In the long-running tension between pure entertainment and meaningful science fiction and fantasy, anthologist John Joseph Adams says, ‘We can have both. It just takes more work.’ Read More
Coming to DBW: What Does Author Earnings Say to the Industry?
Ahead of his or her presentation at Digital Book World (#DBW16) on March 9, a look at “Data Guy’s” sales-estimate project, Author Earnings, by Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives. Read More
Author Earnings: Springtime for UK indie ebooks
Welcome to the UK, Author Earnings Unlike the US, where collective indie ebook earnings long ago surpassed that of all Big Five authors combined, in the UK indie-published authors and Big Five published authors are still earning neck [and] neck. As we gather this morning (4th December) to open the fifth annual FutureBook Conference here in London, a new Author Earnings report… Read More
AuthorEarnings: Brought To You By Us, Your Breathless Media
My Hype Is Better Than Your Hype Sometimes it seems that almost no one in the publishing industry can deliver a message without a sticky gloss of agenda-laden hype on it. The latest AuthorEarnings report, prepared by the author Hugh Howey and his technologist colleague known as “Data Guy,” is a good case in point. Rather than opening… Read More
Could Amazon Exclusivity Be Good For The Future Of eBooks?
‘The Absolute Best Experience For Readers’ Here’s an argument we don’t hear frequently for the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select programs. I’m ensuring the best possible reader experience with ebooks. This is the soon-to-be-seafaring author Hugh Howey, who says that there’s something more important than the doubling of his overall income since Amazon instituted per-page payouts… Read More
Why That Ebook May Cost More Than The Hardcover
It’s Not Over ‘Til The Big Dog Barks Indie publishing is still growing and it seems that established publishing is at a standstill. Mike Shatzkin’s column of August 5 may be the one in which we someday remember hearing a new sermon, the beginning of the endgame. But Shatzkin is not delivering a benediction yet: This… Read More
In Publishing's CyberVillage: So Much Anger
Calling Them Out Provocations graphic by Liam Walsh IRL, in real life, if you were mad at someone for something, would you walk into the village square, face the buildings, and start yelling that person’s name and your complaints about them? You’d be calling them out, physically, demanding that they change their ways and accusing… Read More
Are Book Prices Too Low?
‘A long summer absorbed in our colouring-in books’ My colleague Philip Jones at The Bookseller today is making the case today in his leader piece that Harper Lee’s endlessly watched Go Set a Watchman “is the latest big title to demonstrate how the trade’s pricing strategy remains too set on using discount to drive sales —… Read More
Indie Authors: How to Get Visible in Libraries
We’re jazzed to have a visit this week from one of the most respected journalists in the publishing industry. Porter Anderson‘s resumé includes CNN, The Dallas Times Herald, and the Village Voice. He also writes for online biggies like Writer Unboxed, ThoughtCatalog, and FutureBook. He visits most of the major publishing industry conferences worldwide and… Read More
Subscriptions, 'know your readers'
Last August in his two-part essay for us here at The FutureBook, “On streaming, subscription, and big data,” CyberLibris’ Eric Briys (pictured) wrote of “understanding reader frustration.” Briys joined us from France Friday for #FutureChat with a timely reminder that knowing readers is really the key to right decision-making in the bounding changes of marketplace strategies.… Read More