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The New Publishing Model
As the major publishing companies evaluate their current situation, one thing becomes clear. What they are doing is not working. You cannot stem the tide of falling sales when your strategy is to produce more of the same. Propping up a system that makes it difficult for new talent to break in and reprinting less-than-stellar writing from old tried-and-true authors is the best way to drive your customers away.
The reading public is screaming for a new approach. This is my conclusion after seeing a 16-year slide in single copy sales. How can an industry constantly fly in the face of the basic law of supply and demand? When demand goes down in publishing, the big companies increase supply and prices. This does not make sense.
The time is right for an entirely new approach, and it’s around the corner.
- Jerry's blog
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New publishing models
Another home run, Jerry.
When I was a little nipper, you could buy a good paperback book for much less than a buck. Today, it's not unusual to see fat mass market paperbacks going for almost $20. Heck, hard bound books shouldn't cost that much unless they're VERY special. And as you stated, there is no supply/demand model that will explain this odd behavior.
So, along come the self-publishing houses. The biggest problem here is that the output from these short press run outfits costs almost as much as the retail price of many mass market paperbacks. Now, you often get a trade paperback for that price which is nicer and looks better as a coffee table book, but the price is still do darned high and makes it hard for authors to make any money from their work. It becomes a labor of love, but not a profitable business.
So, it behooves authors to do a lot of careful shopping before putting up the money to have their love child published.
You've already covered the problems involved in POD (print on demand) outfits, so we won't go there. The contracts can bind you up for so long that your heirs may never see the end of it.
ePublishers such as AKW Books can keep the price down and the royalties attractive, but the market for eBooks is still in its infancy.
The best combination may be to self-publish after shopping around for a printer and publish an eBook version. Then market your brains out.
Al for AKW Books