Why I don't self-publish
antipope.org
antipope.org
He deals directly with the editors and does the marketing himself. He also pays out of pocket for all expenses: me (I get a % of net), editors, designers, advertising.
We can do everything ourselves online: Amazon KDP for ebooks, Smashwords for eBooks on non-amazon platforms (Nook, Apple), CreateSpace (Amazon owned) for paperbacks and ACX (Amazon owned) for audio books on audible.
The only thing we don't have is distribution in regular bookstores like those in airports. But there are now authors who are cutting deals with publishers where they keep the eBook rights and sell the print rights. There was a recent article in the WSJ (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732467860457834...) about this. It's a new hybrid deal that's really the best of both worlds.
Because Amazon pays 70% royalties on the books he sells and with all expenses included, his net margin on eBooks is in the 45-50% range. I doubt Charles Stross is getting those kinds of margins through his publisher.
Not saying this is the path Stross should take, just that there are ways to achieve what he wants (focus on writing) without leaving as much money on the table.
I expect this sort of thing will become more common, and could even see people having a business where they do this sort of work you're talking about for multiple clients (not a lot, maybe 2-3). Possibly even teams like dev consulting companies who keep multiple people trained in the work that work together as needed to deal with clients.
What would you say to people trying to emulate something like your model: where would we get good ideas about figures, expected sales, marketing etc. How did you learn?
Who do you hire for layout, cover design, and line and copy editing? If you're not willing to share publicly, drop me a line at seligerj [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
Fair play to Charles Stross for just wanting to write.
I had a tech book out in the mid-90s from Addison-Wesley, and I got quite a way into negotiating with O'Reilly in the early noughties. The tech publishing sector is largely driven by techies for whom a publication history is of value as a check mark on their resume, rather than people who write for a living: consequently there's a race to the margins to document extremely esoteric niche products, and this triggers a race to the bottom on advances/royalties (it's hard to justify paying up a big advance for a book with a market of maybe 2000 readers).
Even a badly paid midlist SF novel can expect about twice the advance O'Reilly offer for a tech book: the potential audience is much bigger, and the incentives for publishing in the first place are different.
Then I saw your user name. I suspect you probably know a thing or two about this topic.
But I have to admit that the direct impact of my tech books has been a boost to my career, not my bank account.
I have no idea how A-W treated you as an author, but as a reviewer on that book, I was very well compensated by them, so I assumed they treated authors OK as well.
There is a whole generation of young people growing up for whom this is no biggie. And tools are making it easier and easier.
In fact it's more or baked into the young generation. So whether we like it or not it will be the new norm if it isn't already.
So although it might be an explanation for why Charles Stross does not want to self-publish it's not advice (and I don't think he claims it to be either).
My main point, though, is that as a front-list author, I don't need to do that stuff. What I get from my publishers isn't just editorial services: it's risk-taking and cash flow help.
if you are _not_ a front-list author, and you don't get valuable assistance from your publisher, or you don't even _have_ a publisher, then what stoss says doesn't really apply to your situation, not in the slightest. there you have it.
i sincerely hope all the other front-list authors read charlie's article, but i have a suspicion that they're too busy writing to bother with such stuff...
-bowerbird
Since you already have an audience, you can simply pre-sell via kickstarter (or the like).
You should try it for one book at least, otherwise your post is mostly theory.
That would be my advice to anyone wanting to live as a musician, writer, artist etc.
On the other hand, of course, you don't have the same control over exactly who will be your next client, and there is financial overheads too, naturally.
Still, it works for me.
I would not function very well if I had the responsibility to do my own sales. Instead, my "strategy" is to do my very best as an employed contractor, which seems to be working out pretty well in terms of client choice influence.
We do, in fact, have companies doing this sort of thing in the space of modern comics. They evolve out of groups of web comics creators pooling their resources for the stuff that's not about making comics, and starting a small business to fulfil orders. Topatoco is the most prominent; go to a major comics convention and they'll have a pretty good-sized booth full of the creators affiliated with them.