Kester Brewin has been blogging a lot about piracy (mostly as a kind of way of asking questions about economics and power and culture). It's very interesting, then, to see that he's going to publish in the parate spirit. That is, he's going to self-publish in DRM-free e-format and offer a ppb as an option or a hand-crafted hardback. Nice.
Kester Brewin Mutiny! [1] – Controlling the means of Production:
Mutiny! is going to be self-published, and that’s a step that I’ve taken deliberately. I’ve spoken to publishers too, but I’ve decided to go down this route, and I’m really excited about it
I am too. I think that if you're not mass market novelist, there is decreasing reason to go via normal publishing routes; publishers no longer can be relied on to connect writer with audience and to make the best financial deal for the author. Disintermediation makes sense unless you don't want to bother with chunks of the process and are happy for someone to take a big chunk of the profits. About the only thing that this seems to make sense for is the marketting. But then, look at how many books get remaindered despite get a marketting deal as good as many of those that sell. Being picked up by a publisher is no guarantee of sales. So with the outlay on an e-book being so small, what do you need publishers for? Say you made 90p on each sale of your paperback being sold at six quid. Well, you could sell your ebook directly for 4 quid and make most of that back. Offer a print-on-demand option for those who prefer a paper book and you're still doing well. The real trick is to be able to get connected with your potential audience. And for many people writing more 'niche' books, you probably already have that. So good on you Kester.
Showing posts with label publication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publication. Show all posts
21 April 2012
The wonderful Journal of Oz; academic publishing rackets
When you put it like this:
Disintemediation is the logic once the hegemony has been revealed: the publishers really are the telephone sanitisers of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They offer no real service that could not be done just as well by the collective that is the scholars themselves. Peer-reviewed blogs make as much sense. Crowd sourcing the crit might even do so; the reputation of reviewers would become the imprimatur. The title of the publication is an alibi.
In effect, peer review is the imprimatur, already, all on its own: the fact is just hidden behind the curtain of the wonderful Journal of Oz. What you've got is a bunch of people who already know something about the matter in hand and so can offer a credible opinion on the worthwhileness of the ideas and research. All you need to do is bring that together. A journal isn't necessary for that; it is merely a shorthand, a proxy for the expertise and reputations of the scholars concerned. It's a shorthand produced by the economics of paper publishing in the past and is now sponging off the reputation and historical legacy.
The sleight of hand is the psycho-historical fact that probably most of these scholars at some point have measured their self-worth as scholars by being invited to be part of the journal's vetting and barring procedures. They feel a debt of gratitude to what they think has 'made' them. And then they have 'forgotten' that they themselves -over time- are actually what props up the rep of the journal.
The journal really is otiose.
It has merely managed to inveigle it's way into the charmed cycle by virtue of controlling a disposable part of the publishing process (which too few have noticed is disposable, or are scared to notice).
The emperor has no clothes. However the lad has been paid to keep schtumm.
All it needs is a bunch of scholars with a good bunch of rep to set up a collective and to publish electronically with whatever copyright license they see fit (I would assume some kind of Creative Commons would be appropriate) and Robert is ones niece's father.
Disintermediation would be complete.
Apologies to those put out of work in publishing paper copies, but most of them could presumably find other jobs in academic or publishing or curating posts enabled by the funding freed up from university libraries not having to pay huge fees to unnecessary journals.
I shed no tears for the fat cat owners who've been riding this gravy train: I assume their offshore accounts should tide them over.
Not that kind of “living in the past”… | Savage Minds:
Maybe the solution is for faculty to work with their universities to find ways to support a scholarly society without the condition being the restriction of research availability. There is enough money in the system to be creative about this, but not so long as our scholarly societies are extracting it from our libraries and giving it to for profit publishersIt seems obvious that somehow some publishers have managed to capture a goldmine and managed the hegemonic trick of persuading people that this is the natural state of affairs, as it was in the beginning, is now and evermore shall be.
Disintemediation is the logic once the hegemony has been revealed: the publishers really are the telephone sanitisers of Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy. They offer no real service that could not be done just as well by the collective that is the scholars themselves. Peer-reviewed blogs make as much sense. Crowd sourcing the crit might even do so; the reputation of reviewers would become the imprimatur. The title of the publication is an alibi.
In effect, peer review is the imprimatur, already, all on its own: the fact is just hidden behind the curtain of the wonderful Journal of Oz. What you've got is a bunch of people who already know something about the matter in hand and so can offer a credible opinion on the worthwhileness of the ideas and research. All you need to do is bring that together. A journal isn't necessary for that; it is merely a shorthand, a proxy for the expertise and reputations of the scholars concerned. It's a shorthand produced by the economics of paper publishing in the past and is now sponging off the reputation and historical legacy.
The sleight of hand is the psycho-historical fact that probably most of these scholars at some point have measured their self-worth as scholars by being invited to be part of the journal's vetting and barring procedures. They feel a debt of gratitude to what they think has 'made' them. And then they have 'forgotten' that they themselves -over time- are actually what props up the rep of the journal.
The journal really is otiose.
It has merely managed to inveigle it's way into the charmed cycle by virtue of controlling a disposable part of the publishing process (which too few have noticed is disposable, or are scared to notice).
The emperor has no clothes. However the lad has been paid to keep schtumm.
All it needs is a bunch of scholars with a good bunch of rep to set up a collective and to publish electronically with whatever copyright license they see fit (I would assume some kind of Creative Commons would be appropriate) and Robert is ones niece's father.
Disintermediation would be complete.
Apologies to those put out of work in publishing paper copies, but most of them could presumably find other jobs in academic or publishing or curating posts enabled by the funding freed up from university libraries not having to pay huge fees to unnecessary journals.
I shed no tears for the fat cat owners who've been riding this gravy train: I assume their offshore accounts should tide them over.
Not that kind of “living in the past”… | Savage Minds:
08 November 2011
Is this the future of books?
Have a look at this. Moonbot Studios: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, v 3.0 It seems to me that it's what e-readers will be enabling. There's a sense in which this is probably inspired or at least envisionabled by the Daily Prophet in Harry Potter.
Using rich CG animation, innovative interactivity, original composed music, and unique games sprinkled throughout the bookI'm starting to think about some of my writing projects and wondering whether this is the way to go...
11 August 2011
Dear publishers: a word about Kindle Pricing
Dear publishers, (and ps to my other readers: if you agree with this, re-tweet, blog, like or otherwise pass on so that it might stand a better chance of getting to the eyes of the people who commission the pricing software).
I think that you may be wise to consider what many of you seem to be doing with your pricing of Kindle format books.
You see, we, the Kindle-buyers, know that you have no costs associated with producing an electronic book analogous to raw materials, paper, printing, shipping and only low overheads for cover design. So it is a puzzle why a situation like this, taken from a recent Amazon listing, should exist.
"Formats Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £12.34 -- --
Paperback -- £6.72 £8.10"
Note how some sellers are offering the book as a paperback at nearly half the price of the Kindle edition.
Knowing what we know (or reasonably presume) about pricing and costs, it is annoying to see this. In fact it makes us rather crotchety and ill-disposed to publishers who seem clearly to be attempting to profiteer. I suspect that authors may start to be aware of this and prepared to move publication routes to make their work available possibly better margins and almost certainly higher sales figures.
They are presumably obtaining copies from you, the publisher, so we know that your overheads should allow you to offer the e-version to us for less than the 'new' price listed. There is at least one site dedicated to watching price lists for Kindles and some of us are prepared to wait or to fill our kindles with other publications. It is rare that the book is an 'absolutely must have (now)' item.
Do yourselves a favour. Look at the wholesale paperback price and undercut your own cheapest offering to the trade when pricing Kindle editions. We are aware that there are costs to do with marketing and with editing and nurturing writers, but we are aware that if those can be covered by paperback prices to wholesale trade at half of the asking price in cases like the above book, then there really isn't much excuse for asking the price above, for example. You're still going to be making a killing and with less risk of remaindering.
You risk driving authors more quickly into self publishing and social-media promo which would make you, as publishers obsolete or radically redefine your role. Your best chance to retain a niche is to roll with the wave not mis-serve your authors and readers by profiteering.
Sincerely yours,
A Kindle Reader
Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Youth, Family, and Culture) eBook: David A. Livermore: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store:
I think that you may be wise to consider what many of you seem to be doing with your pricing of Kindle format books.
You see, we, the Kindle-buyers, know that you have no costs associated with producing an electronic book analogous to raw materials, paper, printing, shipping and only low overheads for cover design. So it is a puzzle why a situation like this, taken from a recent Amazon listing, should exist.
"Formats Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition £12.34 -- --
Paperback -- £6.72 £8.10"
Note how some sellers are offering the book as a paperback at nearly half the price of the Kindle edition.
Knowing what we know (or reasonably presume) about pricing and costs, it is annoying to see this. In fact it makes us rather crotchety and ill-disposed to publishers who seem clearly to be attempting to profiteer. I suspect that authors may start to be aware of this and prepared to move publication routes to make their work available possibly better margins and almost certainly higher sales figures.
They are presumably obtaining copies from you, the publisher, so we know that your overheads should allow you to offer the e-version to us for less than the 'new' price listed. There is at least one site dedicated to watching price lists for Kindles and some of us are prepared to wait or to fill our kindles with other publications. It is rare that the book is an 'absolutely must have (now)' item.
Do yourselves a favour. Look at the wholesale paperback price and undercut your own cheapest offering to the trade when pricing Kindle editions. We are aware that there are costs to do with marketing and with editing and nurturing writers, but we are aware that if those can be covered by paperback prices to wholesale trade at half of the asking price in cases like the above book, then there really isn't much excuse for asking the price above, for example. You're still going to be making a killing and with less risk of remaindering.
You risk driving authors more quickly into self publishing and social-media promo which would make you, as publishers obsolete or radically redefine your role. Your best chance to retain a niche is to roll with the wave not mis-serve your authors and readers by profiteering.
Sincerely yours,
A Kindle Reader
Cultural Intelligence: Improving Your CQ to Engage Our Multicultural World (Youth, Family, and Culture) eBook: David A. Livermore: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store:
09 March 2009
Making rules of life
Had a nice wee airmail letter in my pigeon-hole this morning: a letter from Canada from the publishers of 'Seasons of the Spirit' -a RCL congregational learning package. Last year they asked me for permission to reproduce as part of their learning materials a piece from Praying the Pattern on making rules of life. The letter contained a copy of the relevant page which relates to March 15-21 in this year's materials for Lent and Easter. Nice to see it there. They've made a good choice of excerpt; it even manages to look intelligent and vaguely useful!
It made me realise that I want to be able to get some time before long to convert the book into an e-format and also to release a book/document of updating Lord's prayer shaped liturgies for daily use. A lot of the stuff is already there (particularly as I now have some forms of compline/night prayer to use), but the time to do it is looking like it has receded to June or July what with marking, report-writing and teaching ...
Links for Lent Easter 2009
It made me realise that I want to be able to get some time before long to convert the book into an e-format and also to release a book/document of updating Lord's prayer shaped liturgies for daily use. A lot of the stuff is already there (particularly as I now have some forms of compline/night prayer to use), but the time to do it is looking like it has receded to June or July what with marking, report-writing and teaching ...
Links for Lent Easter 2009
13 November 2007
Spiritual Direction, Life Coaching and Culture
I just remembered that I hadn't noted publicly that an article of mine has been published in JASANAS: Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies. It's basically a synopsis of my MA dissertation of the same name as in the title of this post.
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