Ebooks from the Publisher's Point of View

by Sean McLachlan

If you follow any writing newsgroup for any length of time, inevitably the discussion of the relative merits of traditional vs. ebook vs. print-on-demand (POD) publishing will come up. But what you generally hear is the writer's, or aspiring writer's, point of view. This is the first of a two-part article on the ebook and POD industry from the publisher's point of view.

On a personal note, while researching this article I was struck by how helpful ebook and POD publishers and editors were. They didn't fob me off with a few glib lines, but took the time to answer my questions fully, and urged me to write back if I had follow-up questions. Others provided links to useful articles or even answered questions I hadn't asked but should have. I've worked with four traditional publishers, my first book coming out six years ago, and in all that time I've only talked to one CEO. As far as accessibility and friendliness, electronic and small press publishers are way ahead. But aside from sociability, what are the good, solid business reasons for taking epublishers seriously? After all, ebooks have been around for more than a decade, but most books are still published in print. According to the Association of American Publishers, net sales for books in the United States in 2007 were $25 billion, up 3.2 percent from 2006. Of these, ebooks earned a net profit of $67 million, a growth of 24 percent over the previous year. But looking at that as part of the total of all book sales this constitutes less than one third of one percent. There are a lot of smaller epublishers out there that aren't counted in the statistics, but even if the figures are off by a factor of ten, which is doubtful, ebooks have a long way to go.

While epublishing has been slow to take off, it's beginning to get noticed. Epublishers are breaking out of their own community of awards and publications and appearing in more mainstream venues. In 2003, Ellora's Cave became the first epublisher to be recognized by Romance Writers of America. Books from Twilight Times are now getting reviewed by important pre-publication reviewers such as Library Journal and Booklist. One of their titles, The New Bedford Samurai by Anca Vlasopolos, was a finalist in the category of historical fiction in the ForeWord Magazine 2007 Book of the Year Award. Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross, by Dr. Florence Byham Weinberg, was a finalist in two categories for the 2007 New Mexico Book Awards contest, Historical Fiction and Best Book on Southwest.

So why do some publishers decide to go the ebook route? They give various reasons, ranging from concern for the environment to a firm belief that ebooks are the wave of the future, but one thing all publishers noted was the bottom line. It's much cheaper to produce and distribute ebooks.

There are other headaches related to printing books beyond simple cost. Raelene Gorlinsky, Publisher of Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc., says, "Ebooks make more sense in terms of start-up costs and complexity. One doesn't have to expend massive effort and time on getting books printed, warehoused, marketed, shipped. . ."

But a lower startup cost doesn't mean epublishing is easy. With instant gratification and home shopping being the hallmarks of ebook marketing, ordering has to be easy for the customer. This means a lot of work to make a good website. Good programmers are expensive, and it's no coincidence that many epublishing startups have at least one programmer among their founding members.

There's also the problem of spreading the word. Many readers still aren't familiar with ebook technology, and with so many epublishers, competition for existing readers is fierce.

Another obvious concern with selling books that are nothing more than computer files is the question of piracy. There have been several instances of websites selling discount ebooks that were, in fact, pirated, but no publisher felt this was a major concern. Some sales are lost, but none felt this did significant harm to their profits, and the larger epublishers with financial clout often go after the bad guys.

Epublishing's main forte is erotic romance, what Ellora's Cave refers to as "Romantica". These books offer a romantic plot spiced up with explicit and frequent sex scenes. Many brick-and-mortar stores refuse to carry this sort of material, and many of the genre's predominantly female readers are too shy to go buy them in person, so the ebook format is a perfect way to get around these twin obstacles. They're also easier to hide from the hubby, who's probably deleting his Internet history every time he's turns off the computer anyway.

Treva Harte, editor-in-chief of Loose-Id, one of the most successful erotic romance publishers, points out that romance fans read voraciously and thus get jaded quickly. With monthly sales statements and a quicker turnaround, epublishers and authors are better able to respond to rapid changes in demand.

But what about other genres? Some publishers mentioned that how-to books can sell well in ebook format. At Whiskey Creek Press, while the big sales tend to be various types of romance, science fiction and fantasy titles geared towards female readers also do well. Gorlinsky adds, "What works in ebooks are the genres that readers cannot easily find on bookstore shelves, or that they are hesitant to purchase publicly. Erotic romance and edgy speculative fiction, anything that is 'pushing the envelope', can do well in digital release. I don't see this changing."

A major concern many writers have with epublishers is that they don't generally offer an advance. While their royalty rates are far better than traditional publishing, anywhere from 25 to 50 percent as opposed to 4-12 percent, writers worry about not getting any money up front. Lida Quillen of Twilight Times replies, "Typically, a small press may not be able to pay an advance because it is not in the budget. It does not matter whether the small press is a print-only publishing house, a university press, or an epublisher. A typical ebook might have production costs of up to $1000.00 for editing, artwork and formatting... so there are no funds left over for an author advance. With that kind of investment you can rest assured the small press publisher will endeavor to do all they can to make your book a success."

Harte says, "Traditional print publishers pay advances because they have to--they are holding the author's intellectual capital hostage for many months. The author won't see royalties for a year, often longer. With Loose Id, we pay royalties in the same month the book releases and it doesn't take us a year to publish a book. Why do an advance when you can get paid from the actual sales within the month of an e-book releasing?"

Many of the publishers also mentioned that because of lower start-up costs, epublishers are more willing to take a chance on a new and untested author, or a type of book that does not fit into a traditional mold.

But the main question writers want to know is if they can actually make a living writing ebooks. The answer appears to be a qualified yes. Piers Anthony, who has a financial interest in Mundania Press and maintains an excellent website on epublishing at http://www.hipiers.com/publishing.html, says, "Some writers may be able to, but I think the great majority can't. Sales are not large enough yet." Indeed, publishers tend to be tight-lipped about sales, and the few figures that authors have provided for Anthony's site are not promising. Award-winning author Darrell Bain (http://www.darrellbain.com) states that he has earned about $30,000 from his ebooks since 2002, but that's after six years of work and dozens of published titles.

Others are more optimistic. Raelene Gorlinsky from Ellora's Cave notes that since ebooks stay in print theoretically forever, backlist sales make up a substantial portion of a prolific author's income. Treva Harte from Loose-Id says she knows "a few" writers who make a living from ebooks. "A prolific and popular e-book writer can release more books per year than most print authors, so the e-book author has the possibility of making as much money as an average print writer who will see one or maybe two books come out a year. But making a living from any kind of writing is a long shot."

Steven Womack at Whiskey Creek Press concurs that it's rare for a writer to make a living off ebooks alone, and since the business is driven by new releases, an author must be prolific in order to have a chance at writing for a living.

As with traditional publishing, electronic publishing is in a state of flux. Piers Anthony thinks the ebook industry will "continue expanding, at the expense of traditional print publishers, who will no longer have a lock on the market. It is a kind of revolution, long overdue."

Those traditional print publishers have taken notice. Tor and Harlequin, to name two big hitters, now offer ebooks, as do many others, and some are going into partnership with epublishers. Lida Quillen of Twilight Times notes, "Ellora's Cave started as an epublisher, bought their own printing equipment early on and now a number of their titles are distributed by Simon & Schuster. Samhain Publishing signed an agreement with Kensington Books whereby Kensington will publish up to 12 Samhain titles annually."

So what's next for the ebook industry? Gorlinsky has seen some major changes.

"Until about two years ago, erotic romance publishing was the realm of epublishers and small presses. The big NY houses hadn't believed there was a big enough market for this genre. Once they saw the success of Ellora's Cave, the volume of books we were selling, most of the NY publishers jumped on the bandwagon and started erotic romance lines. So there are now a lot more books available to readers.

"Readers have become more open to a wide range of erotic subjects and practices, and in fact continually want 'hotter'. What was considered pushing the envelope five years ago is now 'vanilla'.

"I think that now so many NY publishers are involved, the market for erotic romances has become over-saturated. And in their rush to get into this trend, some publishers were putting out books that are not very good; this turned some readers away from erotic romance, to the detriment of us all. So I expect that, like with all hot trends in fiction, the market for this genre will level out and some publishers will pull back on the number of releases or even discontinue their erotic romance lines. The most successful, including Ellora's Cave, will continue to do well and dominate the market."

Womack isn't too worried about the big companies taking a piece of the electronic pie.

"The large publishers will muscle their way into the small press POD and ebook universe. When they do, because of their higher overhead, prices will rise considerably, which will continue to leave room for successful small presses like Whiskey Creek Press with smaller overhead costs," he says.

Lida Quillen responds to the question of the industry's future at length.

"Authors on the web are acquiring new skills. Writers are starting to think in terms of multi-media effects due to the influence of surfing experiences. The manner in which the words appear on the page (HTML coding), non-linear (embedded hot links), visual (graphics, borders, backgrounds), music (wav, mp3 files) and so on, have an almost subliminal effect.

"Writers spend hours in front of a computer screen, researching and interacting with literally hundreds of people worldwide on a daily basis. All these experiences cannot help but affect the way authors will write in the future.

"Continued advances in technology will open up the ebook market to millions of new readers. The publishers who are able to stay the course will reap the benefits. For small presses who maintain high standards, have learned the business end of book publishing, and who produce quality books, I feel the future is very bright indeed."

More Information:

POD Books from the Publisher's Point of View, by Sean McLachlan

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