Renowned SF author Norman Spinrad, two-time President of the SFWA, has a guest post on the SFWA’s blog proposing “a viable and just business model for the ebook age.” Spinrad sees the current turmoil as being a result of multiple parties each working toward its own benefit at the possible expense of all the others. Tension between writers, publishers, and traditional retailers threatens possible havoc in the market, as in the case of physical retailers slowly but surely being driven toward bankruptcy. Up to a point greed drives upwards and onwards. But when greeds collide,...

I hadn’t been paying much attention to the court ruling issued in the case of white rapper Eminem suing his record labels for more money. But then I saw this piece in Techdirt about it, and had to reconsider. It may not have direct implications for e-books specifically, but it definitely has larger implications for digital media as a whole. Eminem’s producers sued the Universal subsidiary that was handling his music for a greater share of royalties. The rationale was that music sales generate a much lower rate of royalties than music licenses (for use in TV shows, commercials,...

Hugo Award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who has written a fairly large number of novels and edited The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Pulphouse Magazine, has written a remarkably thorough and insightful blog post comparing the traditional publishing industry to the new world of electronic self-publishing. Rusch posits that adapting to the new world of electronic self-publishing “requires a radical change in thinking,” which many established authors aren’t ready to assay yet. She explains that the traditional publishing operates on a fundamental assumption that can be summed up in two words: “trust me”. Writers, she...

Hot on the heels of Microsoft vs. Barnes & Noble vs. Apple vs. Amazon comes another interesting juxtaposition. Today on J.A. Konrath’s blog, Konrath interviewed pro-published writer Barry Eisler, who has just turned down a $500,000 offer from a mainstream publisher in favor of self-publishing his own book. Eisler explained that this level of advance would take forever to earn out at the royalty rates paid by traditional publishers—and by selling through Amazon, he can charge less and keep 70% of the proceeds. There’s a lot of discussion about how the traditional publishing market is falling...

Publishing Perspectives has a piece written by an established author who is taking her first experimental steps into the world of self-publishing. Alisa Valdez has written a number of books, including a two-book series called The Dirty Girls Social Club, both of which have proven to be half-million-sellers so far. Valdez’s fans and her publisher don’t see eye-to-eye on some matters. Her fans want more Dirty Girls, she says, but her publisher, St. Martin’s Press, is reluctant to commit to a series on something that doesn’t fit into an established serial genre like mysteries. After following...

It’s right around the one year anniversary of the week that Amazon removed Macmillan books’ buy buttons in its snit-fit over the implementation of agency pricing, resulting in a lot of authors losing a week’s worth of royalties. And just in time to mark the anniversary, an interesting tidbit of information pops up on eReads. Richard Curtis reports that in a cover letter attached to the latest Macmillan semi-annual royalty statements authors have received, Macmillan CEO John Sargent makes note of an interesting adjustment to author royalties. Feeling that authors shouldn’t have to suffer on account of a battle...

EBookNewser has a report on an ongoing disagreement between publishers and agents as to the nature of a “fair” e-book royalty percentage. It seems publishers think that the percentage is 25%, while many agents think it should be 50%. This comes by way of a survey presented yesterday at Digital Book World by Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Company and Constance Sayre of Market Partners International. Apparently as many as 1/3 of agents claim to have negotiated 50% royalty deals. Furthermore, 90% of agents have clients who are potentially interested in self-publishing. Certainly, authors such as...

Newsweek has a great ebook chart entitled "Does one have to win? Books vs E-Books". I can't reproduce a readable version of the chart here so go over and take a look. They list the average author royalty for a book at $3.90 and $2.12 for a download. Thanks to Michael Pastore for bringing it to my attention....

Osnos has an article in the Atlantic about Andrew Wylie entitled "Andrew Wylie, Agent Provacateur". Osnos, whom I consider to be an industry apologist rather than an unbiased commentator, tears into him as "a hard man to like" and, in a backhanded complement says: But, nearly as I can judge, his clients like the kind of aggressive representation he gives them and the spirit he fosters--that publishers tend to be the nemesis and not the partner of authors. He disses the Wylie/Amazon backlist deal but he does say: For the moment, while Wylie has infuriated publishers and done his authors no...

According to The Bookseller: In an internal memo seen by The Bookseller, Richard Charkin, executive director of Bloomsbury, said for backlist titles the company would maintain "e-books are an integral part of volume rights” and "should be commissioned, edited, designed, promoted, sold, and accounted together with print editions—any split of these rights is counterproductive and wrong for all concerned”. He added: "The non-compete clause in most contracts precludes a third party issuing an e-book.” The article says that Penguin's chief executive, John Makinson, has decided to refuse books if digital rights are not granted. The article goes on to discuss the...

Much has been made of Random House’s refusal to embrace Apple and the other five big publishers’ agency pricing model, pleading inexperience at setting its own prices. As we mentioned a few days ago, Mike Shatzkin thinks Random House wants to maximize its short-term profits by being the only big publisher receiving full wholesale price from Amazon for its e-books. Erik Sherman of BNET has another theory: he thinks Random House is opposed to agency pricing because it would give authors access to too much information. He points out that publishers often use a number of...

Out of South Africa, this new store is dedicated to romantic fiction. In addition to selling books they have a section allowing readers to publish their own work online. The store divides ebooks by cost and sub-genre and includes a number of free books. Books are mainly sourced from Harlequin Mills & Boon and they are adding about 100 new books a month and books are in Epub format. Thanks to Book Bee for the heads up....