R. Garcia's Website
  • Home
  • Documents
    • Fiction
    • Poetry and Poetry-Related
    • Humor
    • Essays
    • Photographs
  • Blog: The Eclectic Life
  • Quotes
  • Books
    • The Sun Zebra
  • : ^ )
    • Fun Quotes
    • Rolando's Official Web Mascot
    • Cool Videos
    • The Power of Words
    • Odd and Fantastic Pictures
  • Contact

Status of the Shot Heard Around the World of Self-Publishing

10/25/2011

5 Comments

 
It has been more than 7 months since author Barry Eisler fired the "shot heard around the world". This was when he walked away from a half a million dollar advance deal (for two books) from St. Martins Press because he figured out he could do better by self-publishing his books.
Now that he has published his next thriller "Detachment" it is time to check out how he is doing.

First of all there is one issue. Eisler did not publish his novel. He signed a deal with Amazon which published it for him throwing its marketing muscle behind it. Because of this some people are claiming that the results are not relevant to address the question of whether he is doing better by self-publishing. But the author is not bothered by this. He has made it clear that he is not an ideologue. He is interested in the best deal he can get. With a publisher like St Martins, Eisler would have ended up receiving a royalty of 17.5% whereas Amazon offers him 70%. In addition he retains control of several aspects of the process of publication of this book that are important to him. Eisler expects this difference (17.5% vs 70%), and the fact that virtual books will be on the shelf forever, to be able to make up for the half million upfront payment that was offered to him.

But how is he doing so far? At Joe Konrath's blog Eisler mentioned that "Detachment" went onto the bestseller list, and in just two weeks earned him more than he has earned from some of his previously published print books. In fact when the book was in the preorder stage, he earned more from it than from his previous digital book, "Inside Out", that was published by Ballantine. Finally, it must be pointed out that if he had signed the print deal "Detachment" would not have been published until the spring of 2012.

So, will "Detachment" and his next book eventually make up for that half million upfront payment he walked away from? We don't know yet but I suspect that Mr. Eisler is having too much fun to care!

Please check out my first collection of short stories, The Sun Zebra. 

5 Comments
cath
11/1/2011 10:56:28 pm

Reply
cath link
11/1/2011 11:01:15 pm

well, never hit the enter button to get from one text box to another...

Interesting take on the self-publishing market. Amazon is a real heavyweight in the world of ebooks, at least in the United States. I found this blog post by Derek Haines very interesting, since he lives and writes in another country: http://www.derekhaines.ch/vandal/2011/10/ebooks-are-not-a-universal-success/

It will be interesting to see how Mr. Eisler fares. :D

Reply
phantomimic link
11/2/2011 09:58:52 am

Indeed, we are on the early stages still of the e-book revolution and yes, we will all be following Barry to see how he does!

Reply
Bibliotropic link
1/19/2012 01:07:48 am

That's definitely one of the upsides to self-pub stuff. The chance to make more money, and to better control things. The downside is that it's really hit-or-miss when it comes to quality and marketing of self-published books, but all things considered, if he was already getting offers from big-name publishers, then chances are he's already got a big enough presence that marketing isn't that big of a worry.

All the best to him, and I hope he's going to be one of the major success stories that we all hear about and envy! :)

Reply
Rolando link
1/19/2012 07:57:12 am

Yes, its a feed-forward cycle. The more presence you have the more things go your way and the more presence you get.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    I am a tinker, tailor,
    soldier, sailor,
    rich man, poor man,
    beggar-man, thief!

    Follow Phantomimic on Twitter

    RSS Feed

    Blogroll

    Laura Novak
    Barbara Alfaro
    Suzanne Rosenwasser
    Sunny Lockwood
    Christine Macdonald
    Jennie Rosenbaum
    Kristen Lamb
    Joe Konrath
    Sweepy Jean
    Ingrid Ricks
    The Jotter
    Robert David MacNeil
    Molly Greene
    The Passive Voice
    Third Sunday Blog Carnival
    Marilou George
    Laura Zera
    Jeri Walker-Bickett
    Lia London

    Categories

    All
    Advice For Writers
    Amazon
    Art
    Author
    Ballet
    Bloggers
    Bluegrass Music
    Book Promotion
    Book Review
    Cats
    Censorship
    Clopper Mill
    Coffe
    Cool Places
    Coral Castle
    E Books
    E-Books
    Enchanted Highway
    Fair
    Fiction
    Glenstone
    Goodreads
    Grammar
    Guest Post
    Harry Potter
    Indie
    Interview
    Issues
    Kdp Select
    Kindle
    Milestone
    Milestones
    Muses
    Nell
    Novel
    Nuclear Missile Sites
    Painting
    Picture
    Poe Toaster
    Poetry
    Politics
    Prague Quadrennial
    Print Books
    Quality
    Reading
    Restaurant At Patowack Farm
    Science
    Scribd
    Self Publishing
    Self-Publishing
    Short Story
    Song
    Spirit Women
    Spotlight
    Sun Zebra
    Supernatural
    Theater
    The Sedlec Ossuary
    Video
    Women
    Words
    Writer
    Writers
    Writer's Block
    Writing

    Archives

    April 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.