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E-books, geography and the backlist: How a reader in Turkey can buy ALL my books
January 15, 2008 | 8:20 am
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By Katherine Smith
What’s the draw? If the big New York houses aren’t publishing you, who are you?
Now that is a great question, and here’s a shot at answering it.
I recently had a book come out from a fairly big e-publisher, which lets readers comment online. And a fan wrote in that one of the things she liked about my books was this:
When my titles appear in E, or those from countless other writers, she could buy them on the spot.
All right, we’re a society of people who expect quick gratification for our dollars, and, yes, I can relate. Hey, I shop online. I love it. Let’s explore this a little more.
Lives in Turkey but could buy all my books
I am not Nora Roberts, but E takes the parameters of our world and narrows them for all writers, not just the very biggest stars. E lets the woman in South Africa buy my books, then e-mail me to say she loves them. Also the man in Austria. Meanwhile a reader in Turkey can tell me she’s bought all my books. Geography doesn’t matter, and along the way my backlist stays current. It’s a stark contrast to brick-and-mortar stores, where books come in, have a short shelf life, and are stripped and dumped.
No “We’re out of stock”
E is environmentally friendly and long-lasting, and I love this as a reader, not just a writer. Favorite authors’ titles are at my fingertips even if the local store might be out of copies. More important, if it is an older release, in most cases I can still get it. Be still, my heart!
Distribution and backlist are major reasons e-books are becoming more popular with readers and authors.
(Date stamp changed from five-something, so this can be at the top of the blog for now.)
Technorati Tags: publishing,book publishing,publishing industry,backlists,backlist
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Comments:
I think the concept of the ‘backlist’ is not going to endure in the new business models the Internet Indie Revolution is setting up. Artists in all genres (music, literature, film etc.) are realizing that they do not necessarily need a publisher in order to get their work out there, build a fanbase and make profit. I remember reading about a machine they were trialling at the New York library where you could go in, pick from a list of titles (all public domain in that instance), put in $3 or whatever, and they would print you a book. I can see this model working for bookstores—keep the latest and newest stuff out there for the browsing customers, but have all other titles on the machine. So if, for example, you browse and find the new John Smith novel or whatever, and you decide you like it, you can hop over to the machine and get all his previous work too while you’re there.
Great post, Katherine. I’ve enjoyed finding readers from around the world as well.
I think, though, that the international angle is one reason traditional publishers have feared eBooks. Their business models are based on geograpic rights. They often acquire North American rights, for example, but with eBooks, geography is hard to manage.
Ficbot, I absolutely agree that the concept of the backlist loses meaning. With paper, if you find an author you like, you have to go to a used bookstore to find her old works–and she gets nothing out of it. Every time I publish a book by one of my established authors, I see a surge of sales in their earlier books as well. I disagree, of course, about publishers losing value. I think that the publisher is a huge value-add for most authors. Of course I might be biased.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Rob, I actually think that geographical rights are another thing that’s going to go
In the e-world, geography is meaningless, and I think the establishment needs to get their heads around that. Authors may lose some money in not being able to sell the rights for each country separately, but they will gain it back in greater sales as their work hits a larger audience. And if they don’t get on board with a borderless e-world Well, I am not condoning piracy by ay means, but it happens more when you don’t give people a legitimate way to get what they want. Look at what’s happened with movies—you can buy any movie on the street in China the day after it comes out in North America, and people do it because they hear about the movie, want to see it, and don’t want to wait six more months just because some company decides that China should have it six months later. I know as a Canadian, I have been frustrated by tv companies that stream their shows on-line for free, but only to Americans. I can see them on my TV, complete with American ads, the day they air, but I can’t do as the other American-version viewers do and watch it on-line, all because of this completely meaningless and artificial geo-lock. So what happens? People work out ways around it, and the legitimate vendors lose the chance to just let me see it the proper way and have another set of eyeballs to advertise to. Makes NO sense at all.
>>>Every time I publish a book by one of my established authors, I see a surge of sales in their earlier books as well. I disagree, of course, about publishers losing value. I think that the publisher is a huge value-add for most authors. Of course I might be biased.
Well, maybe you can answer this question for me:
Are you really a publisher, or just a distributor?
Do you employ editors? Do they read, critique, copy-edit e-manuscripts?
Yes, that has been the great thing about the internet – being able to obtain books, music or whatever even if you live away from the world’s largest cities – I loved the shopping convenience of living in London, but I far prefer the Adelaide (Australia) traffic any day!
What we do need are some universal and uniform international laws to protect copyrights and pay writers and musicians a fair royalty for their work. The digital download revolution has already happened but our country-by-country copyright laws are still back in the sailing ship and camel train days.
Hi Mike,
I’m a real publisher. We accept submissions, review them, edit them, create cover art, format for the “tower of eBabble” format requirements, publish them (primarily in eBook format but also in POD paper format), promote them, and distribute them through distributors like Fictionwise and Mobipocket, as well as directly through the BooksForABuck.com website.
Ficbot, I agree that geographical rights will ultimately vanish–my point was that this is a part of what has delayed traditional publishers in taking advantage of electronic format.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
Each country has it’s own copyright laws. It’s useful to think of them in 3 major groups; USA, death+50, and death+70. Each country then overlays it’s own wrinkles to those basics, for example until recently France did not count the ‘war years’ as time and still I think has special rules for those who ‘died for France’.
Right now there are works going into PD in death+50 countries that are locked up for much longer in the other regimes.
If people’s behaviour is going to pressure publishers / distributors to ignore geography then that will pressure for harmony of laws – but what harmony – shorter, longer, or perpetual copyright?