The conga line forms here. If you’ve been with us in the past few days here at The FutureBook, you’ll know that we’re tripping the estimates fantastic in terms of just how large a market we’re talking about when we say “self-publishing” in the UK and US markets. As the author Hugh Howey has pointed… Read More
AuthorEarnings.com: Kindle Unlimited On The Line
‘I wish our conclusions could be more . . . conclusive’ But all things being equal? Authors are working without a net right now. As with so many things in publishing at this point in its encounter with the digital dynamic, the potential contradictions loom large in the new AuthorEarnings.comreport, just out today from the… Read More
The Muse’s Town Hall: Writing Literary for Digital
Steve Almond: “My overall sense is that authors have to do a self-inventory of why they write and what they want out of the arrangement — and then should decide how to deal with the brave new world of the digital infinite.” Christine Munroe: “I feel it’s just a question of timing, and a great domino… Read More
Book Prices: Have Authors Lowballed Themselves?
What if, in order to try to capture market share from traditional publishers, independent authors’ bargain-basement pricing has seriously damaged the public’s idea of what books are worth? Are book prices too low for what authors’ efforts and talents and skills actually are worth? Is it really possible that a full-length book is ever really worth only $2.99 or less? What signal does that send to readers about what writers think of their own work? Read More
#PorterMeets Kobo's Michael Tamblyn for London's The Bookseller
On October 12th, Kobo had a significant catalogue of self-published titles in the UK. Tens of thousands of authors and hundreds of thousands of titles, a thriving part of our UK business. Living the dream, as they say.
On October 14th, we had zero self-published titles available in the UK from zero authors and our 300-year-old retail partner had suspended their web presence. Read More
Kobo's Feast of Burden
Kobo’s Michael Tamblyn broke through the usual code of corporate silence. When things go wrong in large business settings in our digital age, the common mode of response is dictated by Legal. And Legal loves to gag a workforce. No one from the company in question is to speak. No one is to talk. Not even to say things that could help the wider world understand the corporation’s difficult decisions.
What Tamblyn gave us was not only a glimpse of what his company was facing while many of us freely bad-mouthed it for the nine days of the October ordeal, but also a deeply disturbing, problematic issue we all must now take to heart very carefully. Read More
Kobo & WHSmith: Said the Online Retailer to the Entrepreneurial Author
For all the promises and expectations of control, authors are still very much at the mercy of the marketplaces in which they’re establishing new prominence. Read More