There's no doubt about who's winning the American Indie Revolution. The castle walls of the old publishing royals stand in ruins. Even former staunch allies like Barnes & Noble have defected to the insurgent writers.
“Digital publishing and digital book selling will soon become the most explosive development in the history of our industry and will sweep aside those who aren’t participating,” Leonard Riggio, B&N's founder and chairman, said during a recent presentation highlighting the company's expanding forray into the digital market.
The e-reader market is in the midst of a price war that is putting more and more of the devices into the hands of the book-buying American public. Fewer readers visit the brick and mortar bookstores as more readers demand that the bookstores come to them, via their PCs, Macs, e-readers, iPods and cell phones. Via America's strong and ever expanding wireless networks ebooks get delivered to readers instantly.
When American publishers lost control of the distribution system, they lost control of the readers and the writers. Today authors like Joe Konrath have chosen to forego offered publishing contracts for some books, electing to get them out in print and ebook format on their own, thank you very much. Books of writers doing it their way are, more and more, transitioning readers to expect stories undiluted by editorial changes demanded by publishers. An American indie book or ebook is becoming an intimate experience shared only by the writer and the reader.
But even in the present economic downturn, America's companies invested the time and resources to build the pipelines that allowed the Indie Revolt to succeed. Those pipelines are being strengthened as demand encourages more investment. Our writers can now write their books, publish them, sell them to readers and get paid via those same magic pipelines that funnel money directly into their bank accounts.
In the heady atmosphere of power and possibility now held by the creators themselves, it becomes rather easy to forget that America's Indie Revolt is not yet the world's. Imagine an American publisher today saying the following: “Everyone knows that almost all publishers cheat their authors on their royalty payments, and there’s nothing the authors can do about it.”
Attitudes like that may have prevailed amongst that publisher's American colleagues a few years ago, but they should be long gone today. Because today, in our country, there's a lot the authors can do about it - even aside from having an eagle-eyed agent. In our country, the authors can punish the publishers by taking business directly to the people. In the e-age, who needs the middleman?
The above quote is from a piece in The Herald/Herald Scotland about 4 young Italian writers who have joined forces to fight the "predatory practices of the Italian publishing industry." In a month, their Writers In Litigation website got the support of over 50 authors to warn writers of industry practices and help them guard against "fraudulent royalty payments."
The Italian group notes that their publishers cultivate "the impression that they are bestowing a privilege by agreeing to publish their works, rather than entering into a straightforward business deal." Sergio Nazzaro, one of the group's founders, published a fictionalized account of a meeting with the editor that reflects prevailing attitudes of those in the country's publishing companies. In the fictional meeting, the editor tells the author that he pays low royalties and no advance because “There are lots of writers willing to write and to pay to get published, and many of them are very good. This is the cultural mass: there are more people who write than who read. And they’ll pay to write.”
That attitude is precisely the sentiment that led to the downfall of America's publishing royals. The attitude infuriated indie authors for years but, like their Italian counterparts, they could do little about it in reality. It took technology and the rise of the wireless society to provide American writers the tools to change a theoretical insurgency to a new literary marketplace. Borders, laws, and the realities that technology in other places hasn't kept pace with America's advances all combine to make it difficult for foreign writers to publish and distribute with the ease that we in the U.S. now enjoy.
Reading the piece reminded me of a couple of things. First, I don't know if I've ever expressed how grateful I am to companies like Amazon and Smashwords for making e-publishing easy and profitable. I also appreciate Amazon's affiliate, CreateSpace and its new distribution system for making it easy to get paper copies of my book out on the digital shelves of nearly every major bookstore. Someday soon, I hope, CS will have a returns policy in place that allows the stores to shelve the books in their brick and mortar locations. I also owe a big thank you to Smashwords retail partners who carry my ebooks - Sony, Apple's iBookstore, Kobo, and B&N. SW's partner Kobo is now distributing to Borders and some SW author's books have also appeared there. Not mine - yet - but maybe soon. More shelf space always means more sales.
Thinking of the Italian author's struggle reminds me, also, of how petty some of our concerns are. Authors on Kindle worry and gripe about Amazon's new TOS that accompanied the e-tailers rolling out of 70% royalties to authors rather than the former 35%. Sure, there are some issues with the new system but complaining about it is like complaining that our caviar isn't Beluga. Wouldn't our Italian comrades like to have their largest complaint be about rules they have to meet to get a 70% royalty?
Frankly, I DON'T OFTEN SYMPATHIZE WITH ANYONE ITALIAN, but I realize that - perhaps - I've been unfairly blaming the nation for the fact that an Italian company downsized my programmer/analyst hubby a couple of years ago. The economy went to pot in those intervening years and my tough times have, I fear, fertilized my tendency to paint with too broad a brush. The Italians who downsized hubby were definitely in the same "haves" category as the Italian publishing company - family castle and all. And in considering the Italian manufacturing families' attitudes, I begin to have a greater respect for the plight of the Italian authors.
To my Italian brothers and sisters who also toil away at keyboards, I hope that the Indie Revolution hits your shores soon. Please know that it is coming and prepare yourselves. Soon the day will arrive when you will be your own publisher and your own editor. It will not bring large up front advances, but it will bring independence and creative freedom.
And to all those companies that made America's Indie Revolt the new literary reality I say - thank you. I hope that I and my fellow indie authors make you more than proud - I hope we make you rich.
Nothing will take the Indie Revolution to every nation on earth as fast as the bottom line.