{"id":597,"date":"2009-10-11T09:51:12","date_gmt":"2009-10-11T14:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quackingalone.wordpress.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2009-11-15T18:55:07","modified_gmt":"2009-11-15T23:55:07","slug":"does-anyone-buy-paperbacks-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/11\/does-anyone-buy-paperbacks-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Anyone Buy Paperbacks Anymore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our new project\u00a0this week -\u00a0the book trailer for <\/a>Faerie<\/a> <\/em>(see post from hubby below, YouTube, Yahoo Video, & Coming Soon Everywhere We Can Think Of) <\/em>\u00a0turns my thoughts to marketing and the state of the industry generally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, it also turns my thoughts to Faerie<\/a> <\/em>which is my \"rest of the story\" spin on the famous legend of the Clan McLeod of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.\u00a0 After Ian's handfast marriage to a faerie princess ended after a year and a day, per his agreement with her da, the Faerie King, the princess returned to the land of faerie.\u00a0 Her braw, strong hubby watched her go, holding their infant son, without making a single protest.\u00a0 Later, the babe cried and the princess returned to comfort him, leaving\u00a0him wrapped in\u00a0a faerie flag that could be used to protect the Clan.\u00a0 Interesting story, but what laird worth\u00a0his highland blood would let a beloved go without\u00a0fighting to keep her?\u00a0 And after she left, we have a fine laird with a castle and\u00a0no lady wife.\u00a0 When he marries, how will the princess feel?\u00a0 Surely, the many tears she'd shed would\u00a0anger her powerful father into appearing at the wedding reception and pronouncing a curse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Check out the trailer for A Faerie Fated Forever<\/em><\/a>, and you'll get a glimpse of that handfast marriage that\u00a0ended in a curse that\u00a0the current laird must meet\u00a0or risk living his father's tormented, unfulfilled life.\u00a0 You'll also get a glimpse of the gorgeous terrain of the highlands and hints of the rest of the plot.\u00a0 So watch the trailer and\u00a0buy the book or the e-book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After watching markets recently, I'm betting you'd buy the e-book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My personal experience has been that e-books are moving and paperbacks are not.\u00a0 I distribute e-books via Smashwords and Lightning Source (LS), and they seem to do well via all the e-tailers the sites feed.\u00a0\u00a0I distribute paperbacks through Amazon's service, CreateSpace (CS)\u00a0and they're not moving at all.\u00a0 I know, Amazon has its limitations and it doesn't reach most of the market.\u00a0 And yes, I intend to distribute through LS which covers much more territory, but to do that I have to buy a block of ISBNs and they cost around $250.00.\u00a0 And then I have to pay a fee of around $75.00 per title to get them listed with LS.\u00a0 In this economy given the current circumstances of my household where survival is a luxury that might depend on things like a Christmas bonus and a big tax refund, the LS stuff is going to have to wait.<\/p>\n

But the paperbacks aren't moving at all.\u00a0 I even reduced the price to $9.99 per, bargain basement level for CS\/Amazon books, and nada.\u00a0 Yet the e-books\u00a0still move nicely so the work is selling - thank y'all very much.\u00a0 With those thoughts boogling through my brain, I ran across a story on Reuters headlined \"Book Trade Seeks A Deal With Google<\/a>.\"\u00a0 Despite the headline, much of the story discussed\u00a0next week's Frankfurt Book Fair and the changing publishing landscape.<\/p>\n

The Reuter's Story notes that this year's book fair is being held amidst the \"long-feared transformation of the industry for which few are well-prepared.\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why isn't the industry better prepared?\u00a0 As the story notes, the publishing industry\u00a0watched the music and news industries go through the digital revolution earlier.\u00a0 If the big publishers didn't see the handwriting on the wall, it's because they weren't looking.\u00a0 And those companies owed it to their shareholders to be watching and changing as the curve progressed.\u00a0 They didn't, so now they must play catch-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The article notes that technology research firm Forrester estimates that by the end of 2010 - next year - 10 million e-readers will be in the hands of buyers looking to fill them with digital books.\u00a0 That total DOESN\"T include other media that carry e-books like PCs and Cell phones.\u00a0 According to a number of stories,\u00a0Nintendo DS is even introducing e-books for their popular device<\/a>.\u00a0 The dawn of the e-book era is at hand.<\/p>\n

The industry that hasn't been prepared will have to scramble to make changes.\u00a0 All of the changes will have to focus around the core of the revolution - IT PUTS THE POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE BUYER.\u00a0 Given that power shift and that e-books\u00a0can and should cost less than printed volumes, the Royals in the Castle will have to change the way they do business if they want to survive.\u00a0 It means that publishers will have to tighten their belts and streamline, just\u00a0like all the Commoners have been doing for a while now.<\/p>\n

Publishers will have to eliminate using agents as gatekeepers and throw open the castle drawbridge.\u00a0 The Royals will have to take direct submissions from the people who built the Castle (the writers).\u00a0 Literary Agents will survive by courting the writers and selling their services, which only makes sense.\u00a0 Real Estate Agents\u00a0don't sit back in their offices and reject most of the\u00a0sellers who want\u00a0to list their homes for sale\u00a0because the houses aren't big enough, expensive enough, aren't built of the right material or just aren't houses that appeal to the Realtor.\u00a0 And writers will have to learn that\u00a0advances will be limited or perhaps nonexistent.\u00a0 That means, a writer won't make a living on his\/her craft for a few books down the road (if ever), unless a movie deal comes along (less likely than being struck by lightning, by the way).\u00a0\u00a0 But writers will get paid to write, even if they have to keep their day jobs. If\u00a0everyone streamlines, the industry can not\u00a0only survive -- it can prosper.<\/p>\n

The new devices and formats court new readers.\u00a0 Never has there been a better opportunity\u00a0for publishers to broaden their market.\u00a0 The companies that survive and prosper will be those who learn the Wal Mart lessons - (1) give the people what they want;\u00a0 (2) don't screen the offerings according to what editors\u00a0or the literary establishment want to push;\u00a0 (3)\u00a0sign\u00a0writers in much larger numbers because the power and the money accompany the volume;\u00a0(4) charge less per book but put out a lot more books with a lot less cost by\u00a0selling\u00a0all\u00a0of them\u00a0as e-books,\u00a0a fraction as paperbacks and a select few heavy hitters as hardcover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does anyone buy paperbacks anymore?\u00a0 Less and less, I think and the number is dwindling everyday.\u00a0 My tears in my always refilled coffee cup for my lack of CreateSpace\/Amazon paperback sales aside, the dwindling paperback market is a GOOD THING.\u00a0 It signals that change is not just coming, it has arrived.<\/p>\n

This change puts the power back in the hands of the people - which is where it\u00a0always belonged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our new project\u00a0this week -\u00a0the book trailer for Faerie (see post from hubby below, YouTube, Yahoo Video, & Coming Soon Everywhere We Can Think Of) \u00a0turns my thoughts to marketing and the state of the industry generally.\u00a0 Of course, it also turns my thoughts to Faerie which is my \"rest of the story\" spin on ...continue reading \"Does Anyone Buy Paperbacks Anymore?\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":709,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quackingalone.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}