THE VOTES ARE IN!!

THE VOTES ARE IN!!

And not a NO among them.

Victor and the spirit of Bruce Lee are irritatingly smug about it, of course.

THE NEW DRAW DATE for my FANTABULOUS CONTEST is

OCTOBER 1ST (October being my birth month and all.)

WRITE A REVIEW ON AMAZON ABOUT ANY OF MY eBOOKS, AND YOU RECEIVE 5 ENTRIES FOR THE CONTEST TO WIN :

A STEPHEN KING AUTOGRAPHED copy of NEEDFUL THINGS or

A DEAN KOONTZ AUTOGRAPED copy of THE TAKING or

A LAURELL K. HAMILTON AUTOGRAPHED copy of DANSE MACABRE!!

THERE WILL BE 3 WINNERS on OCTOBER 1ST.

I know many of you do not have much time. Three of my eBooks are short and not too exxpensive (99 cents) :

THE LAST SHAMAN

{Think Stephen King and Louis Lamour teaming to write their explanation of 2012.}

LET THE WIND BLOW THROUGH YOU

{Not unlike what Louis Lamour and Raymond Chandler might have written if they tried for a GODFATHER tale with a bit of ROMEO & JULIET thrown in.}

BLOOD WILL TELL

{What if STEPHEN KING visited the blood center in which I work and wrote an alien invasion tale certain to have you never donating blood or sleeping sound again.}

I'm not saying you should read and review those particular novels of mine -- just that they are affordable and short.
***

This just in : John Locke paves new road for self-published

It seems that perhaps John Locke has paved the way for us Indie Published Authors in a new way by signing with Simon & Schuster :

John Locke is not giving up any rights. He has not signed a “publishing” deal, but a distribution deal.

He will remain the publisher of the print editions. Simon & Schuster will distribute them. And he retains complete control of the digital editions –

no deal has been struck there.

Rather than abandoning the indie path, John Locke has leveraged his huge self-publishing sales to strike a highly unusual print deal.

It’s extremely rare for a publisher –

especially a major player like Simon & Schuster – to sign a “print only” deal of any kind. The reason for this is obvious: print is in decline and digital is exploding.

Normally, a print deal will involve the publisher licensing the rights to sell your book, for which they pay you royalties (and often an advance on royalties) in return.

This is very different. Essentially, as Mike Shatzkin points out, John Locke is hiring Simon & Schuster to distribute his books.

Details are scant at the moment. I don’t know if John Locke is paying them a percentage for their distribution services, or a flat fee, and I don’t know who is going to cover things like printing costs.

Either way, this is a fine deal for John Locke, and a progressive approach from Simon & Schuster.

They get a piece of the print action from a bankable self-publisher who was unwilling to sign a traditional publishing deal, and he gets access to the vast majority of readers who haven’t made the switch to e-books yet.

Everyone will make money out of this. Which is why it won’t be the last deal of its kind.

Many successful self-publishers aren’t interested in a traditional deal which forces them to give up the vast majority of their digital royalties.

Indeed, many of those who signed with Amazon’s imprints said that they wouldn’t have signed with anyone else, with the vastly increased digital royalties on offer being a major factor.

There position is understandable. They have built up a huge readership own their own, and they are loathe to hand that over to a publisher for a small slice of the digital pie.

Even though the vast majority of readers are still in print, self-publishers know which way the market is headed,

and often don’t want to be locked into a deal with poor digital royalty rates just to gain access to print readers (whose numbers will continue to fall).

If this deal is a watershed,

if the large publishers are now prepared to sign print-only deals, or distribution-only deals, there will be a lot of self-publishers interested.

It makes sense for publishers too –

at least in the short term. They have control of the print distribution network, and they can produce quality physical books at low prices.

They also know that the very best self-publishers are experts in targeting their readers, and selling to them.

Interesting, Roland

***