Comments on: Penguin exec John Makinson talks e-books, disintermediation

By: Al

Al — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:41:23 +0000

When publishers let their editors go in a cost saving measure, they lost their reason for being. Those editors are now independent and can be hired by the authors or have some sharing deal struck if they cannot afford an editor. This makes it even easier to “self publish” a quality book, instead of some of the illiterate pieces showing up in the Internet that profess to be good writing. If a publisher provides nothing to the author except to take part of the profits, they should be bypassed.

By: asphalt

asphalt — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:27:53 +0000

Relieved to hear that Makinson is opposed to windowing. I think it would probably be bad for business. Charge more for newness, let those excited enough to buy right away generate a new wave of buzz; then drop the price a certain number of months later. The timing of that could even depend on the book.

I was just at a large used bookstore for the first time in a very long time, and was depressed that so many books that I paid full price for new, and which I’ve not yet read, were out on the used market for a couple of dollars apiece. This is good, from the publishers’ point of view. Because: Am I thinking, “if only I’d waited…”? No. I’m thinking, “darnit I shoulda read that sooner.” My buying behavior is unlikely to change, except that most of my new book purchases by far are in e. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. If I’ve learned anything from the intertubes, it’s that there are like ten trillion people in the world exactly like me.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:20:19 +0000

I don’t know how it works in the UK, but the big US publishing houses don’t really edit and publicize any more. They select from among the already-edited manuscripts submitted by agents. I suppose you can call the selection process editing, but it’s not what people normally think of when they hear the word.

As for publicizing, that’s limited to the big names. Nora Roberts, Tom Clancy, James Patterson, etc., will get publicity courtesy of the publisher. For the lesser authors, it’s up to the agent to try to put together some kind of promotion plan, and much of the responsibility for execution of the plan falls on the author.

The two big things that traditional publishers provide are the royalty advance and bookstore placement. For e-books, the bookstore placement goes away as a consideration.