About five years ago, I was in the NYC audience of a speech given by Don Lamm (whom many of you might know--lives in Santa Fe, former chmn of the board of W. W. Norton). The audience was mixed authors and publishing types. Among other things, Don was saying, authors: you better provide your own copy editing now, because publishers aren't going to do it.
After he finished, my hand was first up. I said: I've been my own typesetter for ten years. I do my own proofreading, indexing, etc. Publishing promotion is simply risible, so whatever promotion gets done, gets done by me. Now you're telling me I need to provide my own copy editing too? What possible value added is a publisher to me? Why should I share a damn cent with them? Much stirring and harrumphing among the publishing types, and one finally said, well, we are a filter for quality. Be serious, I retorted. One more quality vampire book? Okay, they conceded, we can distribute. That they can. But I have to trust them that they'll tell the truth about sales. They have been known to fib, in their own favor, of course. I long ago decided not to mind that the top editors were having wonderful lunches at the Four Seasons daily while I waited for royalties in six-month increments, those computed only three months after a pay period closed, and with royalties held back for "returns." But I do mind their poormouthing and whining. It is surely the most backward industry in America. On Apr 21, 2012, at 9:10 AM, Edward Angel wrote: > Although I am no fan of the present broken publishing system, the recent > posts have led me to think about the steps that an author has to go through > to get a book out. If you look at what it takes, all the proposed > alternatives don't solve the problem for an author. I'm addressing my > comments mostly to textbooks but it's not much different for trade books or > even for other endeavors like filmmaking. > > To start with, it takes six months to a year of effort to write a good first > draft. Then the publication process can involves the following entities: > > 1. Editor > 2. Development editor (especially for a first edition) > 3. Reviewers (maybe 5-7) > 4. Production manager (responsible for among other things securing copyrights > and permissions) > 5. Typesetter > 6. Copy Editor > 7. Proof Reader > 8. Printer (if not an ebook) > > 9. Marketing and Distribution > > At the present, all of the first 8 eight tasks except for 1. and perhaps 4. > are contracted out by the publisher, so as Russell points out, the author > could get these services done without the publisher. However, there can be > considerable expense involved and at this point you would have not only spent > a the six months to a year writing but also paying for these services and > spending lots of time contracting and supervising the process. And at this > point you haven't received any royalties and probably have no way to market > your work, a step which is crucial and has not been addressed in these posts. > Nor do you have any reason to believe that your work will be successful > enough to pay for the above expenses or to compensate you for your time. So > even if the author isn't seeking to get rich or even to make any money, I > don't see any good alternatives for most of us to the present broken model. > Even though my royalties are a small fraction of the selling price and the > price students have to pay for books is outrageous, at least from the > author's persective, my up front costs are minimal (mostly my time) and I can > focus on the parts I enjoy. > > Ed > __________ > > Ed Angel > > Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) > Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico > > 1017 Sierra Pinon > Santa Fe, NM 87501 > 505-984-0136 (home) an...@cs.unm.edu > 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel > > > On Apr 20, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Russell Standish wrote: > >> This has already been done. See, for instance, Amazon's CreateSpace >> (previously known as BookSurge). There is also a competitor based in >> Canada, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. Both paper and >> eBook is supported. >> >> Editing, typesetting you can source yourself, or you can avail >> yourself of their services. Another source of technical editing >> services I'm associated with is Online English. They're not the >> cheapest, but they do take quality seriously (manuscripts are edited >> by native English speakers who either have an editing background, or a >> technical background - eg ex-academics). >> >> For Theory of Nothing, I used CreateSpace, and recently did a Kindle >> version. It has been available as a free PDF since a year after its >> publication date, prior to that, the PDF was available for sale at the >> price of the book royalty (Kindle version is not much higher), and >> bundled with the physical book sale. I >> skimped on the editing services, because it didn't make business sense >> (editing costs would have consumed several years worth of >> revenue). Alas, it shows, but my readers mostly forgive me :). >> >> I found: >> >> a) Physical books sold well - better than expectations even. >> b) The sales of the unencrypted PDF were very poor (about 5% of the >> physical). And few physical book purchasers claimed their PDF version. >> c) Free PDF downloads went through the roof (about 5 times as many >> downloads as physical copies sold, before it was torrented, and I lost >> track of the downloads :). The availability of free downloads didn't >> affect sales of the physical book (maybe it sustained it, perhaps). >> d) Sales of the Kindle ebook have been poor. This is somewhat >> surprising, as the rendering of the free PDF on the Kindle reader is >> attrocious. Maybe very few of my readers bother with Kindle - not sure >> - there is a review somewhere of my PDF book on a Kindle out there in >> the internet, so obviously people tried it. >> >> In conclusion - I would still do a physical copy of a book as well as >> an ebook. Ebook monetisation is still a problem. >> >> Cheers >> >> On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:09:39AM -0600, Joseph Spinden wrote: >>> Here's an article I came across today: >>> >>> >>> Opinion: Academic Publishing Is Broken | The Scientist >>> >>> http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/19/opinion-academic-publishing-is-broken/ >>> >>> >>> >>> This started me thinking about what services publishers perform in >>> general. As this article points out, for the scientific community, >>> some publications are necessary for historical reasons. Also, I can >>> see great value in peer review. >>> >>> But, what is to prevent someone from setting up a web site devoted >>> to eBooks not subject to the publishers' restrictions ? E.g., >>> self-published books or books marketed by "ebook agents". By taking >>> the copyrights out of the current publishers' hands, presumably, the >>> prices could be drastically lowered while the authors could get >>> higher fees and/or royalties ! >>> >>> This would not do away with the need for editors. But do editors >>> need to be employees of the existing publishers ? >>> >>> So, what are the compelling arguments for the ability of publishers >>> to maintain their control over content delivered electronically ? >>> >>> Joe >>> >>> >>> -- >>> >>> "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." >>> >>> -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> >> -- >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) >> Principal, High Performance Coders >> Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au >> University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org "She instructed me as if out of bitter personal experience; she brooded along the edges of my childhood like someone living out a long Tennysonian regret." Wallace Stegner, "Angle of Repose"
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
