Although I am no fan of the present broken publishing system, the recent posts have led me to think about the steps that an author has to go through to get a book out. If you look at what it takes, all the proposed alternatives don't solve the problem for an author. I'm addressing my comments mostly to textbooks but it's not much different for trade books or even for other endeavors like filmmaking.
To start with, it takes six months to a year of effort to write a good first draft. Then the publication process can involves the following entities: 1. Editor 2. Development editor (especially for a first edition) 3. Reviewers (maybe 5-7) 4. Production manager (responsible for among other things securing copyrights and permissions) 5. Typesetter 6. Copy Editor 7. Proof Reader 8. Printer (if not an ebook) 9. Marketing and Distribution At the present, all of the first 8 eight tasks except for 1. and perhaps 4. are contracted out by the publisher, so as Russell points out, the author could get these services done without the publisher. However, there can be considerable expense involved and at this point you would have not only spent a the six months to a year writing but also paying for these services and spending lots of time contracting and supervising the process. And at this point you haven't received any royalties and probably have no way to market your work, a step which is crucial and has not been addressed in these posts. Nor do you have any reason to believe that your work will be successful enough to pay for the above expenses or to compensate you for your time. So even if the author isn't seeking to get rich or even to make any money, I don't see any good alternatives for most of us to the present broken model. Even though my royalties are a small fraction of the selling price and the price students have to pay for books is outrageous, at least from the author's persective, my up front costs are minimal (mostly my time) and I can focus on the parts I enjoy. Ed __________ Ed Angel Founding Director, Art, Research, Technology and Science Laboratory (ARTS Lab) Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of New Mexico 1017 Sierra Pinon Santa Fe, NM 87501 505-984-0136 (home) [email protected] 505-453-4944 (cell) http://www.cs.unm.edu/~angel On Apr 20, 2012, at 6:33 PM, Russell Standish wrote: > This has already been done. See, for instance, Amazon's CreateSpace > (previously known as BookSurge). There is also a competitor based in > Canada, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. Both paper and > eBook is supported. > > Editing, typesetting you can source yourself, or you can avail > yourself of their services. Another source of technical editing > services I'm associated with is Online English. They're not the > cheapest, but they do take quality seriously (manuscripts are edited > by native English speakers who either have an editing background, or a > technical background - eg ex-academics). > > For Theory of Nothing, I used CreateSpace, and recently did a Kindle > version. It has been available as a free PDF since a year after its > publication date, prior to that, the PDF was available for sale at the > price of the book royalty (Kindle version is not much higher), and > bundled with the physical book sale. I > skimped on the editing services, because it didn't make business sense > (editing costs would have consumed several years worth of > revenue). Alas, it shows, but my readers mostly forgive me :). > > I found: > > a) Physical books sold well - better than expectations even. > b) The sales of the unencrypted PDF were very poor (about 5% of the > physical). And few physical book purchasers claimed their PDF version. > c) Free PDF downloads went through the roof (about 5 times as many > downloads as physical copies sold, before it was torrented, and I lost > track of the downloads :). The availability of free downloads didn't > affect sales of the physical book (maybe it sustained it, perhaps). > d) Sales of the Kindle ebook have been poor. This is somewhat > surprising, as the rendering of the free PDF on the Kindle reader is > attrocious. Maybe very few of my readers bother with Kindle - not sure > - there is a review somewhere of my PDF book on a Kindle out there in > the internet, so obviously people tried it. > > In conclusion - I would still do a physical copy of a book as well as > an ebook. Ebook monetisation is still a problem. > > Cheers > > On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:09:39AM -0600, Joseph Spinden wrote: >> Here's an article I came across today: >> >> >> Opinion: Academic Publishing Is Broken | The Scientist >> >> http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/19/opinion-academic-publishing-is-broken/ >> >> >> >> This started me thinking about what services publishers perform in >> general. As this article points out, for the scientific community, >> some publications are necessary for historical reasons. Also, I can >> see great value in peer review. >> >> But, what is to prevent someone from setting up a web site devoted >> to eBooks not subject to the publishers' restrictions ? E.g., >> self-published books or books marketed by "ebook agents". By taking >> the copyrights out of the current publishers' hands, presumably, the >> prices could be drastically lowered while the authors could get >> higher fees and/or royalties ! >> >> This would not do away with the need for editors. But do editors >> need to be employees of the existing publishers ? >> >> So, what are the compelling arguments for the ability of publishers >> to maintain their control over content delivered electronically ? >> >> Joe >> >> >> -- >> >> "Sunlight is the best disinfectant." >> >> -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913. >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
