Peter Lawson
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Lois, as a reader/purchaser of your work and now thoroughly enjoying the Penric novellas vie eBook - which way of purchasing (iTunes, Amazon etc.) do you get the greatest piece of the pie? I'm figuring that the various methods are not created equal for every author. Cheers from Melbourne, Australia
Lois McMaster Bujold
The largest pay-through to the author are the indie-published e-books. Kindle/Nook/iTunes give the author 65% - 70% of what the customer actually pays. Another important factor is that these are vendors not publishers, on which more below.
E-books published through a publisher are next, although losing between half and three-fourths of the proceeds along the way depending on one's contractual royalty rate. (In return for services rendered, variously valuable or essential.)
Next would be publisher hardcovers, which usually come out at about 10% - 15% of the cover price to the author.
Next would be mass-market paperbacks, normally between 6% to 10% of the cover price to the author, although I've heard some abusive publishers (including Romance and academic) may chew it down as low as 2%.
The other two elements that have to be factored in to calculate actual income-to-the-writer are, What is the cover price? and How many copies can be sold?
Another factor is authorial control. Publishers of any sort require contracts and rights licensing which, depending on the terms, can remove the author's control of the book for anything from some set number of years (OK) to term-of-copyright (or as I call it, unto the heat-death of the universe.) This latter is best avoided, although again, a particular author with a particular title and particular other terms may decide it's worthwhile to them. In the era of paper-books-only, one could commonly get these rights back for one's out-of-print titles for the asking, but now that e-books are forever and most publishers are immortal corporations, this is a lot harder to do.
The fact that the vendors listed in the first paragraph are not publishers is huge for authorial control. They don't own/license any exclusive rights in one's book. The author puts works up or takes them down at the author's will (and a month's notice), and sets their own prices. There are a few pitfalls in the process, as in any process, but on the whole, including the all-important distribution, indie e-books win over any other form of publication in terms of potential benefit to the actual writer. (Or, to be fair, I should say "actual established writer." But that's a whole 'nother essay.)
To answer the question you actually asked, above, any of my three vendors are effectively equal in terms of what I get, so whatever platform is most convenient to you is fine.
Ta, L.
E-books published through a publisher are next, although losing between half and three-fourths of the proceeds along the way depending on one's contractual royalty rate. (In return for services rendered, variously valuable or essential.)
Next would be publisher hardcovers, which usually come out at about 10% - 15% of the cover price to the author.
Next would be mass-market paperbacks, normally between 6% to 10% of the cover price to the author, although I've heard some abusive publishers (including Romance and academic) may chew it down as low as 2%.
The other two elements that have to be factored in to calculate actual income-to-the-writer are, What is the cover price? and How many copies can be sold?
Another factor is authorial control. Publishers of any sort require contracts and rights licensing which, depending on the terms, can remove the author's control of the book for anything from some set number of years (OK) to term-of-copyright (or as I call it, unto the heat-death of the universe.) This latter is best avoided, although again, a particular author with a particular title and particular other terms may decide it's worthwhile to them. In the era of paper-books-only, one could commonly get these rights back for one's out-of-print titles for the asking, but now that e-books are forever and most publishers are immortal corporations, this is a lot harder to do.
The fact that the vendors listed in the first paragraph are not publishers is huge for authorial control. They don't own/license any exclusive rights in one's book. The author puts works up or takes them down at the author's will (and a month's notice), and sets their own prices. There are a few pitfalls in the process, as in any process, but on the whole, including the all-important distribution, indie e-books win over any other form of publication in terms of potential benefit to the actual writer. (Or, to be fair, I should say "actual established writer." But that's a whole 'nother essay.)
To answer the question you actually asked, above, any of my three vendors are effectively equal in terms of what I get, so whatever platform is most convenient to you is fine.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Catherine Nemeth
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
“The Mountains of Mourning” shows the Barrayan system in action. In the case of someone getting disappeared by ImpSec, the only recourse would seem to be to be family/friends going to their Count and asking him to intervene, which would probably mean him going to the emperor, as ImpSec seems to be operating without any restraint except from the Emperor & Auditors. That suggests ImpSec has a fairly recent origin?
Stephen McKee
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
If you were writing the Vorkosigan books for the first time in 2022, do you think you'd still choose to refer to hermaphrodites like Bel Thorne as "it" or would you use "they/them" instead? If so, have you thought about maybe doing an updated edition of the books to reflect this? I think the use of "it" is a bit jarring to modern readers.
Richard
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Give that Gentleman Jole takes palace more than 5 years after Vorpatril’s Alliance when the Barrayar government came into an unexpected influx of billions of marks, why is Sergyer still scrambling to build a second planetary base / spaceport? Did fatherhood turn Gregor stingy?
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