From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 02 2003 - 20:21:50 MDT
--- Damien Broderick <damienb@unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> I'd been considering this too. I know of at least one novel I'd
> consider marketing this way, if sufficient seed money and
> programming skills etc were available. Trouble is, paper book
> publishing & mass market distribution is deeply fucked up as an
> industry right now, and download publishing for pay is still in
> its doubtful infancy. I sell comparatively well on Fictionwise.com
> (given that my name isn't Asimov or Silverberg and that I don't
> write soft porn), but I couldn't start to live off royalties
> even of 30%, which is what F/wise are able to offer for e-reprints.
> We'd need to find ways to promote the hell out of whatever was
> released--slashdot it, boost it into discussion far & wide without
> raising the ire of people who might feel spammed.
>
> Let's talk more on the list about this.
I don't know how much experience others have on the publishing side of
things as opposed to the writing side. I've been on both sides. I'd
like to hear what Damien finds is so fucked up about the print and mass
market distro markets right now. On demand printing is actually quite
useful these days so it isn't that difficult for an individual to
become their own publisher if they don't mind spending 6 months or so
learning the hand work in a larger printing company, then scaling that
down to smaller equipment affordable to keep in a home workshop. For
$10k I could start a publishing company today using used equipment and
bringing a lot of work in house and earn enough money to live fine off
of if I could build a portfolio of several dozen books to start with.
One area that is not glamorous but is a growth industry is reprinting
books that are in the public domain, from ancient greek or other such
texts to rennaisance and enlightenment era, 19th century novels, etc.
A horror writer I know (Thomas Monteleone) runs a home grown publishing
operation from his home in Grantham, NH such as I've described. He
supplements publishing income by providing other services, for example
he is a local supplier of printer cartridge recharging, which is
something that he already does for his own publishing needs.
I find amusing the confluence of the publishing discussion at the same
time as the Extro1 freedom ship discussion. I am reminded of Vinge's
novel on Tatja Grimm, where a world travelling ship earned its keep as
a publishing house, doing its own distribution.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
Blog: Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com
Flight sims: http://www.x-plane.org/users/greendragon/
Pro-tech freedom discussion:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/exi-freedom
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