Amazon is Officially A Commercial Publisher!

[Stacy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-ru...

 

Thoughts?

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks for the link.  Interesting details.  We've known for a while that Amazon has joined traditional publishing, though they offer greater cooperation with authors and fairer deals.  That is why they are a major threat to the big houses.  Barry Eisler not too long ago rejected a 500, 000 dollar deal from his former publisher in order to publish through Amazon.  Many such deals are still brokered by agents.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

Do you think BN.com will follow suit? It'd make sense to me.

[I. J. Parker]

I doubt it.  They lack the clout.  I would choose Amazon over B&N any day.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

They are the Coke and Pepsi of publishing. It wouldn't surprise me if Diet BN came out in the next couple years.

[Dan Riker]

A few months ago Amazon appeared to be only publishing works by established authors, but now they say they are open to manuscript submissions. They provide detailed instructions for submissions, but do not provide any email address to use for submissions. I've been trying to submit a novel to Amazon, but the only response I get is the same automated response that provides the submission instruction details.

 

Does anyone know the submission email address?

 

This article raises a question that has concerned me. Are agents and publishers avoiding self-published authors?  Poisoned Pen Press states in their submission guidelines that they will not accept submissions from self-published authors. Are other publishers also taking that position? 

 

I have the feeling that some agents also are avoiding self-published authors.  Does anyone else share this concern?

 

Dan Riker

 

[I. J. Parker]

Yes, there may well be a backlash.  It's unfortunate, given the fact that traditional publisher have driven away the very authors they used to publish.  However, keep in mind, if the self-published author has significant sales, all those prejudices fall by the wayside.  Publishers are in this to make money.

[Pepper Smith]

Part of the problem is that a lot of self-published authors will take their self-pubbed work and submit it to agents and publishers while the work is still in publication.  It can't be in print when it's submitted, because the publisher or agent can't even consider representing or acquiring it while it's in print.  (Yes, there are occasions when self-pubbed work is acquired while still in print, but those occasions usually involve massive amounts of sales and the publisher contacting the author, not the other way around.)

[Eric Christopherson]

I've got two self-published novels being repped by two different literary agencies at the moment, and I know of other agents and publishers who have embraced self-published work, repped it, bought it. But it's my impression there are some agents and publishers still holding their noses at self-pubbed titles.

[Mark Young]

Penny: You're right. A while back, traditional publishers signed with author William P. Young's (no relation) novel, The Shack after that book soared into the millions as a self-pub. And we have the current idies-turned-traditional pubishers, who proved themselves to bring in large numbers of readers on their own. But normally, a self-pub author seems to get the cold shoulder from traditional publishers even if they produce unpublished, unreleased works. 

 

Dan: Unfortunately, agents and publishers seem to often shun self-pubbed writers unless they can demonstrate an the ability to bring in thousands of readers even before the agent/publisher begin their work. In my opinion, part of the message St. Martins sent out around Amanda Hocking's deal was that authors need to have traditional publishers behind them in order to reach that next level that can't be reached by indie authors. Maybe, maybe not. But Amanda Hocking proved she could do it on her own, and--based on what I read--she wanted to give some of that responsibility to the publishers so that she could focus on her writing. More power to her, and I was pleased that she made the right choice for herself.  Other writers like John Locke, Joe Konrath, and Barry Eisler have proved this message by St. Martin to not be valid in this new era of publishing. Traditional publishers are warily looking at Amazon and wondering when the next shoe is going to fall. Where Amazon, or services like it, will be able to provide full service opportunities for authors without all the baggage traditional publishers seem to bring to the party. Baggage like publishing 18 months to two years after the novel is finished and demanding unreasonable non-compete clauses (like author Kiana Davenport is facing) to stifle writers from earning a living while they wait for the novel to appear--someday. Reminds me of Bob Dylan's song, Blowin' in the Wind ...change is right in front of us. Some of us see it, and some of us don't.