Comments on: “People Like You Are Killing Bookstores”

By: sottovoce

sottovoce — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:32:55 +0000

The irony for me was that the dealer’s room was awash in small and micro publishers selling new printed books, including Ridan, but I noticed that he didn’t go up to any of them to discuss selling their books at his store.

Gun. Foot. Aim.

By: TC/Writer Underground

TC/Writer Underground — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:07:32 +0000

Change is hard, but to layer blame on someone whose ebook exists outside the boundaries of “normal” publishing–and likely wouldn’t be published by a “traditional” house, much less find shelf space at a bookseller–is laughable.

By: sottovoce

sottovoce — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:17:07 +0000

During a bumptious panel at Balticon about the future of publishing, Robin Sullivan, founder and president of the phenomenally successful indie press Ridan Publishing, absolutely hit the nail on the head when she pointed out that traditional publishing is based on the venture capital model. Publishers front a huge amount of money and assume all the risk, and therefore are properly entitled to expect they will reap the majority of the reward in return.

Ridan and other indies like them don’t have deep pockets, and so they can’t operate that way. But what’s really changed in the game is that they don’t want to operate that way. Ridan recruits aggressive writers who are out there pounding the pavement selling their own stuff and building up their own audience, and the (comparatively smaller) cut of sales that goes to the publisher is used to advertise and promote the authors in venues they wouldn’t be able to afford on their own, like booths at big shows and ads in the trade pubs.

Ridan’s authors are business partners with the publisher, not content-generating lackeys for them. They’re also hard-headed businesspeople who don’t have delusions that the validation of “being discovered” by a publisher should counterweigh being paid a fair freakin’ wage for their labor. And more and more talented authors, agents, and editors are beginning to agree with them.

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 06:02:07 +0000

Agreed, it’s a poor defense of the current publishing model to just say that some people are comfortable with it, and that’s why it shouldn’t change, although that seems to be the best argument most people can come up with.

By: Ryan Adney

Ryan Adney — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 01:21:03 +0000

Books, like records, will never completely go away. However, the low cost of the eBook ecosystem will allow publishers to take a chance on an author outside the traditional confines of what would be considered marketable. Also, the eBook evolution will allow individuals the chance to self-publish. Dickens self-published, why can’t other authors. I think when it comes to the written word more books is preferable to fewer. eBooks are great (my wife loves them), but I like paper books too.