In regards to Josh Lanyon and his comments on this post…
Jessewave ~ Book Lengths Are You Getting What You’re Paying For?
not every publisher invests in quality artwork, decent editing, decent copy editing, decent formatting. These things cost money. Publishers who don’t pay for these things can afford to charge less. Publishers who pay a fair wage to their editors and others will probably have to charge more — taking into account such variables as the size of the publishing house. Readers can rejoice upfront at paying less, but you get what you pay for. I don’t know many readers rejoicing because they saved money on shabby copy editing and poor cover art.
In other words authors deserve to make a buck and these places are already spending good money packaging the eBook in a way to attract customers. blah blah blah
I am not arguing against the idea that it takes money to make money.
It just seems to me if they want to attract particularly talented authors to obviously make more money off their many many sales and also get more money to cover other publishing costs then simply provide a nice advance to those authors. Would authors not want to make a nice lump sum before they even started writing the eBook? Would writers not be more attracted to an ePublisher that rewarded their Top Authors like this?
I am not against authors making money or being rewarded for being good sellers especially if it is behind the scenes stuff that is done at contract time and does not really hurt other fellow authors by publicly making it obvious who sells and who does not.
Jacking up the price of the eBook from that specific popular author you want to keep writing for you and making the reader pay through the nose for it though seems to me a way to drive off potential new readers and those sales you are looking for. Not a rational way to attract authors to an ePublisher who might not like getting bitched at by their faithful readers for the suddenly jacked up pricing no matter how good you think your product is.
Tags: eBook Commentary
Treva Harte wrote,
I’m not entirely sure what you are arguing here. Are you saying giving an advance somehow gives a best-selling author more money as a reward? Because, of course, advances are simply taken out of future royalties and given to authors in advance. They would have more money up front but then have to make it up later. And yes, some e-publishers do give advances. And some authors like it and some don’t.
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 7:50 am
TeddyPig wrote,
I am saying if it’s a choice between “jacking up the price of an eBook for a best selling author to somehow reward that author” or simply “giving that author an advance”.
Then yeah it seems to me the advance is the way the go because that is the rational being given here that these higher prices for certain eBooks is somehow rewarding the good writer and they deserve to make their money quicker I guess than simply counting on their normal high level of sales or simply giving them a bigger percentage of the take.
I was trying to follow a rationalization I did not really agree with in this discussion but that is what was put forward.
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 8:02 am
Treva Harte wrote,
I’m pretty sure that’s not what Josh meant, especially since Josh was talking about the entire group who helps put out a quality e-book. An advance wouldn’t help an editor or proofer at all.
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 9:03 am
S.L. Armstrong wrote,
There is another option to reward top-selling authors other than the two choices you provide, and that’s to increase their royalty percentage. It gives the author more money per book, but without increasing the price to the consumer. It’s not a major undertaking to design the contract to flip the royalty rate at a certain sales point, and doesn’t require the initial outlay of cash by the publisher like an advance. In addition, this provides incentive for the author to aggressively market their work moreso than an advance would, which increases sales and therefore profit for everyone.
True, Treva is right in that this method still doesn’t help the editor/proofer/artist/typesetter, but as all of them are really the support staff for the author’s work (the best artist and editor in the world won’t save a poor manuscript), it’s not necessarily them who should be getting an additional reward. (I disagree with the practice of paying the support staff royalties, as their work should be compensated regardless of the success of the book. A good editor, etc., gets their additional reward by doing their best work and thereby being contracted for more projects to earn more money.)
S.L. Armstrong
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 11:50 am
Ann wrote,
Loose Id already pays an advance
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Well obviously I do not know true production cost for any publisher.
But…
I do say that cost should be the same at a publisher for any 30,000 word book no matter who the author is so the price should stay the same.
What Wave was pointing out was she had found this was not the case.
What Noble Romance stated was they price based on author popularity.
So obviously at different publishers true cost for production is not the only formula used when they go to price a 30,000 word ebook. It seems to be what they feel they can ask.
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
AM Riley wrote,
Personally, I am attracted to the quality of the editing and proof reading, not percentages of gross or advances. These days, there are authors who do just fine self-publishing via Kindle (Amanda Hocking made over a milliion dollars last year doing this). But the self-published books are often self-edited and self-proofed and it shows. Amanda Hocking’s books being good examples of just that.
What a publisher can offer me that I might have trouble getting on my own is a good editor and a commitment to quality in the finished work.
I really think that you start with quality and then the money will follow. And if it doesn’t, at least you have a finished work that you can be proud of.
Link | March 5th, 2011 at 6:33 pm