My oldest client, an author for whom I've been webmaster, virtual secretary and all-round internet concierge since 1996, discovered yesterday that her latest book had been put on Kindle at half it's retail price. She had not been consulted by its publisher. This lady knew she needed a web presence long before she had a computer. She's had e-books for sale on her site before Kindle was a twinkle in Amazon's eye. But still, she found herself asking of this latest innovation: "What does this mean to me? "
I'd been doing a bit of research on my own behalf, so I shared what I thought of the gathering 'tea leaves.' Kindle is a bit of a bogeyman for the Author's Guild et al, but the benefits for the reader are undeniable. And with their addition to the iPhone, e-book readers are going to become an inevitable force to be reckoned with. So, how does the industry retool? How do they pay an advance for a book and bear the costs of production, editing, & design (which remains the same no matter what the media) when first-printing sales of hard-copy books may dwindle? POD and E-book sales, so far, are subject to price-pressure and seem to resemble more a flat stream rather than the customary first tsunami of bookstore shipments. Without that surge of capital, can a publisher pay an advance, let alone employ editors and book designers to finish a project?
The industry has already cut back on advertising expenses, leaving writers themselves to take on more, if not all, of both initial and on-going promotions. Like any other industry, publishing will shrink in proportion to how much it can or will risk. It has become up to a book's author to prove, before hand, that s/he can successfully promote a book –thus guaranteeing the publisher enough sales to make advance/edit/design/first-printing a worthwhile expenditure.
Authors will always be motivated to wager their own time and treasure to achieve their dreams. Even as the benefits of garnering an agent and/or a publishing house's seal of approval are giving way to online endorsements and the testimonies of readers themselves, the 'printing/warehouse' costs of POD and E-Books have also invitingly dwindled. The time will come when authors will all have to self-publish first, whether or not they hope to ever find their efforts on bookstore shelves. Many will successfully risk doing the entire job themselves, others will wisely turn to professionals for help. Editors and book designers once needed full-time by the industry will have to freelance, working directly for the authors who have already had to hire webmasters and PR firms.
