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Publishing News: The 99-cent problemAuthor Melissa Foster on cheap books, geeks join the battle against SOPA, and the future of storytelling arrives.Here are a few stories that caught my eye in the publishing space this week. The concern of 99 cents
Foster follows this by pointing out that most independent authors don't sell more than 100 copies of a book — that's a whopping $34 — and says independent authors who publish through small presses generally only pocket 12 cents per 99-cent book sold. Employing this price point doesn't bode well for authors looking to sign with a traditional publisher, either. Foster quoted agent Jenny Bent: "... publishers are increasingly skeptical about how success at 99 cents will translate into success using their very different business model." Author M.J. Rose also is quoted in the post, arguing that this sort of focus on price is wrong:
Foster's analysis also highlighted some positive aspects of the price point, including using it as a promotional or marketing tool. An author could set the first book in a series at 99 cents, for instance, to help suck in readers — the old "the first one's (almost) free, but you'll be back" routine. There's a lot more discussion on this debate over in the comment section of Kevin Kelly's blog post on this topic (from earlier this year). But really, the bottom line is this: the 99-cent price point is only financially viable for authors who are able to sell a boatload of books.  SPi Global partners with publishers and information providers to maximize the value of their content online and offline. With escalating costs of production and printing, changing customer preferences, and the need to adapt, SPi Global enables organizations to exploit and invest in new media technology. With a complete suite of digital and publishing services, we help companies gain a competitive advantage through our unique and
innovative solutions. For more information, please visit spi-global.com/content-solutions.SOPA, meet DeSopaThe Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) hearing was delayed, possibly until next year, but anti-SOPA geeks aren't waiting to see what's going to happen. Andy Greenberg reported over at Forbes that "the Internet's communities of coders and free speech advocates" are hard at work building tools to circumvent SOPA's copyright protection measures:
(Note: as of publication, the DeSopa add-on had been taken down from Mozilla's site.) Greenberg also looked at Reddit users who "have been assembling their own lists of IP addresses for key sites that might be blocked under SOPA, what some of them call the 'Emergency List'." He also has a nice discussion of SOPA's unintended consequences and the collateral damage it could cause. The piece is well worth the read. The future of stories is hereIn a post at The Atlantic, senior editor Alexis Madrigal highlighted "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" as the perfect gift for kids whose parents have an iPad. The river of book recommendations is hip deep this time of year, but the last line of Madrigal's post prodded me to check out the app: "It's what the future of stories looks like." (Hat tip to @tcarmody.)
Playing with the book/app reminded me of articles predicting that the coffee-table book will make it through the digital transition relatively unscathed. I'm not so sure about that. If the beauty of the art in this book and the way it's integrated into the interactivity are an indication of future stories, print may well be in trouble on the coffee-table front as well. Imagine an iPad coffee-table book that could play music from a foreign country and teach you common phrases in the native tongue; one that could seamlessly integrate video, animation or sound with the content. Print books can't do that. The screenshot below shows the interactivity options and more of the beautiful art:
I sure hope Madrigal is right — this book app points to a very rich future for stories, and you don't need kids (or to be a kid) to fall in love with it. Related:
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Author 
Comments: 2
John Ryding [23 December 2011 07:42 AM]
The .99 problem doesn't surprise me at all - it's waaay too small of a price for the amount of work that goes into creating a book. I honestly feel that 12.99 is too much for an average ebook (~300 page fiction) - as a consumer i'm feeling ripped off by that price since there is doesn't feel like a "deal".
IMO - $4.99 is the sweet spot. Once the books I want reach that point, the publishers can shut up and take all the money they want from me.
Thing is - I WANT to pay and consume the majority of my content via e-book form, but not if I feel like the publisher is trying to milk me for all of my money.
Gwen Jenkins [25 December 2011 03:25 PM]
Let's say a book takes 2000 hours to produce, with each person involved requiring an average wage of $25/hour to maintain their standard of living. (Obviously, the writer puts in most of those hours, and some participants earn higher wages than others.) That conveniently puts the human cost of production at $50,000.
At $4.99, you have to sell 10,021 copies just to cover the human costs (including a reasonable income for the writer). Then there's the cost of equipment and facilities, and if the publisher/distributor is a publicly-held corporation, the 30% profit that investment-analysts expect to see from the publishing industry. So let's make that 15,000 copies to make the project produce something approaching a living for the writer.
Very few writers earn a living offering their work to the public.