キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか？ しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか？ 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな？』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう？もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Amazon will again lower their ebook prices and create a monopoly, continuing their bullying policies.
What’s more, people will expect a book to only be worth $10 or less. Usually less. They’ll become upset if a book is priced at the "exorbitant" price of $10.
This article explains that the cost of a book isn’t in the paper, it’s in the other work that goes into it. Editing. Cover design. Interior design and typesetting. Marketing. The several editors and proofreaders who go through a manuscript so it can be as free of distracting typos as possible.
I’ve read tons of Amazon reviews about people distracted and annoyed by typos in those $0.99 ebooks. Well, when there are only 2-3 people (if that many) who go through a book before it’s self-published, you have to expect some errors.
I don’t know the exact number, but I’ve estimated that at least a dozen people go through my traditionally published books before they’re printed (the number is probably higher). And each of those editors needs to be paid.
(Big deal, they only read a book, right? But actually, proofreaders go through a book at least twice--once from front to back, and then a second time line by line, starting from the end, to help them catch typos better.)
That’s why the book is set at $12.99 retail. I get 90 cents of that. After you cut out what the bookseller makes, the rest goes to pay all the people who worked on the book. You can cut out marketing costs, perhaps, (and then no one would even hear about the book) but that still leaves all the other people at my publishing house who worked to make it the best book possible.
A book has to sell a certain number of copies before the publishing house even begins to make a profit over all the expenses of making the book.
When readers devalue a book, they devalue the effort of the author and all the staff who worked on it. “Sorry, Camy, your work isn’t worth 90 cents a book.”
There are people not happy with the lawsuit, and I hope the DOJ doesn’t win.
Comments
From what I read on PW the publishers named in the lawsuit have settled. But it sounds like Apple might take it to them.
Thanks Fedora! :)
I've just bought the second of the Sushi series, and will be off soon to get the next one. Based on the 90c per book you quoted above, that's going to earn you $1.80 - but will cost me $45 for two books, because I live in NZ and that's what Christian paperbacks cost here. The Kindle edition would be about half the price, but I bought the first book in paperback and don't like to split a series across formats.
Or I can go and buy the new Tamara Leigh for $2.99. She's self-published it as an Amazon ebook, so she will earn $2.04 off my purchase. I can use the other $39 to buy more books, buy groceries, pay mortgage, donate to charity...
Yes, there are some shoddy self-published books out there - badly designed, not well written and completely unedited. But I wouldn't put quality Christian authors such as Tamara Leigh or Mary Connealy in that basket (Mary has just self-published a new suspense as Mary Nealy, which is also only $2.99).
Yet, despite their $2.99 price tag, they earn more per sale than your Zondervan books will (although they will have to pay for cover design and editing themselves). That might, at a stretch, be devaluing books, but it is not devaluing authors any more than personal lending, library borrowing or second-hand book sales.
And isn't Weddings and Wasabi self-published? It's on Amazon as WinePress Publishing/Amazon Digital Services, not Zondervan like the other Sushi books. And the Kindle edition is $2.99...
Incidentally, having 10-12 people go through your book before publication doesn't guarantee it will be error-free. A recent Kathy Herman book confused 'heroin' with 'heroine', and I found a typo in the latest DiAnn Mills book, The Chase, which is published by Zondervan.
My objection is the message Amazon is putting out there, that ebooks shouldn't cost more than $10. When self publishing, the costs go down, but when traditionally published, the costs naturally go up. I have done both and prefer traditionally published books because my publisher has distribution channels I don't have (and while you can pay for them with self-publishing, it makes costs go way up). Also, it's less work for me and puts out an excellent product when my book is traditionally published.
I think it does devalue an author when so many other ebooks are $2.99 or less and it puts pressure on an author to price her ebook the same. Since Weddings and Wasabi is print on demand, I don't have much choice on the cost of the print copy because of the inherent costs of a POD printer. I put half as much effort into writing Weddings and Wasabi as I do for my Love Inspired books, so I priced the ebook at roughly half what a Love Inspired costs. So far, I haven't made any money off of that because of my other self-publishing costs. I didn't go into it expecting to make any money.
You are right in that God does call us to be good stewards of our money, and I wouldn't want someone to spend money on my books when they ought to spend it on things like food, clothing, and schooling. I am not asking people to spend their money on my books when they have other needs.
But when people start to expect a book to only cost $2.99 regardless of the actual production costs, that devalues ME as an author and it's very degrading to me emotionally. I'm sure some of that is completely irrational, but emotions are rarely rational. I just know that I'm hurt when someone complains that my book costs too much.
I undertand how you might feel that way, but please remember that you are not what you earn, or even what you do. Ask any mother or volunteer worker. Our value lies in the fact that we are precious children of God. The economies of this world are based on money and profit. Thankfully, God is not.