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Thursday, September 1, 2011

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

***

13 comments:

  1. Wow! Awesome contest and prizes! I'm putting this on a Post It on my lap top. :)
    I'm in your Horror group. I'll see you around the Campaign!

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  2. ...what's most inspiring about Locke is that he wasn't an overnight success. It took him years to "figure things out." Goes to show that hard work really can pay off with dedication ;)

    EL

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  3. Very interesting concept Locke has going. Thanks for sharing it in simplistic terms for me.

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  4. Amanda :
    Hope to see a review of one of my books from you soon. See you soon in our group.

    Elliot :
    He certainly has a plan, but it helps when the lightning hits. And none of us can control that. We can only be ready if it does, right?

    Anne :
    Good to see you here again. And hey, I'm a simple guy trying to make sense of a truly complex world! LOL.

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  5. Hi Roland .. I did read this about John Locke ..

    I'd like to buy one of your ordinary books!! .. Which one would you recommend ...? Thanks Roland .. cheers Hilary

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  6. John's story is very interesting. Times they are a changin'!

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  7. That's a lot of information, and good for John. Of course bloggers would vote yes. We're all a very generous bunch. Maybe I'll get a chance to finish reading one of your books during my vacation, but I'll do it for fun. Take care. :)...ah, an October birthday...another teeny bit of info.

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  8. Thank you for visiting my blog. It was very interesting for me to read this post. It opened up a few lines of thought for me :)

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  9. Hi Roland. Thanks for sharing the Locke story. Publishing is really in a twist isn't it? I hope it just works out well for writers. We're definitely in the digital era, no matter how I want to hang onto my print books.

    Hope you get a lot more Amazon reviews. I hope to get another of your books read/reviewed soonish. Be nice to win. I share October as my birth month, actually share the day with John Lennon.

    D

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  10. Hilary :
    Thanks for wanting to read one of my books. The book with no fantasy or science fiction to it at all is LET THE WIND BLOW THROUGH YOU. Its hero is a Lakota psychologist drawn back to the town of his birth and the woman who runs the crime in the entire state. You can find its link in my sidebar. Thanks again.

    Heather :
    Isn't what Mr. Locke managed to do somewhat novel and surprising? Yes, times are certainly changing for all of us -- me, especially as a tropical storm/hurricane bears down upon my town!!

    Laila :
    I do hope you enjoy whatever book of mine you read. And yes, an October birthday. Check out my comment to Denise down below for more info on me.

    Olga :
    I'm glad you enjoyed what you read here. Don't be a stranger!

    Denise :
    I also share John Lennon's birthday! All three are genius we! LOL. Hope you win, too. Roland

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  11. Hi Roland .. thanks for letting me know .. I'll do it shortly .. cheers for now - Hilary

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  12. I'm so excited for the changes in publishing. (= Power to the writer!

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  13. Hi Roland .. just tried to order Let the Wind Blow through you .. but only the Kindle version available - according to Amazon .. I went into Amazon.com and not the UK version ..

    A pain isn't it!! Which of your others are in print? Perhaps one of those will pop up .. I quite fancied the title of the Katrina ones .. perhaps they're too fantasy for me?

    Or perhaps Hibs?

    Let me know your thoughts .. cheers Hilary ps email = name (without the hyphen) at gmail dot com

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