E-Books - Is The Other Side of The E-Coin A Bad One?
E-Books -- are they the wave of the future? I wonder. Yes, I know that each year they show growth, and that more and more companies are doing them, such as Harlequin and others. I also know that there are getting to be more formats for the display of e-books, better ones, devices using "real" electronic ink now (whatever that is), like the Kindle. Which, by the way, has a nice display, but is a real battery eater, it seems!
So, from the publishing industry's point of view, e-books are a growing phenomenon. And on the face of it, that should be a good thing for authors -- right? I mean, any new media outlet for our work has got to add to our ability to sell our work, or so it would seem. And, in a way it does.
Yes, on reflection, I think it truly does. HOWEVER, and I capitalize that whole word, because it is a big "HOWEVER," the pay scale for authors seems to plummet when it comes to e-books. An author's share of the royalties, even for a novel, can be a mere pittance compared to even that of one of their sold short stories, if the author sold it to a standard, pro-rate magazine. That's the simple truth. E-books are sold so cheaply, and now can even be pirated at so many sites, that the author just doesn't make much off of them in many instances. Why buy the book when some can steal it for free? And in e-book format, that's just so easy to do. Also, why pay a lot when one can get an e-book for so little by comparison to a hard print?
Now, there are exceptions to this, of course, when major publishers handle an author's e-books for instance, and pay more like the standard rates for royalties and such. And, some smaller e-publishers do the same. But, it is my personal experience that seldom if ever does my work generate as much income for me, as an author, when sold in e-book form, as it does when it goes to actual print. What can I say -- that's my experience so far. I stand by it.
So, although on the one side of the coin, the e-book marketplace is growing and that's a good thing, on the other side of that same coin we are seeing the primary producer of books, that is, the authors, facing a fall in their income as a result. There is no doubt of this. When a novel is sold for as little as $2.99, the author's share of the profits is just going to be proportionately smaller than a book sold for $18.00 or more!
Now, I know some e-publishers will argue with this, will say that the high costs of printing such books leaves little or no profit margin, and yet, authors who have books sold in print form, seem to, on average, make much better money than most of their equivalent e-book brother and sister authors. Don't believe me? Ask Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, etc., etc. Oh, yeah, they are special, big name authors and so don't count -- right? Okay then, name me equally big name authors who solely do e-book publishings? Anyone? So, reality check here, folks -- print authors just do better than e-book authors as a general rule. That's a fact. There are a number of reasons for this.
One main reason is that print publishers usually have a good distritubtion network in place. They have to, or they wouldn't still be in business. So, a print book goes on the shelves, right in the public's eye, in major book stores and such. They leap out at one as a consumer, much more so than a thumbnail picture will. Also, print publishers will pay for advertising the book in various media formats, even television. This guarantees a certain number of sales right at the "get go." Also, print publishers, at least many, still offer the authors advances, and so they put a lot into trying to market and sell those books. They have to, or again they go out of business quickly. They have to make their money back. Print publishers have a much greater vested interest, monetarily speaking, in seeing that a book gets wide distribution, good marketing, and such. After all, printing a book is no cheap thing to do! One has to make a profit. "Publish or perish," as "they" say. This may be a university-style quotation, but it works just as well in the publishing business world.
With e-books, it is a different scenario. E-book publishers' overhead is minimal by comparison to a print publisher's overhead. In fact, it's vastly cheaper! That's why e-book publishing is so popular. One can create a website and, voila, one is in business. No muss, no fuss! More importantly, no great expense! That's why we've seen such a proliferation of e-publishers, because, honestly, anyone can do it -- even authors do it and all the time! Many authors, would-be and otherwise, have started their own small e-publishing companies in order, primarily, to market their own work. And that's not a bad thing! Anything that helps authors get published, that is legal and ethical, is a good thing in my opinion.
But e-publishers just don't have to work as hard to sell books, or spend near the money to do so in the process. Oh, they can, and some do, but many do not. They sign a contract with the author, have the author do their own covers or pay someone else to do it for them (not always, but many e-publishers do require authors to supply their own covers and at their own expense), and have the author then do the vast majority of edits, and even the final edits with little or no help in that editing process. The book is then posted, and whatever sales the book makes, the e-publisher gets a nice hefty portion of, while the author gets very little. The book is linked to many sites often, such as Amazon.com, and this does help to sell them. This does tend to create sort of a free advertising environment, but this works hand in hand for all the publishers and distributors involved. They all make more money this way, they all take their cut, leaving little for the primary producer of the book -- the author. And, e-publishers expect the author to heavily, and at their own expense, promote their own novels. And yes, e-publishers do send the book to reviewers, but these reviews sites are, for the most part, free as well. A win-win situation for the e-publisher.
Now, this may be a rather jaundiced version of the process, but it is a basically sound one. The author has sweated for months or even a year, or more, to produce a novel, which the e-publisher has little vested (monetary-wise) interest in. If the book sells -- great. If it doesn't -- no loss for the e-publisher, or darn little. Yes, they do have to maintain a website, but then so do most authors! And the end result is the novel often generates less than a short story would for the author in the way of income. And, the author has done tons of work, almost all, in fact!
Now, how can e-book publishers make money when this happens? Well, first of all, they are getting the lion's share of what profit there is. That's a given. Secondly, it's a numbers game. The more authors who post their books with an e-publisher, the more money that e-publisher makes. In other words, instead of making a lot of money off a few authors, they make a little money off a lot of authors. The individual author may not receive much, but overall, the e-publishing house does okay and at minimal expense to do this!
And something else, too; the quality of the books can be terrible! Authors who would never have their works published by a creditable print publishing house, because the publisher has to invest too much and would take too big a hit on a bad story, do often get their works published through e-book publishers. Again, why? Well, if even just a few are sold, the e-publisher has made a little off of each such author.
There's that numbers game at work again! The author does disastrously, but the e-publisher, overall, stills does okay. Authors come and go, but the e-publisher profits on. Casinos work much the same way. Overall, the house makes a profit, even though they do make payouts to people who win at gambling. Gamblers come and go, some are winners, but most losers, and the casinos stay in business! The "house," as they say, "always wins."
But for the e-publisher, there is precious little "gamble" involved. The book either sells or does not sell. If it does, they make money. If it doesn't, no big deal. They've often lost nothing, or just very little if at all. But for the good author, this is a problem. They are suddenly finding themselves in a field deluged with truly bad authors! There isn't any real winnowing process anymore. How does one get the attention of the reader under such circumstances? How can a reader tell a good story from a bad story when they only have a book cover, thumbnailed-sized no less, to go by? The answer is, they can't tell the difference. The average reader may just as easily choose the wrong book as the right one under such circumstances. So, for a good author to get published at an e-book site, may not mean anything at all. It may not mean he/she has "arrived."
Now, how do I know about this "bad author" phenomenon? Well, as I've mentioned before, I'm a professional reviewer, and I can honestly say I have read book after book through e-publishing outlets that were just awful. I mean, absolutely terrible! Usually, a book in print form has some redeeming qualities about it, because otherwise it would never have seen hard print. A publisher simply wouldn't and couldn't invest their money and reputation into a truly bad work and stay in business for more than an eye blink. But again, there is no problem with this with e-publishers. If the author sells only a few and that's it -- they, the e-publishers move on -- they even made some money in the process, and so on they go -- no loss. Again, authors can come and go, but the e-publisher lives on. But not always, they often disappear too! Which is even worse. Authors are then left in the lurch, with contracts and novels they've slaved over now hanging in limbo. And something else, even though e-publishers only contract for the "e-rights," and so the author thinks they can still get their novel published by someone in hard print -- think again! Most publishing houses want all the rights to the book and they don't want it to have appeared anywhere else before them. So, so much for that idea!
Now, by pointing all this out, I'm not trying to crucify e-book publishers. Far from it. It is a new media. There are a lot of good, upright publishers in it. Online magazines, for the vast majority, are darn good places to get published, and I have been, often and at many of them, and I'm thankful and grateful for that. Plus, e-publishing is another method for an author to sell his/her works, and that's a good thing as well. I don't quarrel with that idea. Also, e-publishers aren't trying to deceive you. Anyone can read a contract, and if they can't, their lawyers certainly can. So, if you sign something, you've agreed to it! Remember that.
But like anything new, e-publishing has to go through a shake-out process. Authors may have to form a guild or something, ultimately, to have enough sway to command a liveable wage, as it were. As it stands now, there are just so many newbie authors out there that just want to see their works in "print" (meaning online), that they actually give it away for free. So, we see sinking prices for what our books are sold for, considered worth, and thus we see sinking income as a result. We work much harder, and often for much less payoff. We must now compete in a market place that no longer winnows out the terrible writers, which makes for a more crowded, and generally lower level market as a result. Think I'm kidding? Check out what print published authors think of their e-published counterparts. Definitely some snobbery there! Again, for e-publishers to sell a cheap commodity they've gotten cheaply is a great business tactic, and a perfectly reasonable one. But not necessarily for the sweatshop worker of an author who is producing the work!
That's life I suppose. And like all new markets, it very well may be self-correcting in the long run. that is, it may "fix" itself over time. But it's the short run, my career span, which concerns me, as yours should concern you as an author. And I have to be honest here; I would much prefer to see my own novels in print, lining my shelves, and for decent money, than getting some pittance for people being able to download my work online and on the cheap.
The truth is, if your work is good, you should be paid well for it, whether it is in hard print form, CD form, or online format in PDF. After all, it is only the medium that has changed, not the quality of your work and effort! Heck, with such cheaper overhead, e-publishers should be able to give authors better royalities, not worse ones! Right?
I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up toiling away in the literary version of a sweatshop. And that isn't such a ridiculous comparsion as you may think. Many of us writers work long into the night on our novels, because that's the only free time we have left to do it. Little sleep, a lot of hard work, and hope, seem to be the principal ingredients in the recipe of many a novel.
So, think about this, as an author. And be on your guard. When you are ready to "sell" your novel, make darn sure you are picking the best publisher, the best type of publisher for your work. After all, in the final analysis, it's your living, your life, we're talking about here. Take charge and control of it. Or, when it comes to e-publishing, you may, as an author, just end up as an "e-sucker!"
