Ebooks and Stuff!

Good news potentially, from the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Apparently agents are warning of a reckoning to come, because of the low royalties paid to authors. If you want to read more, go and look at The Bookseller for the full article here: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/age...

Many people have asked me in the last few months why so few of my books are available on Kindle or other ebook formats. Well, the answer's very simple. I am a firm believer in getting paid for what I do. I know that many agree with Michael Joseph's words: "Authors are easy to get on with – if you are fond of children." However authors tend to be rather serious-minded individuals who gamble their lives on the dream of a best seller that will repay years of poor income. Authors don't earn massive fortunes. Only a tiny percentage manage that.

The reason is easy. Publishers do not like to waste their hard-saved money on undeserving souls just because without the said undeserving souls they'd have no products.

So, thus it was that on ebooks, my old publisher originally tried to persuade me to accept a flat 10% royalty across my backlist. I was not keen. I said "no".

After some months telling me the offer could not be improved upon, they added 5%. A little – but not enough. So I refused again. And a third time, and a fourth. By this stage the publishers were finally up to the industry norm at 25%, but I wasn't keen to take it. Why?

Well, you may think I'm just a typical greedy author, but I think I was being rational for once. It doesn't come easy to me.

If I had accepted that deal, I would have to expect that my old publisher would put in exactly the same amount of effort as they always have to sell my books – as little as possible. They would do a little work to convert the book (and since it's held digitally already, that would take minimal effort), and then leave it sitting on a digital bookshelf until someone decides to buy it. No marketing, no effort, but the company value would be increased by the addition of almost thirty titles.

What I am pretty sure would not happen is that there would be any marketing or publicity to push the sales up. Mainly because there has never been any marketing or sales campaign to push the paper copies with my old publishers, so why should I expect them to try more from a digital version?

In order to try to persuade them to do some work around this, I suggested an advance on royalties which they would pay per book. That way I'd at least know they were investing some money in my backlist as a project – but I was told that this would set a precedent, and they'd not consider it.

So, as matters stand, all the backlist's in limbo. The publisher won't sell the books, and I won't give up the backlist for nothing.

I know authors can sound pretty boring when they talk about their work. I rather like D'Israeli's words: "an author who speaks about his own books is as bad as a mother who talks about her own children" – but there is something different about a businessman trying to get a reasonable return for his efforts. And that's the position I am in now.

I have seventeen years of my life invested in my thirty-two stories. I have not been able to enjoy the lifestyle of a millionaire – or even a bank clerk. The money earned per book is risible. That being so, the only investment I have for my future is those titles.

If I was to give them up to the publisher and agree that they could own them as ebooks, I would be giving away my entire career. That ain't going to happen.

So, for those who have asked why my books aren't yet on ebooks, there is your answer. I haven't been offered anything for them yet. As soon as a publisher makes me a serious offer for the electronic rights, I'll be happy to sell them. And the way things are, I think it may be better to sell them in the US rather than UK.

And I'll be very happy to watch what happens to the royalty payments as well.

I think that there could be a brave new world of publishing on its way. It's not here yet – too many authors are tied to infinitely restricted contracts that deprive them of any real income. If they bypass their publisher, they don't get the (usually miserly) advance up front, but then again, they can earn in excess of 50 pennies per sale. Compare that with the author who is privileged to be paid, say, £5,000, but has to repay that advance on royalties based on 7.5% of net receipts (the industry norm in the UK). Each book the writer sells is likely to win between 6 pence and perhaps 24, in the best possible case. So the best possible case is half that of the straight to eprint author.

There are downsides, sure. The biggest is that the author going straight to ebook will never have a marketing campaign behind the book. True. How many authors actually have the benefit of marketing? Not many. Most are expected to sink or swim. Only the ready supply of celebrity authors ever see adverts for their books.

Still, I know too many good authors who have to spend hours each day promoting their work: blogging, tweeting, facebooking and God alone knows what else, to be worried about that.

View over Thames walking back to my hotel

Of course some elements of marketing can be huge fun. Many thanks to my new publishers Simon and Schuster for allowing me to travel up to London to Goldsboro Books the week before last. Not only did I get the chance to mingle and chat with my friends in the Historical Writers' Association, Medieval Murderers and CWA, but also with readers. One lovely lady with her daughter had flown over especially from Ireland just to meet me that evening. It is massively head-expanding to meet such dedicated readers! Thanks to you both.

Thanks too, of course, to Goldsboro in Cecil Court, London. They do a huge amount for book collectors and readers, and have a growing international business, providing signed first editions.

However, I am tied up just now, with new projects.

There is an ever-expanding number which is growing to take over all my time. Meetings with companies about writing concepts, meetings with others to develop ideas for my own stories, and also planning for a series of creative writing courses. This last could be one of my biggest challenges so far. Not sure about it, but there is definite potential. Apart from anything else, it would do me a lot of good to get out and about in the real world occasionally.

And having said all that, it's probably about time I got back to book 31 and the copyedit of City of Fiends. I have to say, I'm enjoying it a great deal just now!

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