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| E-Books & Digital Distribution |
The
core reason digital devastated legacy/traditional publishing is, quite simply,
digital distribution (DD).
In
the pre-digital era authors had to give up 85% of their take to get
the only distribution available - Costly? You damn right.
In
the post-digital era authors can get the same distribution for only 30% -
Better? You damn right.
Let’s
analyze DD a little tonight.
Briefly,
distribution ‘in the paper world requires trucks,
warehouses, a sales force, and longstanding relationships with buyers at dozens
of retail operations --- In digital, distribution is a push-button à la carte
service offered by companies like Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google,
Kobo, and Smashwords. An author so inclined can buy digital distribution for
30% of the list price of the book s/he's publishing – the same digital
distribution a legacy publisher offers – and outsource all other publishing
functions, all for significantly less than legacy publishers charge for their
packaged service.’
The
digital truths traditional publishers don't want to hear
The choices offered by digital publishing
can only be good news for writers, says Barry Eisler. So why are traditional
publishers so angry?
Until November 2007, when Amazon introduced the Kindle, the only
viable means of book distribution was paper. Accordingly, a writer who wanted
to reach a mass audience needed a paper distribution partner. A writer could
hire her own editor and her own cover design artist; she could even hire a
printing press to create the actual books. The one service she couldn't hire
out was distribution. And publishers didn't offer distribution as an à la carte
service. If a writer wanted distribution, she had to pay a publisher 85% of her
revenues for the entire publishing package:
editorial, copyediting, proofreading, jacket design, printing, and marketing,
all bundled with distribution.
Was
a price of 85% of revenues a good deal for this packaged publishing service?
For some writers, it clearly was. JK
Rowling became a cash
billionaire via the traditional packaged publishing service, and obviously
there are hundreds of other examples of authors for whom the packaged service
has represented a good value.
But for every author who wanted and
benefited from the packaged service, there were countless others who took it –
if they could get it at all – only because they had no alternative.
Digital distribution has provided
that alternative. And increasing numbers of authors are choosing it.
Digital book distribution is
available to anyone who wants it. What in the paper world requires trucks,
warehouses, a sales force, and longstanding relationships with buyers at dozens
of retail operations, in digital is a push-button à la carte service offered by
companies like Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google, Kobo, and Smashwords.
An author so inclined can buy digital distribution for 30% of the list price of
the book she's publishing – the same digital distribution a legacy publisher offers
– and outsource all other publishing functions, all for significantly less than
legacy publishers charge for their packaged service.
Tens of thousands of writers newly
presented with the lower-priced, à la carte choice of self-publishing are
taking it. Many others prefer the traditional route. Some are embracing a
hybrid approach, doing one book with a legacy publisher, another with Amazon
Publishing, and yet another by self-publishing.
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