Like many writers, when I started bleeding out that first novel, I imagined it on the shelf in bookstores and libraries. Book tours and signings ... and of course those lovely paychecks that would allow me to quit the day job and write full time. The dream slammed into the heavily fortified gates of the big boys of publishing. At that time, about eight years ago, they had no place for a science fiction romance though perhaps it would be labeled dystopian today. A small publisher took a chance on it and on my next ten romance novels. Shortly thereafter, speculative fiction romances took off.
I would love to sign a huge money contract with a big publisher but I'm content to be where I am, working with two small publishers. If they would ever listen to someone like me, I would tell the traditional publishers to get off their entitled asses and catch up. They jumped into the paranormal romance trend after small publishers made it popular. They dragged their feet getting into the digital market. And now Hachette is selling books right from their website? Did I hear that? Well guess what, Hachette, my small publisher has always done that. And not only do they sell them at a discount, when they sell a book directly from their website, they make more money and pay me a higher percentage. Win for them and win for their writer. Is Hachette paying their writers more if they skip the middle man? Or are they only providing links so readers can go to a different middle man than Amazon. Didn't investigate that.
It's not that I'm not concerned about the ongoing publishing war. There are probably ways it could affect those of us with small publishers too. Is Amazon a bully? Sure. Just like Walmart is to their vendors. Do most writers sell most of their books through Amazon? Sure. We all have a place at this table but we won't have much say in what is served.
So my romance books are available on my publisher's website at a discount. Here is an interesting article from The New York Times titled Amazon, a Friendly Giant as Long as It's Fed.
Do you feel like this battle affects you? Any advice to traditional publications if they want to stay in business? Do you shop at any of the 'bully' stores like Amazon and Walmart?
Don't forget to visit the IWSG site today for another enlightening post. Check out the new links found on all the pages.
