| | The New Midlist | |
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Al Stevens Five Star Member
Number of posts : 1727 Registration date : 2010-05-11 Location : Florida
| Subject: The New Midlist Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:02 pm | |
| Interesting article. http://publishingperspectives.com/2011/06/self-published-ebook-authors-earn-living/ The folks at AW seem to distrust the author of this article. They don't question her numbers but they doubt her conclusions. What do you think? |
| | | Shelagh Admin
Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:16 pm | |
| I've known Robin for quite some time. She is a member of Goodreads and has worked exceedingly hard promoting her husband's books. In January, 2009, Michael J Sullivan's book and Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine were added to the Favorites of the Fantasy Book Club list. Michael's book is currently #21 on the list and my book is #22:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1350.Favorites_of_the_Fantasy_Book_Club_#4581352
I have yet to see any significant sales for my Kindle books. Two are still free and it is difficult to know whether sales will rise after the books return to their former prices. The sales seem to be as unpredictable as print book sales. However, there are no costs involved and no risks unless authors who succeed over a short period give up their day jobs to find out that the high sales do not last, and they are left with no job and no regular income. From what I've seen so far, the authors who are willing to build on the platform they establish in terms of readership, can make a living out of self-publishing. Those who rely on sales generating new sales without continuing to promote and work hard, find that sales decrease over time. In other words, the harder self-publishers work, the luckier they become. So what's new? |
| | | Al Stevens Five Star Member
Number of posts : 1727 Registration date : 2010-05-11 Location : Florida
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:10 am | |
| She was banned from AW in what looked like a meltdown. The wagons have been circling ever since. |
| | | Shelagh Admin
Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:23 am | |
| I was banned, too. They are very protective of their ostrich approach to publishing. They see a publishing contract as a badge of merit. The irony is that they think that makes them professional when it has exactly the opposite effect. J.A. Konrath used to drink the AW Kool Aid but he's lost his kudos now that he's making far more money out of self-publishing than he did out of mainstream publishing. He hasn't jumped ship, and he's still working with commercial publishers. He is using both the old and the new technology to his own advantage. A professional approach to publishing. J. K. Rowling is about to do the same thing when she launches her inter-active ebooks and becomes yet another self-published author.
Last edited by Shelagh on Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
| | | LC Five Star Member
Number of posts : 5044 Registration date : 2009-03-28
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:35 am | |
| I don't know why people are even arguing about this. So some authors find self-publishing works for them. Great! You can't argue with success. If that's the route they want to take, go for it. As I see it, they're no different from any other merchant selling a gadget to retailers and customers. I just read the story of a "mompreneur" who sold a product called Bees Knees, a baby kneepad, to retailers. That's what this boils down to. These authors are really businesspeople selling their own product, which happens to be a book.
I very quickly skimmed the Write2Publish blog and the AW thread. Blah, blah, blah. No different from any other thread; people with too much time on their hands trying to convince the other side. Seemed cordial enough to me (on both sides). Then I saw a screenshot of the AW owner's ridiculous ban message. And they have something to say about PA's Infocenter?? |
| | | LC Five Star Member
Number of posts : 5044 Registration date : 2009-03-28
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:42 am | |
| - Quote :
- I've known Robin for quite some time. She is a member of Goodreads and
has worked exceedingly hard promoting her husband's books. This is my, and I think others', complaint about the self-published and micropress-published crowd. The relentless self-promotion, the barging into every forum, thread and conversation with unsolicited and unwelcome commercials for their product. They shill, shill, shill, until they get tired of it (or get told to fuck off). This forum has a lot of examples of that, fly-bys who drop links to their terribly-done trailers, excerpts to their terribly-written books, and to their free, amateurish websites. I've really had to sit on my hands a lot here. BTW, Robin WAS dissembling when she described MacDonald as a self-published author. No he isn't. He's a commercially published author who appears to have self-published his out-of-print backlist. (from what I could tell l-again, I just skimmed). |
| | | lyntx Three Star Member
Number of posts : 141 Registration date : 2010-10-27
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:28 am | |
| The thing is, when bigname writers go to ebooks, readers know they can write so its not a 'pig in a poke,' as my daddy says. But when a noname writer goes with ebooks, even I don't want to pay for it if I don't see a sample and can see if its interesting. |
| | | Shelagh Admin
Number of posts : 12662 Registration date : 2008-01-11 Location : UK
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:34 am | |
| That's the way ebooks are set up, Lyn. Sample downloads are available. |
| | | lyntx Three Star Member
Number of posts : 141 Registration date : 2010-10-27
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:38 am | |
| I've done that a few times on my computer, but now when moneys so tight I go to the libary. |
| | | Al Stevens Five Star Member
Number of posts : 1727 Registration date : 2010-05-11 Location : Florida
| Subject: Re: The New Midlist Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:06 pm | |
| - LC wrote:
- I've really had to sit on my hands a lot here.
Yeah, Elsie, you really need to come out of your shell. |
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