E-books (self-published) vs P-books (BPH published)

[Tsurugaya]

It might not be possible to get an answer here, but I thought it could be worth a shot.
If memory serves, and it does so less and less, Mr. King published a novel solely as an e-book, purportedly (sorry about the adverb) to gain some market research data. I found a website named authorearnings.com where they show that indie authors, except on the extreme end of the scale, will earn more money than traditionally BPH authors, despite charging less for books.
I understand Mr. King has a long and profitable relationship with his publisher, and that he is certainly on the extreme end of the extreme of the scale.
Since publishing certainly is in a transformative state, and we really don't know what the end result will be, I imagine that Mr. King takes a keen interest in the changes taking place in front of our eyes. Hence, I'm curious about his findings. I also realize that just because he may earn more from a self-published book, it may still be more worth to him to stay with his present publisher since other factors than economics are involved in an author/publisher relationship.

 

[Moderator]

What he was trying to find out when he did The Plant via ebook on his own was whether people would be honest and pay for the material as it was offered on the honor system so doesn't exactly answer your question of whether offering a book on their own or going through traditional publishing methods is a better approach for authors. It also wouldn't work for Steve as he was already well-established by the time self-publishing of ebooks came about so he had a market base which new authors do not. That does speak to at least one thing that traditional publishers can do for an author, i.e. provide marketing services. The short (I know, too late ) answer is that it wouldn't be possible to do an apples to apples comparison with a new author and an established one but at least in Steve's case, he's not thinking about going it on his own.

 

[Tsurugaya]

Thank you for replying. The fact that he is the only one who has done it is why I find it interesting. Usually author publisher contracts come with none compete clauses, as far as I know I should add, hence the publisher must have sanctioned the experiment. Perhaps it hasn't been around long enough to garner the data they required, but I do hope there will be some report on the results, without it the experiment remains a hypothesis. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a whole bunch of established authors out there at least, if not more, curious than me about his conclusions. With both E-books and printed books (P-books) you have a second hand market, piracy and lending, that doesn't generate any author or publisher income. I'm guessing these are the numbers that interest Mr. King and his publisher. Things like, is piracy more rampant than lending? To what extent will piracy influence sales? How does lending (among friends) influence sales? Does sales curves run parallel or do they differ? If so, how? Things like that.
I don't for a second believe it is possible to do a comparison between Mr. King and some indie published author, anymore than it is possible to do a comparison between a BMW and a Trabant, it is however possible to find some insight into the traditionally published Mr. King and the E-book published Mr. King.

 

[Moderator]

Steve doesn't have a non-compete clause in his contracts so it wasn't an issue for him. He had no problem with people printing off a single copy for each episode they purchased and then passing it along to someone else just as would happen with a print book but multiple copies would be considered copyright infringement and when we find someone selling them on eBay or similar outlets, we file a copyright infringement notice so that it is taken down. Unfortunately trying to keep ahead of the piracy problem isn't limited to just the ebook format as even before that, people would scan print books and then put them on the sites that cater to that market but having them in digital format makes it that much easier to be sure. I don't think there would be any way to quantify whether piracy is more rampant than lending other than through anecdotal reporting but I can say that trying to keep ahead of the piracy is pretty much an exercise in futility. We could have a full-time staff devoted just to searching out and taking down copyright infringements because it is that rampant. The piracy is much more of a concern to publishers and authors than lending or selling on the secondary market. I don't recall the exact percentage numbers for those that were being honest and purchasing their downloads of The Plant but my recollection is that it was somewhere in the high 70s or low 80s which still yielded him a very nice return. It wasn't just Steve who was experimenting with it, though. It was an experiment for Amazon in how to do this so they could do it for other authors which they apparently decided was worth the effort.

 

[skimom2]

It might be more helpful to look at the music market for this comparison. I can't think of any other authors who have offered a DL on the honor system--it's either paid or free, with no moral wiggle room. Music is a bit different, though--there are several sites that allow a listener to DL free, but suggest a 'donation' to the artist. It would be interesting to see the numbers there, as they might provide an analogue to publishing a written work. Trent Reznor did very well with the album he offered on the honor system, but like Mr. King he had an established fanbase.

Another thought: there is a space between self-pub and BPH that could be looked at, as well: the small publishing house. There are scads of them, providing more support than going it alone, but less than a BPH.

Just some thoughts

 

[Tsurugaya]

Tank you very much, both of you. Interesting that he doesn't have a non-compete clause, I was under the impression that it was pretty much standard, granted he can negotiate from a very different standpoint than most other authors. Compliance numbers in the high 70's low 80's seems, considering that this market is still under development, reasonably acceptable to a lay person like myself, but I would guess they are unacceptable from the view point of the author and publisher. Seems to me that those who want to read the book and can afford it have no problem, pecuniary or morally, with paying for what they get. Obviously it is impossible to get a number on what I like to call "digital hoarders", i.e. people who just must have it because it is available, even though they may never view, listen or read what they have hoarded.
Since you bring up the music industry I think one point of relevance is that piracy for a while pretty much took a choke hold on creativity. You had all these covers and DJ mixes but not a whole lot of new creations unless it was a score for a movie or musical, something that guaranteed the creator money up front. Perhaps it's a feeble hope, but I do believe that as these markets mature, people start to realize that unless you support creativity with your wallet, it will find different outlets, and you as a media consumer will be stuck in status quo. Those of us on the receiving end of creativity should be grateful that Mr. King was willing to partake in that sort of experiment, I hope he learned enough to have considered it worthwhile.

PS Come to think of it, Louis CK did a similar thing with a stand up show and offered it for something like $5 on the honor system. I hope they have an opportunity to compare notes.

 

[booklover72]

as far as I know, Frederick Forsyth did (almost) the same as SK. He published 4/5 'Short' stories on the internet with people buying the stories as individual stories or as a novella. However, he was aware of SK doing the plant and didn't do the honour system unlike steve. it has been tried, but those stories Freddy published later came out as a novella. Read the book. Brillant anything by Mr Forsyth is brillnat and you too of course Steve. It's too early to say will e-books ever replace books. i hope not. i love the smell the pages.

Steve mentioned something interesting that people(apart from die-hard fans) were not interested in the actually story but the novelty. When he published books as in print he could go to an airport and nobody would recognise him(???????????????), but when he e-published 'the plant' everybody wanted to know him and were telling him what a great story - even though they hadn't read it.

 

[Tsurugaya]

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of established well known authors are interested in how the book market is changing with the arrival of e-books. For some of us a book is the consumption of text and context, whether that is provided electronically or by print doesn't really matter to us. Others love the smell of a new print, holding it in our hands, feeling its weight, getting a concrete semblance for the author's efforts. I too was in that group for the longest of times, even after I bought my first Kindle. Gradually though, the convenience of carrying around a library in a few ounces, purchasing new books while waiting for the bus, organizing my annotations in a rational manner all won out in the long run. Do I think books will go the way of the Dodo? Well, they have been around for more than 500 years, so they probably have another 100 - 150 years before becoming extinct. The book store? Well, that is a more complicated question.

If you're an established and well known author like Mr. King or Mr. Forsyth I would imagine going the self published e-book route encounters few hurdles. The main hindrance being the relationship they've build up with publishers, editors, cover artists, translators and others over the last couple of decades. That is a social network that goes beyond mere titles and job descriptions. Going the lone route of becoming a one man publishing empire must look like a barren desert. On the other hand, as more people are moving to electronic reading they discover new, hitherto unknown, writers like E.L. James or Cassandra Clare. Hence, they also need to remain relevant in that sector of the market or I fear they will face declining sales. Not because their books in anyway have retrogressed, but the market has moved in a direction that provides the consumer with two self published books for the price of one published by an established publisher (I'm comparing e-books here). History teaches us that when a paradigm shift takes place, those ignoring it are left behind as irrelevant. Both Mr. King and Mr. Forsyth has an established legacy that will never render them irrelevant. Both are also wealthy enough that I doubt they continue writing in order to please their accountants, but rather that they still have stories within them bursting to spring forward. Neither would it surprise me if they have written more "experimental" fiction, books that fly in the face of conventional wisdom in publishing circles. Hopefully we will be able to read some of this. at least in electronic form.