Whether I am single-handedly destroying the world...
Of publishing, that is. I posted yesterday about my so-far paltry ebook sales and got a fairly irate response in the comments. Now there is a lot wrong with the world of publishing, and I might be responsible for some small portion of it - for instance, if you don't like my books, I am truly sorry. But the reader who responded seemed to suggest that ebooks were ruining the publishing business including printers and bookstores. And the (now) $7.70 I'd made in the ebook trade* was a part of the ruining process.
Normally, I would want to argue that my small sum of cash (still technically in the negative numbers) are no threat to any publisher. Moreover, so far, I've only published or republished short stories and there's not a publisher in the world who would want a collection of my short stories or my take on what happens when the Devil makes you a deal or my novelette about the start of Sheriff Luis Gonzalo's very first case (even before he was sheriff). No book publisher was ever going to make a dime off my stories.
But I won't make these arguments. Instead, I'm trying to think of ways to use the one mildly negative comment as a marketing tool. Other than this blog post, nothing has yet come to mind. Any thoughts?
* minus $8 that Amazon will charge me for cutting me a check in six months when I hit $100...
Normally, I would want to argue that my small sum of cash (still technically in the negative numbers) are no threat to any publisher. Moreover, so far, I've only published or republished short stories and there's not a publisher in the world who would want a collection of my short stories or my take on what happens when the Devil makes you a deal or my novelette about the start of Sheriff Luis Gonzalo's very first case (even before he was sheriff). No book publisher was ever going to make a dime off my stories.
But I won't make these arguments. Instead, I'm trying to think of ways to use the one mildly negative comment as a marketing tool. Other than this blog post, nothing has yet come to mind. Any thoughts?
* minus $8 that Amazon will charge me for cutting me a check in six months when I hit $100...
Labels: Kindle
posted by Steven at
6:50 PM
2 Comments:
Ignore the comments. It's like someone yelling at Gutenburg, "Think of the monks who write it by hand! You're killing their business!"
Um, so we ignore new tech because of that? New and good tech?
As for bookstores, well...they've got to earn my business as always. Not just take it for granted. And "guilt" is not a good marketing technique.
Check out today's (2/19/11) comic strip at kidinc.com.
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