Writers Tricks of the Trade January-February 2015 | Page 23

PRESS “CONTROL” THEN CLICK BUY TO PURCHASE THE BOOK
PUBLISH OR PERISH (CONT’D)

Mark Coker, the chief executive of the e-book distributor Smashwords, said:
“We’re still in the very early days of the self-publishing phenomenon. There are
a vast number of potential writers out there that haven’t started writing yet.”

WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE CONCLUSION
Digital books have definitely gained a foothold in the market—that is no
secret. For many, eBooks and Kindle editions far outsell the paperbacks. Many
authors are releasing books in the digital format only.
BUY

The question is whether the subscription concept will gain more and more
steam, and fewer digital books will be purchased for cash. How will this affect
authors and publishers?
According to information from Scribd and Oyster, they ensure their authors
that they compensate authors when their work is available through the
subscription service. Basically, the aggregation service responsible for
submitting it (either Smashwords or Book Baby) receives approximately 80%
of the full price of the work! However, both Scribd and Oyster require that 30%
of the book be read. Nothing is paid for previews of 10% to 15%. If entering
the program through the distributor Smashwords, the author receives 60% of
the price of the work. Book Baby has a sliding scale between 55% and 70%
depending upon which program is chosen.

BUY

Kindle Unlimited does not pay a fixed price, so the payment the author
receives can vary from month to month. It also requires exclusivity, which
Oyster and Scribd do not. However, Amazon still remains the giant in the
scheme of things.
Indie authors and publishers should give careful consideration to which path
they choose, but these programs can provide revenue which might not have
been earned other wise. The question is how much does the author give up, or
do they in fact give up anything?

BUY

That is something that has to be answered on an individual basis, because
the volume of sales and downloads will vary with each author and the amount
of promotion they do.
Some of this data was found on The Self Published Author by Bowker.

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WRITERS TRICKS OF THE TRADE

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JAN-FEB 2015