And the answer is... (imagine envelop being held to forehead) Amazon self-publishing.
Do your own typesetting. Do your own proofreading, indexing, etc. Do your own promotion. Hire an editor to do copy editing. Collect [[ !! 70% !! ]] royalties every month. --Doug On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 9:15 AM, Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> wrote: > 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 > -- Doug Roberts drobe...@rti.org d...@parrot-farm.net http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins <http://parrot-farm.net/Second-Cousins> 505-455-7333 - Office 505-670-8195 - Cell
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