Self-Publishing: Barry Eisler And JA Konrath On Why Big Authors Walk Away From Big Deals

A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath:

Amy Hertz, Huffington Post: Why are big authors walking away from half a million dollar advances from big publishers? Watch the discussion between two who have done just that to join the ranks of self-publishing. Are they doing better financially? Will it be a better move for their careers? Watch and wait.

Read the whole story: A Dialog Between Authors Barry Eisler and Joe Konrath

Comments

[Amy Holman Edelman]

08:52 PM on 03/24/2011

Read more about indie authors and find great books at IndieReader.com, the source for everything indie!

[JohnnyKay]

10:04 PM on 04/25/2011

Try "House Of The Turtles".

[Limari Colon]

08:26 PM on 03/24/2011

Wow... This gives us so much to think about. Now is the time!

[XFilesTheTruthIsOutThere]

08:48 PM on 03/30/2011

I agree Limari! I've gone the route of publishing my novel in eBook format. I'm a new author and its just a stepping stone for me.

[raven119]

10:58 AM on 03/23/2011

Interestingly, no "big authors" were interviewed for this self-promotion piece.

[scottyknows]

04:31 PM on 03/22/2011

The music industry is a great example of where the book publishing world is going. There are fewer deals, concentrating on the well-known artist and their built-in audience. That's why pubs. would rather pub. the next ten carbon-copy Stephen King novels than take a chance on the greatest novel they've ever read by a no-name.

Same in music. The great artists of tomorrow are already writing and producing and selling their own CD's, while promoting them on the road.

On the Road. That sounds like a great title for a book.......

[Gale Glassner Twersky]

03:08 AM on 03/22/2011

My question is about lesser-known authors. Now that there are many times the number of published (including self--published) authors, how does one stand out in the crowd? Is this article only relevant for high profile authors with a proven track record?.

[BlackJAC]

12:36 PM on 03/22/2011

There's an entire chapter on the subject in Steve Hely's How I Became A Famous Novelist.  It seems it helps if some celebutante uses your book to assault a stalkerazzo.

[XFilesTheTruthIsOutThere]

08:54 PM on 03/30/2011

I just read the article how fame figure-skater Kristi Yamaguchi write a children book and over night its a best-seller. I'm a new author and I have no celebrity status so I have to claw, scratch and fight to garner some attention. So yes, it helps a lot when the public already knows you. Having my new novel in eBook format did save me a lot of money publishing it via Amazon but that was the easy part.

[scottyknows]

04:35 PM on 03/22/2011

There's an old Mary Tyler Moore episode where she's interviewing a writer and the interchange was pretty funny. And it went something like this...

"How did you know this novel would do better than your first three?"
"Because this one was published."
"What was your first clue that it would be a best-seller?"
"When I saw the naked girl on the cover."

The moral: Naked girls help everything.

[BlackJAC]

08:21 AM on 03/23/2011

You forget that we're a visually oriented species and that the cover art can give you an idea of what the book's going to be about.  Bookninja had a contest where people designed flashier covers for dull, weighty books: http://www.bookninja.com/?p=4641

[robjh1]

12:56 AM on 03/22/2011

Interesting read. The tides in publishing are changing.

[Ivorywine]

12:35 AM on 03/22/2011

Konrath is right, it works. I'd never even heard of him.... until I found him on a Kindle search for horror... and I now have 8 of his titles. I'd much rather see more money going to the author...especially when it keeps my costs down.

[BlackJAC]

08:16 AM on 03/23/2011

I'd heard of him before, and had even seen his stuff in hardcopy in physical bookstores.  He simply never interested me.

[BlackJAC]

02:51 PM on 03/21/2011

Konrath was never a big author, if all of his current gauche braggadocio about how much he now makes through pure E-book sales is any indicator.

[scottyknows]

04:38 PM on 03/22/2011

Very true, but the lesson is: 1) You don't have to be a well-known--or even good--writer to make money. 2) A good way to get your name out is to have a blog on other topics on the internet. 3) Have a lot of stuff out so you will make more money.

"Every stream starts with a tiny drip."
Confuscious, or ScottyKnows

[BlackJAC]

08:18 AM on 03/23/2011

You should read Steve Hely's How I Became A Famous Novelist sometime.  It completely vivisects the bestseller phenomenon with comments like "Write a popular book.  Don't waste time making it a good book."

[dididangerlove]

11:30 AM on 03/21/2011

Interesting.

[SF TKF]

11:22 AM on 03/21/2011

My writer friends and I were just discussing this last week: Who will be the first big name author to give NY the finger? And it’s Barry Eisler for the win. Gobsmacked here, and slightly regretting the contract I signed last year. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t sign it today, and I’m also pretty sure I won’t sign another for all the reasons stated by Konrath and Eisler.

[Chicago Blue]

11:22 AM on 03/21/2011

Is this a paid ad posing as a news story?

[BlackJAC]

04:21 PM on 03/21/2011

I legitimately wonder how many E-book proponents own Amazon stock and therefore need more Kindles shifted in order to keep the price up.

[sugomom]

09:19 AM on 03/21/2011

At least self publishing saves an author from the pain of being rejected by a publisher or ten!

[BlackJAC]

02:49 PM on 03/21/2011

If you ain't racked up at least a hundred rejections you ain't even trying.  Jack London accrued 600.  Alice Munro got 500.

[Alex Wilhelm]

04:12 PM on 03/21/2011

Why the hell would you do that today? What a huge waste of time. Instead, why not write more and sell it digitally?

[MJRose]

08:49 AM on 03/21/2011

Times have changed... The Pit and The Pendulum http://bit.ly/f2L32G