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Will ebooks kill midlist authors?
June 10, 2010 | 11:04 am
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By Paul Biba
That’s the thesis of an article by James McGrath Morris in the Huffington Post:
However, the book-buying habits sustaining their work may become a thing of the past when printed books are swapped for digital ones. As strolling and perusing the aisles of a bookstore is replaced with a mouse and computer screen, the demise of brick-and-mortar retailers will accelerate and critically important links between midlist authors and their readers will be severed.
Consider some of the common ways books by lesser-known authors are sold everyday in a store:
Examining the history section of a store, a customer is drawn to a book by its eye-catching cover;
Picking up a book by a popular author from a table, a customer is intrigued by a novel in an adjacent stack;
Approaching the cash register, a customer decides to get one additional book after reading a sticky note that says “staff favorite,” one of the many ways booksellers “hand-sell” a promising title.
As of yet, there is no digital substitute to this serendipitous manner of bringing readers and writers together.
There’s a lot more worth reading in the article.
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Comments:
Seriously? No digital substitute?
For every above-menfioned point, I can think of a digital equiivalent.
~ I’m still drawn by covers while browsing ebooks by category
~ The “you might also like” or “what other customers have bought” while browsing ebooks of a favorite author
~ Featured ebooks and new arrivals displayed on ebookstores home pages
~ The new-to-me authors whose ebooks I’ve picked up for free or nearly free from online bookstores.
~ Not to mention new authors that have been brought to my attention via online reviews.
I’m thinking he’s getting it backwards; mid-list writers are the likely big winners in the mainstreaming of ebooks as shelf-space ceases to be an issue and the long tail props them up. The biggest losers are likely to be the purveyors of disposable best sellers which will find no “store push” moving their dated stuff once it ceases being the hot thing.
New and different means just that; ebooks are going to reshape book sales by bringing in new and different ways to bring authors and readers together that doesn’t rely on bookstore gatekeeper staff portioning out shelf space to *their* favorites. As pointed out. Crowd-sourced reviews, sales rankings, affinity-matching, all these and more new techniques will open up entire new marketting channels beyond popping up a poster in a storefront and hoping somebody wanders by during the week the book is featured.
Somebody tell this guy that the future isn’t just the past with a new calendar.
The game is changing; adapt or get left behind.
I agree with Brooksse. I’ve discovered a lot more new authors via Amazon than I ever did browsing the aisles at B & N. When I say new, I mean new to me–not necessarily authors just getting started.
I think ebooks are especially good for midlist authors. I think that ebooks level the playing field. Samples and freebies have made me more willing to try new authors.
J. A. Konrath has shown that an author can make a decent living selling ebooks. And there are several stories of beginners who now have print book and movie deals because of their popularity online. Wise publishers and authors will look for ways to exploit the growing digital markets rather than implementing policies to slow down or inhibit that growth through pricing and windowing decisions.
This piece (I read the whole thing) is ridiculously wrong, as most of the posts have said. I do believe that mid-list authors will make out best!
1) Amazon digital text Platform will allow 70% royalty, so MUCH greater profitability.
2) Reviews and comments on sites like Amazon and the author’s site will also help.
3) Being active promoting your book (facebook, etc) will help enormously.
James Morris is completely off base.
I agree with all the above comments. The rise of digital publishing is going to give midlist authors choices they never had before and be a tremendous benefit to them.
I have to say that there’s one big benefit that a new/lesser known author has in the digital world. Access and the ability to market.
Having someone maybe pick up my book in a books store because they see it next to a big name is no use when I can’t get my book into the store anyway.
Another rearragement of deckchairs on the Titanic, I think.
I’m not a fan of most current “hot” bestsellers, so midlist authors do well with me. They’re less expensive for the most part, and I find them through publishers that put out the type of book I enjoy and also blogs geared to my interests.
I think Mr. Morris may have a small point of correctness from the article snippet. Many web sites do a very poor job of allowing for discovery of additional books or serendipitous browsing. Many sites I have tried just make a big long list with poor categorization and make you wade through gigantic piles to even find specific groups. Amazon seems to have done the best job of allowing discovery of others with, the people who read this also read type of options. But I believe this is more an issue of site design by retailers that will probably be corrected as time goes on.
While I may not discover new books by being intrigued by their cover art, I have bought many more books based on a review in someone’s blog since I got my Kindle. If it’s a paper book, I have to remember its name for days until I get to the bookstore–that doesn’t happen very often. If it’s available on Kindle that impulse buy is much easier to make happen.
I purchase between 200 and 300 ebooks a year. Before ebooks, most of my reading was novels by well known sff authors. Now, with ebooks, over 95% of my purchases are from midlist or unknowns and includes shorts, anthologies, novellas, and novels. This change for my reading habits is entirely due to ebooks for the following reasons:
-short works are priced accordingly and encourage trying these shorter works often by unknown authors
-many websites have the “others looking at this title, looked/bought these other titles” or have lists like amazon
-browsing online bookstores can be done sitting on your couch wearing, well, whatever you want – you don’t need to leave your house to go to a bookstore and wander aisles of limited stock
-the stock of ebooks never runs out – I really dislike wanting a book, going to the store, and then finding out they don’t have it.
-samples, samples, samples – these totally help midlist or unknown authors since you get to see if you want to read more