Re: Re: ebook sales

Liz Burton writes: “In this case the problem is that the tone of the article 
makes it sound as though the Triskelion/Mardi Gras/Silk's Vault disasters are 
the norm rather than the exception.”
 
Noel Griese" <[email protected] wrote in response:
<snip>If that’s Liz’s problem, I assume she wants me to write about the “contributions 
to literature,” the financial successes and other good news about all the e-book 
erotica publishers in the Internet world.<snip>
_________________________________________________ 

First of all, I would like to say that I have the highest respect for Liz Burton as an individual, an author and an editor and to say she is extremely knowledgeable about the independent ebook industry is putting it mildly.

At the same time, I read Mr Griese's publication on a regular basis. While the ads for his products are somewhat annoying, it's his newsletter and if that's what pays the bills, so be it. 

With that said, Liz Burton and Brenna Lyons have made a good point about the tendency of disaffected authors with unrealistic expectations to hop from publisher to publisher and then vent their frustations with those publishers to a warning site like Piers Anthony's or Preditors and Editors. I have been with one of the most highly regarded independent ebook publishers for over five years and it even happened to him. 

In that case, when the misinformation appeared on Piers Anthony's Internet Publishing list, I immediately contacted him to express my concern. According to my information, the author in question had not even done the publisher the courtesy of complaining to him first, let alone advised him of what he was going to do. Piers admitted that that he hadn't verified the accusation before going public because he wanted to protect the author from the kind of retaliation he experienced at the hands of his first publisher when he went to the SFWA for help in a similar situation. While I could understand Piers' desire to help the supposedly injured author, I explained to him that it was an entirely different situation. It all eventually got sorted out and the author and the publisher went their separ
 ate ways. 

In the case of Preditors and Editors, I know that from personal experience that they carefully verify any complaints they receive and this site has been performing yeoman service for our industry for many years.

As for Norah Roberts, her objection the indie epublishers was because she and her spouse owned a brick and mortar bookstore and felt threatened. She's also, pardon my French, a "big shot" print author with everything the term implies. She knows zip about independent epublishing, let alone who is who and needs to keep her nose out of it, period. 

The problem I see with Mr Griese's newsletter is that it tends to report on what's going on with the majors at the national level i.e. O.J. Simpson's "If I Did it" etc and he's never seemed particularly interested in anything at our level unless it's a scandal of some sort. 

i.e. When I described the CrossroadsPub debacle and how we and the rest of the industry dealt with it, he not only said nothing about it in his newsletter, he didn't respond to me either. 

As for his comment about independent ebooks not being bestsellers, there I do take issue with him. Apparently, he's not aware of the phonomenal success of Darrell Bain and Jeannine Berry's "The Sex Gates", or of how many fine out-of-print authors like Jack Vance and Dave Duncan are enjoying a whole new career because of ebooks and Fictionwise. (Maybe it's because none of these authors write 'erotica', <g>.) The fact remains that The Sex Gates made it onto a national bestseller, right alongside Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code no less, and beat out an awful lot of other big name titles has gone virtually unnoticed at Mr Griese's reporting level. 

In closing, I'm getting more than a bit tired of the 'vanity press' thread. Surely, by now we know the difference between a 'vanity press', a subsidy publisher and a commercial royalty paying publisher. 

Certainly I do, mostly because EPIC denied my first membership application on the grounds that I was, (oh horrors!), 'self published' *and* with an 'unapproved publisher'. They nattered on and on about this, ad nauseum, for a number of years until they did a sudden about face and voted to admit all comers, including publishers.  

The fact John Grisham, Tolkien, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter and who knows how many others subsidized the print runs of their first titles shouldn't make them 'vanity publishers' either. However, according to some of the arguers here  that's exactly what they were. (When he couldn't find a distributor either, John Grisham was reduced to hawking his first print run out of the trunk of his car and was treated like **** by one of the big bookselling chains. When that same chain later asked him to do a booksigning he gave them a flat 'no', then, much to my delight, he went public with his reasons.)

In other words, what I've been seeing in this 'vanity press' thread is a whole lot of ill-informed, snobbish slams at independent epublishing in particular and the small press in general, and the sooner you people quit it and gat back to some more productive discussions about ebooks, the happier I'll be.  
--
Freddie aka Kate Saundby
[email protected]
http://www.double-dragon-
ebooks.com/
http://www.authorsden.com/visit/aut
hor.asp?AuthorID=1745
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/K
ateSaundbyeBooks.htm





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