[25803]

Here's the PW Daily link about it: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/47916-print-units-fall-10-in-six-months-according-to-nielsen-bookscan.html

 

[25803]

I'm going to reply to my own post

Several author friends have been reporting that in order to continue getting book contracts they've had to accept smaller advances.  This explains a lot.  Although Nielsen has compiled the info, publishers had to have seen/known this before now.

 

[25803]

Interesting, Debora.  My friends are all mass market genre authors.  With the way ebooks are generally being underreported right now, there's no way for authors to know if ebook sales have made up the difference.  Given that most big 6 publishers are offering 25% of net, I wonder how that works out for authors' income if ebook sales account for the lost MM sales.

 

[daringnovelist]

Interesting, Debora. My friends are all mass market genre authors. With the way ebooks are generally being underreported right now, there's no way for authors to know if ebook sales have made up the difference. Given that most big 6 publishers are offering 25% of net, I wonder how that works out for authors' income if ebook sales account for the lost MM sales.

Mass market genre authors should run for the hills as fast as their little feet can carry them. The big book chains killed the midlist, and publishers let them. But the thing is, the midlist is not dead. It's out there and strong.

(If they want info about how to take care of themselves in the scary indie woods, send them to Dean Wesley Smith's blog and his "Think Like A Publisher series.)

Camille

 

[25803]

I don't think you are missing anything, Debora. I was thinking about author royalty statements from some publishers, showing far fewer ebook sales than one would expect. Now that the industry is going through so much change, I hope that in the future authors will no longer be the ones who suffer when a publisher hedges. I also wear rose colored glasses <g>

 

[FictionalWriter]

If the ebook sales are more than making up for the drop in ebook sales, why are the advances getting smaller

 

[Colin Taber]

Interesting. Thanks for the linK!

 

[Izzy Hammerstein]

Sounds like we were talking more about the New York Families and thier Cosa Nostra.