[ExI] commentary by one of ours

[Darren Greer]

On Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 4:35 PM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
>
>
> Extremely popular authors (say, Stephen King) can just publish
> directly online, and word of mouth is absolutely sufficient.
>

Catherine Cookson, J.K Rawling, and--closer to our hearts here perhaps--Sam
Harris have recently done exactly this. I am signed up to Harris's blog and
I get almost weekly e-mails imploring me to buy his ebook LYING, (I haven't
yet, but will I think.) King did the online thing with his novel The Plant,
though I never heard how he made out.

>
>
> I don't see why you can't contract freelancing editors (or advertisers),
> and run a standard blog with a shopping cart. Charge 1-5 USD/eBook for
> mass titles, keep >90% of that, that should do it.
>

The big problem is promotion, Unless you are very established, most
reviewers won't look at a self published book---e or
otherwise. Traditional publishers have big budgets for promotion, and have
rapport with all the traditional review venues. Despite self-publishing
being on the increase, and a dip in traditional publishing output, there is
still a very mighty stigma associated with a self-published book. I think a
good freelance promoter might be just as important as a good freelance
editor. You could even pay them in a royalty-type system, so much of a
percentage per each copy sold. This would seem fair, given their sole job
would be to come up with strategies to get the book out there and off
the virtual shelves. Of course, they'd probably demand an advance. :)
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