This is something every author must know and be aware of. Thanks to David Gaughran, we have the details now:
Simon & Schuster has launched a self-publishing operation, Archway Publishing, contracting one of the most disreputable players in the business to run the show: Author Solutions.
We’ll get to that distasteful link-up in a second, but first let’s have a look at what Simon & Schuster are offering prospective customers (i.e. writers).
Read more here: Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers
And seriously, if you are thinking about self-publishing, please, check out Writers Beware, the SFWA pages, and educate yourself about the business. Do not just fork over dollars, Euro or golds.
The only money in creative content is going to go to device makers like Apple and Amazon or to charlatans like Author Delusions and Scammin’ & Shyster. Amazon profits from sales of Kindles. ASI will profit from people desperate enough to fork over money for these “packages.” Authors, meanwhile, well — why should readers bother to pay for something they can download for free from Pirate’s Bay? Without some sort of device, they’d have nothing to read e-books on, which is why they’d be willing to pay for an iPad or Kindle. To them, e-books are just documents that even without Pirate’s Bay, people can just e-mail to one another, or some pirate magnate start an e-mail list of people who want to receive e-books in their inbox. But to the author, they represent months if not years of work, for which they get paid a pittance if not zero entirely.
I think eventually, the book is going to become a dead medium too, and the author an anachronism of a bygone era. Even if there’s no piracy on sites like Pirate’s Bay (highly unlikely), then the new mediums like blogs and social media will make books obsolete once people demand they get content delivered in those methods. Why would anyone pay for an e-book when consumers will want it delivered free in blog posts? Already, Twitter has been successful with short stories delivered entirely in 140-character blurbs — attracting big names who already have a substantial history and can afford to just do this for fun (see: Jennifer Egan). Paulo Coelho deliberately distributed his book on Pirate’s Bay. All hope is lost for the wannabe best-“seller.” The bargain-basement model has not only devalued the dollar, it’s devalued everything of worth in society, including the role of creatives hoping to score even a pittance from distributing their work.
The gates of St. Peter’s that welcomed in Grisham, Patterson, Stephen King and even Stephenie Meyer (whatever one’s opinion of Twilight may be), and their predecessors like the prophetic Bradbury, Orwell and Huxley, are officially closed, and self-pub should not be viewed as an “opportunity” but as the real-world model of “Left Behind.” Because eventually, nobody’s going to download these strange things called books anymore. If they don’t spend their buck on a burger, they’ll spend it on an app. And they’ll play Angry Birds rather than bother with Atticus Finch.
We officially live in a post-literate society. 2012 IS the end of the world.
J.,
I’m less pessimistic, and still thinking that people want to be entertained by tales. I know many who are actually reading more after getting an e-reader. But then, as author, I’d better keep my hopes up that my tales are interesting enough to find readers, and willing to pay readers, at that.
Still, thank you for your perspective. 🙂