Copyright is supposed to allow the creator to make money of their creation, right?

[Chibibar]

The hardest part is, of course, getting the 350,000 downloads if you have no publicity, like, say a major publisher pushing you on their distributors.

true, but with word of mouth, facebook, twitter or viral marketing, a bunch of no-names, got recognition that way.

The old school, such technology wasn't available. In order to get publish you would have to go with major publisher who HAVE access to these people. Now, you have like millions of people on facebook, twitter, amazon, ebay etc etc, with the right self promotion, you can get discover that way. viral marketing is power DUE to current technologies.

 

[SpecialKO]

Exactly. I don't think anyone would claim that grass-roots online/niche networking will necessarily do a better job than the traditional way, but they have allowed the regular joe without connections/money to close the marketing gap considerably at far less cost. That is a huge plus.

 

[Mathias]

yup..the blog post really inspired me...when I finish my novel (100 pages to go for the final rewrite!), I intend on putting it on amazon rather than chasing for a traditional publisher for a couple of years.

That's my plan!
Added at: 07:24

Exactly. I don't think anyone would claim that grass-roots online/niche networking will necessarily do a better job than the traditional way, but they have allowed the regular joe without connections/money to close the marketing gap considerably at far less cost. That is a huge plus.

At the same time publishers usually can act as a gauge to see how good or crappy your work is. But it is pretty ridiculous how hard it is to get them to sit down and read your book.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I think in 50 years (or when technology changes) John will STILL own his own work. Amazon is just a distribution center (virtual one in this case) and they get 65% of the price to house and distribute.

I think that is heck of a deal since ALL the work is on the Author. That is, writing, editing, format, and finalizing the work. There is no publisher to proof read or editor looking over. You do ALL the work from start to finish and send to Amazon, and they will host and sell it for you and keep 65% of the proceeds. The intellectual rights are all yours. 350,000 download at 99cent each. Amazon take home $227,500 and John takes home $122,500 and keeps all the rights.

You can still hire an editor.

You can still self-publish and get physical books available on Amazon along with E-reader stuff.
Added at: 07:33

At the same time publishers usually can act as a gauge to see how good or crappy your work is. But it is pretty ridiculous how hard it is to get them to sit down and read your book.

They don't give a shit about you; they'll give a shit about your agent.
But then, your agent will want you to have been published.

And round and round it goes. I'd be reading some of the maybe good-to-great books people are putting out on there own, but there's so much without filter, and I personally can't stand Kindle and its ilk. I like a chunk of dead tree in my hand.

 

[Espy]

I've heard, and it's just hearsay so take it for what it is, that it's actually considered a black mark by book publishers to have self-published. Not sure why but I did hear it from a friend who is a published author...

 

[Covar]

I'd imagine because then they would question why you had to self publish. If I was a publisher I might consider the fact that an author wasn't picked up by another publisher for a reason, and that reason is probably something I wouldn't want to deal with.

 

[Espy]

Maybe. I should add, in no way am I against self-publishing. I say go for it and the system can go screw itself. Get your stuff out to as many people as possible.

 

[Hailey Knight]

And, on the other hand, Eragon started out as a self-published book.

From Wikipedia:

In 2002, Eragon was published by Paolini International LLC, Paolini's parents' company

 

[Ravenpoe]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eragon

If you look up Paolini International LLC, you'll see that it's no Simon and Shuster. It's a self-publishing company. The boy did all of the typical self-publishing stuff--hawking the book himself at stores. The fact that his parents owned the biz, and the fact that they paid for his self-publishing really doesn't change anything: If he had different parents, and they paid for it, it'd amount to the same thing.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2003-11-12-paolini_x.htm

It wasn't until Carl Hiaasen's stepson got a copy of the book from the teenage author as he peddled it from site to site, and showed it to his dad, who in turn showed it to the mainstream publishing house Alfred A. Knopf that the book got any attention and traction in the market. It's a true self-publishing-to-mainstream story.

Too bad it sucks.*

*ok, yeah, this is just my opinion, but I really didn't like it.

 

[Espy]

Yeah, me too. But then again, I've read literally hundreds of ebooks over the last few years, and damn few paper books. Ebooks are just too convenient. Amazon has recently surpassed hard-copy book sales with ebook sales, so I guess that's the way the market is trending. And that suits me just fine.

I'm reading my first e-book right now on my iPod touch (Game of Thrones) and I gotta be honest. It's great. Super convenient, I can read whenever I have time. Love it. And this is coming from a guy who owns more books and comics book than I know what to do with, so when I say I'm a dead tree fan, I mean it.

And, on the other hand, Eragon started out as a self-published book.

Like I said, just something a author friend told me, I don't think it should stop anyone from going for it, I'm sure in the end if you want to be published a company it has way more to do with the quality of your writing and your agent than anything else.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Yeah, me too. But then again, I've read literally hundreds of ebooks over the last few years, and damn few paper books. Ebooks are just too convenient. Amazon has recently surpassed hard-copy book sales with ebook sales, so I guess that's the way the market is trending. And that suits me just fine.

I just can't see myself carting around one of those plastic things. If there was some way for them to make a device that operated like a book, with pages and such, but the text on those pages changed to whatever you wanted to be reading at the time, I could go for that. But on a Kindle or its ilk, it feels like I'm reading from a screen. And I do that 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, not including my free time such as on Halforums. I love the books I can keep in my hand--it's a break from the many screens in my life.

That, and also I don't like this whole DRM style of things where you don't actually own a copy of the book you buy and your Ereader can be shut down or have your books taken away, or whatever all that crap I've been hearing is about the Kindle. I do not like that in the slightest.

 

[Espy]

Not to mention as someone who has moved a few times I am damn tired of carting all these books around.

 

[Covar]

I read Game of Thrones on my Kindle, first book that size I read on it and it was wonderful (the book and the experience). It became especially awesome when I began using my android phone and iPad to read while I was out of the house, and the kindle at home. They way it synced up was just amazing.

 

[Norris]

I just can't see myself carting around one of those plastic things. If there was some way for them to make a device that operated like a book, with pages and such, but the text on those pages changed to whatever you wanted to be reading at the time, I could go for that. But on a Kindle or its ilk, it feels like I'm reading from a screen. And I do that 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, not including my free time such as on Halforums. I love the books I can keep in my hand--it's a break from the many screens in my life.

That, and also I don't like this whole DRM style of things where you don't actually own a copy of the book you buy and your Ereader can be shut down or have your books taken away, or whatever all that crap I've been hearing is about the Kindle. I do not like that in the slightest.

The Kindle, for all the DRM issues and such, really doesn't feel like you're looking at a computer screen. It's obviously not exactly the same as a book but the simple display really makes it about as close to a magic, self writing scroll as is technologically possible. No back lighting, either, which cuts down on eye strain and such.

 

[Espy]

I have to say, I haven't had any eye strain on my ipod touch, and I love the touch features (from the wonderful page flips to the nice page count at the bottom that you can move) in the ebooks. It's surprising nice experience. I don't know if the screen on the iPad would cause more eyestrain than the iPod Touch but I assuming they are very similar, I would choose the iPad over the Kindle (which is nice as well, just a preference thing. If the kindle got touch features... that might change the game. Right now I find it's interface very clunky.).

 

[@Li3n]

I think in 50 years (or when technology changes) John will STILL own his own work. Amazon is just a distribution center (virtual one in this case) and they get 65% of the price to house and distribute.

I'm actually pretty sure either you sell your copyright or you still own it until you do in the old system too...

My point was that it's an interesting experiment but the question is if it will last or not...

Even if I thought copyright, as expressed right now, is good, I could not possibly agree that it would be the best system for everyone, everywhere, throughout all time. It has to change with the times.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... prostitution, yay or nay already.

The Kindle, for all the DRM issues and such, really doesn't feel like you're looking at a computer screen. It's obviously not exactly the same as a book but the simple display really makes it about as close to a magic, self writing scroll as is technologically possible. No back lighting, either, which cuts down on eye strain and such.

It's a bloody Etch-a-sketch... they just used the Empower Spell feat on it...

 

[SpecialKO]

I would choose the iPad over the Kindle.

I really, really, really want to dismiss the iPad as a toy computer unnecessary to my existence...but then our office started giving presentations and doing surveys on them, and they're soooo shiny and cool!

 

[Chibibar]

I really, really, really want to dismiss the iPad as a toy computer unnecessary to my existence...but then our office started giving presentations and doing surveys on them, and they're soooo shiny and cool!

I got one cause my parents wanted one and wanted free tech support so they bought me a shiny iPad2 64GB (they wanted the best) I am loving it.

We own literally over 1000 DVDs and over 1200 books/comics (mainly Manga and probably every single type of fairy tales from all over the world) top that off my wife got all the free ebook (and read a lot of them) and bought a few.

eBook does have its charm.

 

[Green_Lantern]

Questions? Talk to Edison about how many of his patents he was actually personally responsible for.

--Patrick

Oh, dear. I don't know how to say this... but Edison died.

 

[Norris]

Oh, dear. I don't know how to say this... but Edison died.

His last breath is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. It's in a bottle. I'm sure we can use some black magic to resurrect him using that.

 

[Hailey Knight]

The thought occurred to me that, when I go into a book store, I find a lot of garbage and very little I want to read. Take fantasy for example. That's a limitless genre that everyone wants to do the same thing in. Too much of it is poorly-written or desperately emulating Tolken (and I really didn't care for LOTR as a book). It's difficult for me to get into medieval fantasy anymore unless it's really impressive like Song of Ice and Fire.

Now I see it's possible that there could be many books I'd actually enjoy reading that simply aren't the kind of thing picked up by major booksellers. Maybe there are such things on ebooks, and as much as I'd rather have a paper book in my hands, I'd even more prefer to have something I enjoy reading.

So I see the merit here and I'll have to look into what might be out there for me to read.

 

[Chibibar]

The thought occurred to me that, when I go into a book store, I find a lot of garbage and very little I want to read. Take fantasy for example. That's a limitless genre that everyone wants to do the same thing in. Too much of it is poorly-written or desperately emulating Tolken (and I really didn't care for LOTR as a book). It's difficult for me to get into medieval fantasy anymore unless it's really impressive like Song of Ice and Fire.

Now I see it's possible that there could be many books I'd actually enjoy reading that simply aren't the kind of thing picked up by major booksellers. Maybe there are such things on ebooks, and as much as I'd rather have a paper book in my hands, I'd even more prefer to have something I enjoy reading.

So I see the merit here and I'll have to look into what might be out there for me to read.

Even at half-price books, a lot of them are still around 3-4$ each! (you could get a $1 bin if you are lucky)

I notice that many eBooks can start at 99 cent.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Even at half-price books, a lot of them are still around 3-4$ each! (you could get a $1 bin if you are lucky)

I didn't think digital books had bins :/.

 

[David]

I don't like that Nook books tend to be at least as expensive (I've seen a few cases where MORE expensive) than the physical book. I'm saving a tree here, not to mention manufacturing, shipping and inventory costs. I should get a discount more than $0.50, dangit.

 

[@Li3n]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... prostitution, yay or nay already.

Seriously, still nothing?

stienman, where art thou?

 

[Chibibar]

I didn't think digital books had bins :/.

heh. They don't I am just saying that buying actual books cost more (in some cases) than digital version.

But I notice that Digital textbook for college is about the same price (slighly cheaper but not THAT much cheaper we are looking around 5-10$ difference)