Do Friends Let Friends Publish E-Books?


by Dr. Gary S. Goodman - Date: 2006-12-02 - Word Count: 376 Share This!

I was exchanging correspondence with a fellow writer when he mentioned his interest in morphing from being an article contributor into becoming an e-book author and publisher.

I want to share my take on this with you, as well as what I told him regarding conventional book publishing.

What I'd like to know is:

(1) Who is making real money in e-books?

(2) What are their topics?

(3) What is their pricing?

(4) How are they promoting them?

(5) Are there commercial lists available for rent or purchase of recent e-book buyers?

Conventional book publishing seems to get harder all the time with industry mergers offering fewer buyers to the author, but more significant is the fundamental flaw in how books are acquired by book retailers:

It's by consignment.

So, let's say Barnes & Noble orders 10,000 copies of my latest book, but sells only 5,000.

The unsold copies are either discounted-in-place by publishers, meaning B & N gets to cut the invoice price, or they are sent back to the publisher. And there is no time limit for returning them. A book could be out of print for years and returns trickle in and credits are paid out.

Anyway, retailing of books has become a "fashion" business, driven by fad, celebrity titles, and the like, so it's too bad for most authors.

Plus, and this is wild, most books being retailed are bought by women, so I was informed by a woman senior editor at a medium sized publishing house. This mirrors the fact that most book editors are women, as are book agents.

Last night at a faculty dinner at UCLA, I met a publisher of about 1,000 books, mostly geared to the real estate market.

As if he were reciting a script, he said most of his authors don't make any money through book sales but by collateral business that book sales bring to them. I call it after-market, and I count on it, too, however, I said to this guy, "Every deal must stand on its own so I expect hefty advances."

He laughed, knowing I know his game, and he knows mine.

His take on it is to offer NOTHING to the author but the illusion of fame and importance, so back we are, giving away our information.

At some point these efforts MUST be cashed in, as I see it.


Related Tags: sales training, ebooks, article marketing, sales speaker, keynote, conference, e-boos, convention speaker

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,000 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard" in sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com. Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: