Another E-Book Author Makes It Big and It's Not Me (and other news)!!!

February 11, 2011

So, Yahoo announced they will be launching a digital newsstand for tablet devices. It'll be called "Livestand" and it's yet another way to create a personalized news feed. What puzzles me is, uh, why? Can't we pretty much do this anyway via RSS feeds and surfing?

John Squires discusses the problem with print publishers--primarily magazines--trying to shift over to digital downloads and why he sees a lot of problems with it as a business model:

Without direct access to customers, publisher revenue will decline sharply and the publications that we depend on for in-depth reporting, news and entertainment will risk a final digital Armageddon.

Should we care? Why can’t the publishing industry just leave the world of messy ink and rural route delivery? Can’t it pivot to a less costly distribution model where customer ownership isn’t

as critical?

Well, I care, because a significant percentage of my income is tied up in this question.

And here, more news of some author other than me making big bucks from e-publishing, this time a German novelist, Oliver Potzsch. 100,000 copies, $2 bucks per copy... I myself am deeply jealous. C'mon people, start buying my e-books here. I've got a ways to go before I make $200,000 this year. And by the way, I have no clue why I can't get HOT MONEY to show up on that Amazon page. It's one of my favorites!

And finally, apparently some publishers are "bundling" e-books, a sort of BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE! kind of deal, which at least to me suggests that publishers are just realizing that marketing strategies used successfully by everyone else for the last century or so might just be used by booksellers and publishers.