It's an interesting subject though. Another author I've seen do it is Michael A. Stackpole. He self-published Talion: Revenant I know. But that was after it was out of print after being published back in 1997. I don't think the original printing sold real well even though it's a very good book, I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. He said that it is the one book that he gets asked the most about writing a sequel for. So when he self-published it he told people if it sold 10,000 copies he would write the sequel for it. He figures that would earn him enough money to pay for writing the sequel. He also said that number was roughly 20-25% of the paperbacks sold in mass market.
Of course it's also he's first written fantasy novel, which didn't get published till much latter after the first novel that did sell to a publisher. That may have something to do with it as well. Although I do beleive he also self-publishes a few other types of books as well. It looks like he's lowered the amount as well to 5,000 copies. He seems to like the self-publishing because he gets a larger amount of the sale of the book and it allows him to write books that publishers would not let him do otherwise and still make extra cash. I'd like to see more publishers take advantage of the newer format. Some appear to be too threatened by it, but it's here to stay and it is not going to be going away any time soon Especially with back catalogs, which are almost always out of print. Only some authors do you see their older books reprinted and they are the few who sell alot of books. Back catalog books are a great way to introduce new readers to authors they may not of read before and would seem to offer a publisher a much cheaper way to sell them then traditional print methods. Along with the lower productions cost of an ebook, if it does well, gives you an additional revenue stream that they wouldn't of had otherwise. Much lower risk as well since costs are frankly much lower then producing an actual print book. There are alot of good books out there that do not sell the right number of books to stay in print very long. And that number has only been going up for publishers, it takes more copies sold anymore for them to make enough money to support the business. I can't tell you how many times I've read a new fantasy & SF author I had not read before when I came across a new book and then when I really liked it started looking up what else they had written and came across some neat new reads that they had written back when they were first starting out. And the opposite happens to me as well, sometimes I come across an older book an author had written which leads me to finding newer books they have written. It's going to be interesting next few years in ebooks as the market matures even more.... Keith ________________________________ From: Raymond Feist <[email protected]> To: feistfans-l <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, July 7, 2012 1:17 AM Subject: Re: Major Author Self-Publishes --- new trend or passing fad? On Jul 6, 2012, at 7:09 PM, Noah P. Melnick wrote: > Just saw Goodkind's latest is self-published which explains why there hasn't > been any promotion around it and how I only saw it because I happened to look > at his website. Ray, do you think Goodkind will end up out there in the > wilderness all alone or will others follow? I for one would love to see an > REF self-published Macros autobiography...just saying...hint, hint, hint... I would be an idiot to self-publish at this point in my career. I do not know what Terry's situation is, so I can't comment. If it's something completely off the reservation, i.e. he's doing the history of tidily winks, for example, then self-publishing makes sense. And writers in general really dislike being told what to writer, as a caution. Best, R.E.F. ---- www.crydee.com . Never attribute to malice what can satisfactorily be explained away by stupidity.
