Bridging the Yawing Chasm… (via Greene Ink)

I just wanted to add something here: This article says it better than I could, though I will be writing more on this issue in the near future. I believe things will level out soon as the reading/buying public gets past the honeymoon with ebooks, and you can look for that soon if we’re basing any forecasts on the sales numbers or ereaders.
I myself have budget issues but that will not stop me from releasing my 1st short story soon, cheesy cover art and all. Hopefully there will be enough merit in the work as I stumble through the gauntlet of reviewers. Truism: Many authors work just isn’t ready to sell, that’s the fact of it and I say that with all due respect knowing it to be true in any industry wherein performance is being charged for. On the other hand .99 cents for an aspiring authors work I think supports the trade and the writers themselves to an extent, and, like the starving artist communities in painting, sculpture and music it’s a development thing I think the public is familiar with. As far as the traditional publishers and those with leanings toward them, (I wonder just how dumb they think we are) talking them up, well, I guess we’ll all see what happens. I can tell you this; they are definitely taking a hit when it comes to the numbers. An obvious point but I think it’s stupid to say that traditional publishing will go away – it won’t and neither will ebooks and self publishing. It is now and will always be a MONEY GAME and everyone is in it, in one way or another. It does make me cringe when I see someone sales pitching and all kissing up to a major trad. publisher or speaking directly on their behalf in some transparent ya ya post, and I see it a lot. But the ebook world has it’s low points too and needs to develop more from a substantive point of view when it comes to market viability and the support industries springing up need to think about standards. Why dear God why would you rent a limo to take out the trash, and many diamonds will be found in the rough: Make sense? At the end of the day are we talking about art or sales, or the sales of art.
Anyway here’s the article from a great blog by Meredith Greene, one I follow and actually read.

For awhile, it seemed, the key words for selling over a million dollars' worth of eBooks appeared to be “an author with” (insert name of publishing house here), such as “James Patterson, an author with the Hachette Book Group apparently sold over $2 million worth of eBooks in the last 11 months.” Until, that is, a few authors like Amanda Hocking and J. A. Konrath demonstrated to the traditional-publishing realm that exceptions to the rule are not … Read More

via Greene Ink

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