Re: consequences of shift to ebooks

--- In [email protected], "Kent S. Larsen II" <kent@...> wrote:
>
>
> If the price goes down, then the author gets less.
> 
> But, in the US, how often do prices go down?

In the bookselling world, every day.  It's called overstock and remainders, and it's usually 
for pennies on the dollar.  I've presented at a couple of the biggest book shows in the 
world that focus on the overstocks and remainders market, and believe me, prices go 
down.

> 
> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you somehow, but, perhaps the misunderstanding comes 
from how royalties are paid. US publishers mostly pay a percentage of the cover price, not 
of the actual sale price to the customer or retailer.
> 
> 
> Neither does the author of most US publishers. The author gets the same amount -- 
10% of the cover price set by the publisher -- for every sale. It doesn't matter if the 
publisher gave the wholesaler a 50% discount (near what is normal) or charged a premium.
> 

Those are both fallacious statements.  There are as many different ways of calculating 
royalty as there are lawyers working for Simon and Schuster.  Sometimes it's percentage of 
cover, sometimes it's percentage of Gross, sometimes of Net, sometimes X% up to 1000 
copies, and Y% for sales above that... and in many cases, if you read the fine print in the 
contract, there are provisions that actually DO reduce the royalty if the publisher has to 
take a price cut to get the book into a particular market, etc.  Not always, but it does 
happen all too frequently.  (By the way, I'm a publisher and I hang out with publishers and 
people in the publishing business.)


> 
> 
> The author sells 1 thing to the publisher -- a manuscript. The publisher then turns that 
manuscript into multiple copies (a potentially unlimited number, really), that it can sell.
> 


The author darn well better sell something else to the publisher, too: their own ability to 
promote and market the book.  If I'm the publisher, sure, I can print, bind and distribute 
the book.  But NOBODY can market the book like the author can.  I can't go out and sign 
your books for you at bookstores.  I can't go out and do your readings at book clubs.  And 
who is better at telling everyone how beautiful a baby is, besides the parent?  If the parent 
isn't willing to pass around pictures of his or her baby, who will?


> The reason that the author generally wants a royalty instead of a fixed payment is 
because the number of copies is potentially unlimited. Instead of getting $1,000 for his 
manuscript, the author gets 10% of the $14.95 cover price for each copy that the 
publisher manages to sell. The only thing that the percentage does is change the amount 
per copy IF the cover price changes.
> 

ALMOST true.  See my comment above about royalties and pricing.  But you are right that 
most authors would rather gamble on the possibility of "hitting the big time," no matter 
how small the chance.  There is in each author, I think, the inveterate gambler.

Occasionally a publisher DOES pay a fixed amount for a book, and that's that.  It's usually 
called a "work for hire" and when that happens, the publisher generally buys all rights to 
the book in toto, forever.  

Regards,

Tony



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