A Work in Progress

Panel: Kirsten Gong-Wong (M), Michelle Sagara, John Klima, Betsy Mitchell, Hugh Howey

My Notes

The Next 2-5 Years

• Much lower startup costs today
• Library usage of ebooks increases 50-70% *each month*
• Print editions will never completely go away, likely for special editions
• Print publishing is not sustainable for self-publishing
• Readers will buy more books because they will be more affordable
• Writers will be better off earning higher royalties
• Publishers might finally get on board with offering an ebook with each print edition
• Each print book is more expensive to produce than it used to be
• Returns are factored into the price of the book
• The value of an ebook needs to account for upfront costs, but readers don't see that for an ebook
• 40% markup on books
• Publishers are still scared that ebooks are cannablizing the sales of their print books
• This is all fear pricing
• Every industry makes the same mistakes
• Once you have a low distribution cost, it fragments your audience
• 1/2 of book sales are online; the marketing needs to follow it
• Online distribution is allowing for a lot more experimentation in form and word count
• I want something I can read during a lunch break
• You can't give your print versions away for free without going bust, not true for digital versions
• Digital editions can be corrected incredibly easily and quickly
• Readers now expect the same quality from ebooks as in print
• Overdrive is a way to get your self-published books into libraries
• There are psychological differences between buying habits between ebooks and print books
• There are a lot hurdles to get into traditional publishing
• It's better to be lucky than good
• He published 8 books before "Wool"
• Your best strategy is to write your next book
• Get 10 books out there
• The only thing that made a difference was writing more books
• The best way is word of mouth--the one kind of publicity you can't buy
• We can usually tell by book 5 whether an author will be successful
• Make the entry into a series the lowest barrier possible