Didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, so let’s hope I will make sense.
Can you explain how the publishing industry has changed in the past two years? I keep hearing about problems and issues and I don’t understand what’s going on (except the obvious toll on authors, but that doesn’t seem to be the whole picture).
Kurt
This is a little bit complicated so please bear with me.
On author side, many writers were unable to meet their deadlines in the past couple of years. It is absolutely true that writers are solitary, but we derive a lot of our ideas from the world around us, namely other people. We watch other humans – in a totally non creepy way – and note mannerisms, problems, jokes, the different approaches to solving problems, the causes of angst and happiness. If you ask a skilled writer to break down the personalities of their neighbors and friends, they will be surprisingly thorough.
All of that went away in the pandemic. Without that exposure to the real world, writing suddenly became difficult. On top of that, writers tends to catastrophize. We are trained to be dramatic. If you hang around writer places online, you will read “high stakes are good” over and over. A writer will automatically imagine the worst possible scenario. COVID was very frightening. 79.3 million cases in US alone. 961,000 people died.
It’s hard to write in these conditions. A lot of books had been pushed back.
On the publishing side, the sales of books suddenly jumped. The demand for print books rose 29% in the first quarter of 2021. People were looking for escape.
A lot of the printing for US markets was done in China and Hong Kong. COVID created massive labor shortages followed by catastrophic logistic problems. Ports became congested. Even if the printers managed to print books, package them, and get them to their shipping carrier, those books could end up sitting in a container somewhere for months.
Getting the book from the brain of the writer to the shelf in the store is an involved process. We’ve discussed this before from the writer’s point of view. From the publisher’s point of view, once the projected publishing date is decided, the publisher has to meet a series of internal deadlines, everything from editing to printing and publicity efforts. Everything is scheduled in advance. A delay in shipping causes this whole chain of deadlines to collapse like dominoes.
The situation with China was already precarious because of the trade war between China and US. COVID aggravated it further. It also exposed a very serious problem for US publishing: the inconsistency of formats.
That’s probably a whole another post of itself. Look at your shelves. You probably have the short mass market paperback, 4.5 x 6.87″. You also probably have a trade paperback, and that can range in size from 5×8″ to 6×9″. You have hard covers.
Mass market was always a bargain hunter’s format. It’s cheap. Most of the bargain hunters have moved into ebooks, which are cheaper, don’t fall apart, and are available instantly. People still buy hardcovers “to keep” and the special editions, the pretty, pricy ones, are also being bought, because if you are paying for a hard cover to be displayed on your shelves, why not buy a beautiful one for a few dollars more? So hard covers still sell some, but mass market has taken a dive.
More importantly, the price of mass market editions didn’t keep up with the inflation. Retailers tried to mitigate this by test driving different formats, like the “Wal-Mart” paperback, which is 4.75 x 7″, I think, and matches nothing. They just kind of decided to make it slightly bigger and charge a little more. It didn’t sell, so they are discontinuing it.
So there are all these different formats, extra costs due to China-US trade war tariffs, and Covid-driven paper and labor shortage coupled with shipping issues. Some publishers pivoted to Europe for their printing needs. Europe has a lot of red tape. Getting things set up is a process. This caused further delays.
You can see a pile up happening on the publishers side, right? Now, we go back to the authors, who failed to meet their deadlines like us. All these books have to be rescheduled somehow, but the publishers can’t even get the books already in production to the store shelves, so the publishing as a whole is forced to stagger those releases. It takes time to edit books. Besides the logistical issues, there is also competition to be considered. You don’t want to release two books about finding your happily ever after with a handsome Duke in the same week from the same publisher. They will compete.
For these reasons, if you turn in a book right now, it is possible it will be scheduled for 2024, for example, depending on who is the publisher and what kind of book it is. And then, there is the question of cost and price.
We are going to use Gena Showalter’s new release here, because it came out late last year and shows the trend in Harlequin imprint. Gena writes hot paranormals and is a lovely person.
Kindle: $7.99.
Hard cover, 6.03 x 1.17 x 9.27 inches: $21.99.
Paperback, probably trade, 5.12 x 1.14 x 7.87 inches: $20.99.
Mass market, 4.75 x 1.04 x 6.96 inches: $9.99.
The publisher made the trade so expensive, you might as well go for the hard cover, and while I don’t know the particulars of Gena’s contract, normally the author gets a little bit better percentage on hard cover vs trade. But look at that mass market. This is all those extra costs plus inflation. They can’t sell mass market at a loss. They have to make money on it. The consumers are, understandably, balking at that high price point, but you can’t get around the publisher’s overhead.
I am frequently wrong, so take the following with a grain of salt. I am expecting the price of traditional mass market to hover around $10 and the price of ebooks to slowly climb toward that number. That’s why I am going to be watching Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter next year with great interest. For those of you who somehow missed it, Brandon Sanderson is doing a Kickstarter of 4 new novels, one every three months during 2023, and goodies, and it has raised an insane amount of money and garnered national attention. He is pricing individual ebooks at $10. As an aside, now that we’ve enumerated all the printing and logistical issues, as of today, 56,897 people signed up for tiers that include printed editions of that Kickstarter. He will have to print 56,897x 4 = 227,588 books. And then he will have individually package them and ship them.
O_O
Kickstarter was never on the table for us; however, the one interesting thing about Brandon Sanderson’s Kickstarter is that he is sidestepping the retailer costs. If you were to price an ebook at $10 and sell it through Amazon, Amazon takes 30% off the top, so it gets $3 and you get $7. Kickstarter gets “Kickstarter’s 5% fee, and payment processing fees (between 3% and 5%)” so the most he can be out is about 10%. Unless I am really misunderstanding this, he will be taking $9 per book or rather $36 per lowest tier of the pledge. And he has no shipping costs here. All he has to do is email his supporters a download link. And then, after some time has passed, he will likely make these books available through the regular retail channels.
::rubs her shark fins together::
Food for thought.
Further reading
Print Manufacturers in Hong Kong and China Face Pandemic Chaos Head-On
Do you believe traditional publishers are slowly being squeezed out of the game?
Michael Sullivan has been selling his books on Kickstarter for awhile. He was the most successful author doing it until Brandon Sanderson.
I have bought several hardcovers from Michael Sullivan’s Kickstarter campaigns. He always includes extra kickers like getting the ebook before the official release or your name in the acknowledgements.
Good way to get more money in your pocket but there is more work on your end.
A number of video and other artists have been doing raises with the NFT community (the author who wrote 21). So you have your audience and sell a pre-mine to them and then give them a NFT version of it. Now in some jurisdictions this is considered a security, but it is really interesting.
House Andrews address book NFTs here https://ilona-andrews.com/2021/nft-me-baby/
It’s a question that gets asked a lot, actually ????
When my husband worked in magazine publishing, they sent their material to Mexico to be printed and mailed because it was so much cheaper to print and mail. It seems as if that might be easier than the far east or Europe.
At my house we are all sending you love and positive vibes. We hope they are coming through to you. Hope you love you as much as we love you.
Thank you for the interesting post. I find myself wondering, though, why ebooks are priced the same as paperbacks. I understand that the overhead is the same in terms of time, editing, and marketing. However, there are no printing or shipping costs. Is there something else in the creation of an ebook that is not obvious to those of us that simply download and read? This is just a general inquiry and if the moderator sees this and wants to save it for one of those posts where you answer a bunch of smaller questions, that would be great. If it never gets answered, that is ok too. You are all extremely busy and as a proud member of the BDH, I will always vote for you having more time to write or relax than answer my musings about publishing.
Thank you for the question, Rorie. I will keep it for the list, if you don’t mind ????, but I think the answer is a combination of the things mentioned in the post above: publisher needing to make a profit through inflation, delays and rise in costs which make some of the other formats unviable.
I would love a Kickstarter from you (an Innkeeper series?)! I am a happy contributor to Sanderson’s effort and cannot wait until the books start coming in. I get publishing issues, but it is really disheartening as a reader to finish a book and see that the next one won’t be available for over a year…or more.
That is one of the reasons that I try to support ‘my’ writers by purchasing EVERYTHING they put out that I can afford and contribute to Patreon as well. I purchase ebooks/audiobooks and pre-order on release day. It is also the reason that I follow your online fiction–it gives me a fix while I wait.
I would love to see even a group of writers get together to do a Kickstarter. How cool would it be to get a book from one of them every quarter?
This is an excellent idea for you. You have a name. But for people breaking into writing this just looks like another way to put up a hurdle.
I’ll be one of the first to sign on if you try something like this. Especially with that saga you provided a snippet to a few weeks back that your publisher doesn’t like. But to me as a budding author, this looks like trouble. I can’t get people to sign on to anything if they don’t know who I am.
House Andrews have expanded on why Kickstarter, Patreon etc is not for them atm here https://ilona-andrews.com/2017/shotgun-or-sniper-rifle/ .
Hope it helps ????
Ebooks are wonderful for me as I have impaired vision and I can change the text size to make any book easier to read. I can read regular print books, but it’s tiring. I also appreciate needing less storage and having access to subscription libraries like KU and Scribd. I read a lot, so these are very cost effective.
Thanks for the insights!
Personally I just wish Amazon et al. would accurately log when a paperback is Mass Market Size vs. Trade – it’s really disruptive when you have a lovely shelf of matching sized paperbacks, and then it suddenly drops or climbs to the odd-one-out!
Smiles and thank you, it’s always helpful to have our bubble of consciousness expanded to include other people’s / professions’ issues … the more we can be aware of now expands our ability to deal with the covid-related PTSD we’re all haplessly experiencing right now…. after reading your blog post, my mind wandered to printing books on hemp/cannabis paper … given the right mix of THC/CBD in the paper, we could eat or smoke the books after reading them …. that would make for some fun advertising …. smiles …
I changed to ebooks when my hands wouldn’t hold books anymore. I just keep my paperback collection complete. I noticed that the latest preorder of ebooks are around the €10 mark. Patricia Briggs, Nalini Singh, Jessie Mihalik and even Kitt Rocha. That said, those are all published through a publisher and not by themselves.
I also backed BS (ebooks onley)and some other kickstarters. I don’t mind paying a bit more for a hardcover but when the shipping cost are more than the books, I can’t do it. I had filled out the forms to buy the innkeepers but the shipping cost were over $70, so no that’s not an option.
Thank you for the explanation. This was excellent and helpful. I was going to mention kickstarter to you since I just bought Michael J. Sullivan’s latest using kickstarter. I didn’t try for Brandon Sanderson since I tried his books and couldn’t get into them. Well to be honest I found them a bit boring sad to say. You two are superior writers. I have never had a misstep with any of your books or any of your universes.
Michael J. Sullivan has done several Kickstarters now and is very open about the logistical challenges. His son is running the current one and is also running Will Wight’s (for fancy print editions of Cradle 1-3). They are limiting international buyers until they can line up a shipping method.
Actually they are letting people request countries to add to the list and offering deep discounts on shipping. Not sure if those in the countries not in the original list will have to pay more for shipping, but they are definitely adding more countries as people request them…
I want to love ebooks so much more – but I’m still looking for the ‘perfect’ device on which to consume them.
Of course, if the book is engaging, the format doesn’t matter, I’ll gobble it right up.
Not google autoforms accidentally publishing my whole name LOL ????
Big tech disappoints me once again.
Hey Mary, I took care of that for you ????
I love reading books on my iPhone. With Kindle, and other apps, I can adjust the background color, print size, font. I can scroll and highlight, bookmark, look up words, go to Wikipedia and Google, go between audio and digital, even switch books for a break. I can even visit my local library via their apps and see if they have anything by that author. And it’s always with me because… iPhone.
I think they should call it the iFab, though, because I rarely make or receive calls.
I’ve backed Sanderson while hoping there isn’t DRM on this ebooks. If there is DRM involved I won’t back another campaign from Sanderson. Buying DRM encumbered ebooks is a red line I don’t cross voluntary.
If mass market paperbacks go out of fashion and ebooks remain to be mostly restricted by DRM, a few re-readings of my nearly 2000 book library may last for the rest of my life 😉
If you read the FAQ, they explicitly state that the books will be DRM-free.
you know, If you want to put out ~special~ Kindle edition of your series, I would be interested. Well, provided I don’t already own the series 😛
I am sharing the link to this post with my author groups on social media. You’ve explained so many of the logistical problems that new and/or unpublished authors cannot possibly understand until they go through it themselves. Thank you!
Not just Brandon Sanderson. Will Wight also has a kickstarter for his Cradle series, it hit the funding goal in 6 minutes. It’s currently hovering just under 400k. For a series he regularly gives away for free. BTW, he’s giving them away again right now.
Have you given any thought to selling electronic Advanced Readers Copies (eARC)?
Larry Correia does that and he mentioned in one of his blog posts that he basically earns out his advance with them and the rest is gravy. His eARCs go for $15 a copy, more than his books.
Now his readers are rabid and will buy anything and everything he puts out there as soon as it’s available. After they get the eARC many of them buy the book.
They know there will be changes in the final copy but they don’t care.
I wouldn’t call the House Andrews readers rabid, they are too genteel for that. (Piranha like, maybe.) But based on the posts I’ve been reading on your blog, lots of them would buy the eARC.
I know I would.
I am not sure what Mr. Correia is doing, but what you said doesn’t quite fit together. First, one can’t sell eARCs. Or rather, one shouldn’t. They are not for sale. 🙂 It says right in the ARCs itself that it’s not for sale. Advanced Reader Copy – NOT FOR SALE.
If he is selling them on the side, than the proceeds from those eARC sales would go directly to him. They would not count toward earning out because the publisher does not receive that money.
Edit: ModR found a link. Um, he is selling eARCs through BAEN. Oh boy.
Edit #2: So I read more about it. I have multiple problems with what BAEN is doing from the writer’s point of view and they are doing it across the board to pretty much all of their writers, so it is likely in their boiler plate contract. If I were a BAEN author, I would wonder why would I even need a publisher. 🙂 Thank you for bringing this up. I will now spend my free time calling everyone I know and saying things like, “Hey, look at this!”
Baen, his publisher, sells ARCs of books by their most popular authors. I think this is just for the books that being released in hardback/ebook editions. Maybe Correia has link to Baen’s website up at his website when his ARCs are released for sale by Baen?
The ARC price used to be more than what the final edited ebook would cost but less than the hardback price (haven’t bought any in a few years so that may have changed). Super fans buy them because you have access at the same time reviewers do, usually 4 – 8 months before the edited edition come out. I bought a couple Liaden universe ARCs and at least one Bujold (Ivan’s story!), because I couldn’t wait until edited book versions were published. I then purchased the hardbacks when they came out.
Your edit didn’t show up for me until after I commented. I haven’t purchased a Baen ARC in several years. Back when I did, I believe that Baen was only doing this for some books and their biggest selling authors (and hardback editions only).
This might actually work out better for their authors because these are direct sales by the publisher to readers, essentially cutting out Amazon and other ebook retailers % off the top. Plus back when I purchased the ARCs they cost more than the regular ebook price (you were paying for the privilege to get a crack at it first). And a certain % of those fans area,so going to buy the print edition for sure. So authors might actually be making more of the ARC sales, especially if Baen is giving them some of the savings from not paying online retailers.
“This might actually work out better for their authors because these are direct sales by the publisher to readers, essentially cutting out Amazon and other ebook retailers % off the top. ”
It is better for BAEN. It is not better for the authors or the readers because they are paying a premium price for a halfbaked book. If I were a BAEN author, I’d tell them to shove it. Why would I need them? What are they bringing to the table if they are selling my UNEDITED work? I can self publish and charge $15 and keep all the money without splitting it with BAEN.
You guys are getting Innkeeper for free and we pay a professional CE to go over every installment before it goes up.
You are being taken advantage of by this BAEN deal. I just want you to be aware of that.
I am a California CPA so this whole post is like business porn to me, especially the Kickstarter part. So interesting and kind of thrilling…
And that’s another thing people forget. It’s not $25 million. It’s more like 15 million. Maybe 18, if they are good with deductions.
That was REALLY INTERESTING❣️
I can’t tell you when the last time was that I bought a paper book, other than a knit stitch collection. We’ve had about 13 homes in 47 years of marriage (Could have been paroled long ago, right?) and we just got tired of shlepping books and paying for an extra room to house them. Plus the internet has every recipe you could ever want and we eat very simply, so out went the cook books. Other than text books, we almost never read a book a second time because we aren’t getting any younger and there are new books coming down the chute every day.
Because we can’t resell Ebooks, I don’t see why they need to be almost as expensive as paper books, especially with the extreme cost of getting a paper book from the tree to your hands, not to mention how unfriendly every aspect of that is to the planet. Also I am much more interested in audio than just reading it, anyway, because the rest of my life is just too short to just do one thing at a time.
I have much more sympathy, now, for why books are taking so long to get to the market. I didn’t understand the logjam at the publishing houses and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get the ebooks out and bring out the print editions later. It never occurred to me that the authors weren’t turning them in on time.
Fascinating stuff!
Very educational, thanks for explaining. My partner & I prefer ‘old fashioned’ in print books. We have purchased some e-books, but we tend to re-read our books on a regular basis. We may skip to particular parts of a story. That is quite easy to do with a paper book, less easy with an e-book. Plus the whole book reading experience is in our opinion better with the paper copy. The scent, the feel, the rustle when a page is turned….. think I will go read my latest acquisition now:)
Interesting reading, was not surprised that the publishing industry like everyone else didn’t figure out that doing things in China had risks with it, the people who use lean production I guess never bothered to read the section where lean production works best when suppliers are relatively local and politics suck ( it is why Japanese companies build most of their cars here and 80% of the components are made here I in the US.
I hadn’t thought of the impact Covid had on authors not interacting with people, thinking about it I realize how much my own writing depends on people I have met. My wife also points out that the concern and anxiety of Covid isn’t conducive to creativity
As far as pricing goes the big mystery to me is e book pricing. I can see the cost of hardcovers and paperback books, the paper, ink printing them, then shipping them, and if course the losses w returns or where books get destroyed before they can be ready to be sold
But I often see e books that are way more expensive than paperbacks. I have heard publishers claim it is high costs with them but speaking as an IT professional that is a joke.
The systems to store and distribute books are not complicated and the cost for maintaining the systems is not all that much compared to the cost of print books, I guarantee it. When I see an ebook for 15 bucks and a paperback at like 9 something is wrong.
My guess is they are really thinking bc it is an ebook they will face a ton of stolen books ( hate to tell them but pirate sites are just as likely to scan a print book in).
I also suspect they want to discourage e books because they already have done something the industry hates, that authors are publishing and finding an audience without having to play the game with the publishers, who are even more loathe to take a chance on new writers.
If a surprise book or monthly box existed by Ilona Andrews, I would 100% pre order today. Or any day of the week.
Thank you for sharing this info!
I have switched to strictly e-books over time. I, too, got my first iPad in 2011 when I was going on holiday to Italy and my assistant said that besides not carrying two dozen paperbacks in my various pieces of luggage (I read fast and I read a lot), I could also use the iPad to email with her. (I also FaceTimed from Tuscany, giggling with her mostly, just because hey! picture phone!!!).
Anyways, that started my library and it has really, really expanded over time but, fortunately for my house floors, not over space.
Also, I really like getting the e-books quickly and even from my Library, even when away.
I gotta say that waiting for 11:59 to turn over to 12:00 for your books is terrible …. but the feeling WHEN I GET IT is worth it.
TWO dozen, not “tap” dozen. Sheesh.
Fixed that for you ????
Hi guys,
i just wanted to note that there is a set of readers out there who only read ebooks and no printed ones because they simply cannot. me: i cannot hold the book (i have eds, and my finger joints just won’t stay put holding a book). so: i only get to read the books as ebooks because i can lay the reader on a standard and read.
That’s a very important note, thank you for mentioning it, Christie ????.
Can relate! I prefer ebooks because I can make the typeface as large as I need it! (Eye issues.)
Its interesting as the mass paperback is not readily available in Australia. We have the trade paperback and then a size between that and the mass paperback.
I have noticed that e-books are starting to reach the pricing point of a paperback over here. It makes me wonder if I should go back to actual books again. just buy more shelves I guess. Also you think you are doing a good thing by using e-readers and saving trees. If its going to cost the same or more then what’s the point really other than not having shelf space for the amount we read in my house!
My sister also can’t read print books any more because of vision issues. She has been exclusively audio for a couple of years. I just showed her how to adjust the type size on my eReader.
She was intrigued but will probably stick with audio because she likes being able to do other things while listening to a book. However, the narrator’s voice REALLY makes a big difference for her.
Sorry but why Not Go Whit eBook only ?
Hallo where i can i find the friday chapter ?
Ore Not this Werk?
Hello Chris,
This week’s chapter has not been posted yet, it will be a little late ????
I’m blog stalking too! (I’m sure there’s a less threatening sounding name for it, but my migraine brain won’t cooperate).
Anyhow, I keep reading the title of this post as “The Trouble of Phishing” and I keep needing to go back and reinsert the letters. It’s been amusing me in between telemarketer calls.
Interesting. Thank you Ilona Andrews for the post. Food for thought indeed.
Thanks for the heads up about Sanderson’s kickstarter! I love kickstarters that support artist and authors! Such a fan of Sanderson too! Also appreciate the insight into the publishing world currently. Warm Regards, Courtney
Holy cow! I just looked at what I’ve been paying for my ebook editions and I can’t seem to pay less than $10.+ change. Quite a few of my purchases (new releases) are running $15.00+. The e-book price creeping up happened (for me) a couple of years ago. It drives me crazy–because I know if I wait some of these prices will come down. But whereas I wouldn’t pay $9.99 for a mass market, that is what I’m paying for an ebook.
Love those shark fins. Legit lol’d.
I’d almost be afraid to contemplate how much money I’d throw at a well- incentivized Kickstarter relating to Innkeeper Chronicles. The very idea of getting more stories about the Holy Anocracy or going more in-depth with some of the other cultures previously mentioned in the series makes me feel almost dizzy. turning mythical creatures into aliens way out in the multiverse couldn’t be more genius if it wanted to!
Thank you for these insights!
Another author that I enjoy reading did release 2 books in the past 12 months with another scheduled to release in May, but they have only been ebooks and audio books. It’s not conventional, but is there a benefit to releasing digitally at first and then later releasing in paperback and hardcover? Or would the early digital release hurt the paperback and hardcover sales?
I got to do an incredibly informative internship with a small publisher in 1988 and used that to get into the publishing industry for 5 glorious years. Layoff, need for money and more stability had me move sideways, but I have still kept an eye on the industry. (Welcome to publishing, expect 3-4 layoffs in your career. –> Welcome to tech writing, expect 5-6 layoffs in your career. –> Huh, just plan to change positions and/or companies every year to 4 years.)
The percentages were 5-10% royalty, 5-10 promotion, 20-40 editing/printing, then bookstores — and those percentages have changed as the industry changed.