Re: The disappearing virtual library

Posted by Pamela McCorduck on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-disappearing-virtual-library-tp7485007p7487294.html

About five years ago, I was in the NYC audience of a speech given by Don Lamm (whom many of you might know--lives in Santa Fe, former chmn of the board of W. W. Norton). The audience was mixed authors and publishing types. Among other things, Don was saying, authors: you better provide your own copy editing now, because publishers aren't going to do it.

After he finished, my hand was first up. I said: I've been my own typesetter for ten years. I do my own proofreading, indexing, etc. Publishing promotion is simply risible, so whatever promotion gets done, gets done by me. Now you're telling me I need to provide my own copy editing too?

What possible value added is a publisher to me? Why should I share a damn cent with them? 

Much stirring and harrumphing among the publishing types, and one finally said, well, we are a filter for quality. Be serious, I retorted. One more quality vampire book? Okay, they conceded, we can distribute. That they can. But I have to trust them that they'll tell the truth about sales. They have been known to fib, in their own favor, of course.

I long ago decided not to mind that the top editors were having wonderful lunches at the Four Seasons daily while I waited for royalties in six-month increments, those computed only three months after a pay period closed, and with royalties held back for "returns." But I do mind their poormouthing and whining. It is surely the most backward industry in America.

On Apr 21, 2012, at 9:10 AM, Edward Angel wrote:

Although I am no fan of the present broken publishing system, the recent posts have led me to think about the steps that an author has to go through to get a book out. If you look at what it takes, all the proposed alternatives don't solve the problem for an author. I'm addressing my comments mostly to textbooks but it's not much different for trade books or even for other endeavors like filmmaking.

To start with, it takes six months to a year of effort to write a good first draft. Then the publication process can involves the following entities:

1. Editor

2. Development editor (especially for a first edition)

3. Reviewers (maybe 5-7)

4. Production manager (responsible for among other things securing copyrights and permissions)

5. Typesetter

6. Copy Editor

7. Proof Reader

8. Printer (if not an ebook)

9. Marketing and Distribution

At the present, all of the first 8 eight tasks except for 1. and perhaps 4. are contracted out by the publisher, so as Russell points out, the author could get these services done without the publisher. However, there can be considerable expense involved and at this point you would have not only spent a the six months to a year writing but also paying for these services and spending lots of time contracting and supervising the process. And at this point you haven't received any royalties and probably have no way to market your work, a step which is crucial and has not been addressed in these posts. Nor do you have any reason to believe that your work will be successful enough to pay for the above expenses or to compensate you for your time. So even if the author isn't seeking to get rich or even to make any money, I don't see any good alternatives for most of us to the present broken model. Even though my royalties are a small fraction of the selling price and the price students have to pay for books is outrageous, at least from the author's persective, my up front costs are minimal (mostly my time) and I can focus on the parts I enjoy.

Ed

__________

Ed Angel

Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab)
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico

1017 Sierra Pinon

Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-984-0136 (home)   [hidden email]

505-453-4944 (cell)  http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel

On Apr 20, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Russell Standish wrote:

This has already been done. See, for instance, Amazon's CreateSpace
(previously known as BookSurge). There is also a competitor based in
Canada, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. Both paper and
eBook is supported.

Editing, typesetting you can source yourself, or you can avail
yourself of their services. Another source of technical editing
services I'm associated with is Online English. They're not the
cheapest, but they do take quality seriously (manuscripts are edited
by native English speakers who either have an editing background, or a
technical background - eg ex-academics).

For Theory of Nothing, I used CreateSpace, and recently did a Kindle
version. It has been available as a free PDF since a year after its
publication date, prior to that, the PDF was available for sale at the
price of the book royalty (Kindle version is not much higher), and
bundled with the physical book sale. I
skimped on the editing services, because it didn't make business sense
(editing costs would have consumed several years worth of
revenue). Alas, it shows, but my readers mostly forgive me :).

I found:

a) Physical books sold well - better than expectations even.
b) The sales of the unencrypted PDF were very poor (about 5% of the
physical). And few physical book purchasers claimed their PDF version.
c) Free PDF downloads went through the roof (about 5 times as many
downloads as physical copies sold, before it was torrented, and I lost
track of the downloads :). The availability of free downloads didn't
affect sales of the physical book (maybe it sustained it, perhaps).
d) Sales of the Kindle ebook have been poor. This is somewhat
surprising, as the rendering of the free PDF on the Kindle reader is
attrocious. Maybe very few of my readers bother with Kindle - not sure
- there is a review somewhere of my PDF book on a Kindle out there in
the internet, so obviously people tried it.

In conclusion - I would still do a physical copy of a book as well as
an ebook. Ebook monetisation is still a problem.

Cheers

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:09:39AM -0600, Joseph Spinden wrote:

Here's an article I came across today:

Opinion: Academic Publishing Is Broken | The Scientist

http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/19/opinion-academic-publishing-is-broken/

This started me thinking about what services publishers perform in

general.  As this article points out, for the scientific community,

some publications are necessary for historical reasons.  Also, I can

see great value in peer review.

But, what is to prevent someone from setting up a web site devoted

to eBooks not subject to the publishers' restrictions ?  E.g.,

self-published books or books marketed by "ebook agents".  By taking

the copyrights out of the current publishers' hands, presumably, the

prices could be drastically lowered while the authors could get

higher fees and/or royalties !

This would not do away with the need for editors.  But do editors

need to be employees of the existing publishers ?

So, what are the compelling arguments for the ability of publishers

to maintain their control over content delivered electronically ?

Joe

--

"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

 -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913.

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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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"She instructed me as if out of bitter personal experience; she brooded along the edges of my childhood like someone living out a long Tennysonian regret."

	Wallace Stegner, "Angle of Repose"

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