Winding Down for the Year End Snooze
According to Nate over at The Digital Reader (and here), [big] publishers' e-book revenues are down in the first 7/12 of the year... People still seem to be reading books, so... What's the problem?
My guess is that some portion of this "problem" has to do with money, like so much else in our cruelish little world. You see... In these latter days, when everyone is writing a book and nobody listens to their parents anymore and no teenage life is complete without constant sighing over the dystopia du jour, there are lots of authors running around. Many of them aren't bothering with the big publishers. These authors all want you to read their books, of course. So they push them out through every available e-channel and offer all the usual sort of commercial enticements: lower the prices, make the first series volumes free, and so forth.
The big publishers haven't quite got that message apparently because, while there are plenty of authors who are OK in my book giving away free stuff, the big-timers are still trying to get people to routinely pay $9 to $15 for a newly released e-book—or even an ancient backlist title.
If you're reading genre fiction, there are plenty of fish in the sea, so why spend lavishly, unless you're following a specific cult favorite? Hundreds of "bargain" books are always available through dailies like BookBub. I've subscribed to their daily since January, and only watch a few genres. Rarely do I pick up even one free book from the list of stuff that comes in my e-mail. And I almost never buy a discounted item. But even so, I now have perhaps a hundred freely-acquired books sitting here; and many haven't even made it actually onto my TRB list; they're still free-ranging on the virtual shelf. And those are just the books on offer that seemed interesting enough to spend 3 or 4 clicks to obtain at the time.
No wonder sales are down! (And I haven't yet even mentioned Project Gutenberg.)
Speaking of free books... (You've been anticipating the pitch, right?) Smashed-Rat-on-Press is screaming from the bottom of the same well as everyone else... Read me! Read me! Well, OK, maybe we're screaming from the bottom of the well on the dilapidated property next door from everyone else...
And that brings us by that Joycean commodius vicus of recirculation to the end-of-year offer... SROP will send a free paperback book—anything in the catalog—to the first eight people who figure out how to e-mail the rodent and ask for the special offer before December 31, 2015. [Fine print: You must be over 30 years of age and live in North America to qualify for this once-in-a-lifetime offer.]
Happy Pre-Holidays, everyone.
My guess is that some portion of this "problem" has to do with money, like so much else in our cruelish little world. You see... In these latter days, when everyone is writing a book and nobody listens to their parents anymore and no teenage life is complete without constant sighing over the dystopia du jour, there are lots of authors running around. Many of them aren't bothering with the big publishers. These authors all want you to read their books, of course. So they push them out through every available e-channel and offer all the usual sort of commercial enticements: lower the prices, make the first series volumes free, and so forth.
The big publishers haven't quite got that message apparently because, while there are plenty of authors who are OK in my book giving away free stuff, the big-timers are still trying to get people to routinely pay $9 to $15 for a newly released e-book—or even an ancient backlist title.
If you're reading genre fiction, there are plenty of fish in the sea, so why spend lavishly, unless you're following a specific cult favorite? Hundreds of "bargain" books are always available through dailies like BookBub. I've subscribed to their daily since January, and only watch a few genres. Rarely do I pick up even one free book from the list of stuff that comes in my e-mail. And I almost never buy a discounted item. But even so, I now have perhaps a hundred freely-acquired books sitting here; and many haven't even made it actually onto my TRB list; they're still free-ranging on the virtual shelf. And those are just the books on offer that seemed interesting enough to spend 3 or 4 clicks to obtain at the time.
No wonder sales are down! (And I haven't yet even mentioned Project Gutenberg.)
Speaking of free books... (You've been anticipating the pitch, right?) Smashed-Rat-on-Press is screaming from the bottom of the same well as everyone else... Read me! Read me! Well, OK, maybe we're screaming from the bottom of the well on the dilapidated property next door from everyone else...
And that brings us by that Joycean commodius vicus of recirculation to the end-of-year offer... SROP will send a free paperback book—anything in the catalog—to the first eight people who figure out how to e-mail the rodent and ask for the special offer before December 31, 2015. [Fine print: You must be over 30 years of age and live in North America to qualify for this once-in-a-lifetime offer.]
Happy Pre-Holidays, everyone.
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Smashed-Rat-On-Press
The main purpose of this blog is to announce occasional additions and changes to the SROP catalog or the site. And it doubles as a soap-box from which to gesticulate and babble...
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