who knows for the future?

A $5 price tag for epub novels seems around average from what I've seen.

[This message has been edited by JeanneT (edited December 14, 2007).]

Posted by annepin (Member # 5952) on :

Is the gap between volume of sales? Or in percentage royalty from the different sources?

The whole e-publishing industry is still pretty new. It's going to take a while to take off. Even newspapers are having trouble finding a business model that works. For now, nothing is going to compete with the revenue gained from printed versions, simply because the infrastructure, distribution, marketing, conventions, etc. are all in place for the printed versions. Have been in place for decades. People are still testing out the e-markets, trying different things. But there are a lot of possibilities. On-line ads might be included. Or you might be able to buy a short story via i-tunes some day. Who knows?

Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :

The gap is between sales. The percentage of royalties is higher with epubs.

You might check out Piers Anthony's website. He discusses the issues involved and gives some sales figures for his books. Everyone who has done both says that the sales for epub books and printed aren't even close.

But as you say, the infrastructure for epub books is just now beginning to come into place. I think this shows the growth and that eventually they may well be at least close to the same.

I don't think printing will go away, at least not in my lifetime. But I do expect to see epublishing increase.