What Authors Want: Third of Published Authors Interested in Self-Publishing Next Book by Jeremy Greenfield for Digital Book World

The lure of self-publishing is showing that it has some appeal even to authors who have been accepted and invested in by traditional publishing houses.

A third of traditionally published authors are interested in self-publishing their next book, according to a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s Digest.

The survey, What Authors Want: A Comprehensive Survey of Authors to Understand Their Priorities in the Self-Publishing Era, queried nearly 5,000 aspiring, self-published, traditionally published and “hybrid” authors (authors who have both self-published and traditionally published). It was presented in a keynote presentation at the Digital Book World Conference + Expo.

This trend should be worrisome for traditional publishers, which are struggling to demonstrate to the marketplace that they add value to the publishing process in an era where anyone can publish a book.

Perhaps of even more concern is that two-thirds of hybrid authors are interested in self-publishing their next book. It’s not surprising given the context of the rest of the survey: Time and again, hybrid authors had relatively negative opinions about publishing companies — that they keep too much money, don’t “get” digital and, generally, don’t add much to their publishing process.

At the same time, when offered the opportunity to publish traditionally, nearly three-quarters of hybrid authors are interested and — also good news for publishers — about two-thirds of self-published authors are interested. Not surprisingly, 92% of traditionally published authors are interested. The prestige of a traditional publisher, the wide distribution a publisher can generate and help with marketing were all reasons cited.

The wide-ranging survey also dived into how authors are building their social media platforms, what they think about advances, royalties, ebook prices, agents, ebooks in libraries and more. A full report will be available on DigitalBookWorld.com in a few weeks.

Pre-order the full report on what authors want here.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

STATUS: Caught the crud on my way back from New York over the weekend. It's not helping with my catch-up efforts.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now?  EL SUENO DE LA HIJA DEL REY by Savina Yannatou

As many of you already know, I was in The Big Apple last week speaking at Digital Book World. After Mike Shatzkin's interview with me and Hugh Howey, I sat on a panel with my fellow agents Jane Dystel, Steve Axelrod, and Jay Mandel.

My question was this: "What should Publishers be learning from authors who are self-publishing?"

My answer was twofold:

1) Authors who are successfully self-pubbing release a lot of content and a variety of content regularly. For example, one of my authors publishes 2 novels a year but also publishes short content in between the major releases to keep the momentum going. Also, successful self-pubbers do a VARIETY of content. If one work is building (and therefore more appealing to the audience), then the author will set aside the other content and focus on what is building momentum. Because the author is in full control of the publishing, she can make that decision quickly and immediately act on it.

Publishers need to find a way to do the same.

2) Second, success is all about the metadata. Most editors input the metadata tags when the author contract is submitted and then don't think about it again. Well, that's not what successful self-pubbers are doing and that's not what we do at NLA digital either. We are constantly tweaking.

For those of you wondering what the heck is metadata, these are the descriptive tags included in product description and in a lot of cases, embedded in the content file itself of electronic books, that allow a novel to be searchable and discoverable on distribution venues such as Amazon, BN, and Kobo.

I tell a great story about what was unfolding, literally, the week of DBW.  And now I can share it with you. Some enterprising videographer filmed me while speaking (so thank you BookMarketingAME). The video starts a little shaky but evens out. Hear it for yourself.


And here is the visual I didn't include at DBW but can share with y'all via the power of my blog. *grin*

The author's editor is the true heroine of the story for being persistence with her internal team to get the metadata fixed.  Within 12 hours of it happening, voila! This title was not even showing up in the top 100 or even the top 250 in ranking in this category until the fix.

The Biggest Children’s Gathering Yet on Tuesday January 15 we’ll kick off Digital Book World Week with our second-annual Publishers Launch Conference focused on the digital transition in children’s publishing–giving this vital segment the deep and focused consideration it deserves.

The major themes of the event are the power of platforms; the challenges of marketing and selling to children in a digital age (including specific case studies for picture books, middle grade and YA books); rethinking children’s book intellectual property and the new ways in which publishers are creating, controlling and licensing IP; and the latest data and critical analysis of what it means.

You can come for just the day, or in a new twist, the DBW Children’s Package adds the opening day of Digital Book World–with general keynotes in the morning, and three more children’s-track sessions in the afternoon, including their exclusive new report from PlayScience on The ABC’s of Kids and E-reading at a package price.

We keep adding to the program www.publisherslaunch.com/2012-2013/launch-kids/program which finishes with a panel including Barbara Marcus of Random House, Karen Lotz of Candlewick, and conference chair Lorraine–but here is some of the diverse and talented group of publishing executives, technologists, innovators, educational specialists and librarians speaking:

Mara Anastas, Simon & Schuster Children’s
Jess Brallier, Pearson/Protropica
Todd Brekhus, Capstone Digital
Gretchen Caserotti, Darien Library
Devereux Chatillon, IP Attorney (Callaway and Zola Books)
Rachel Chou, Open Road Integrated Media
Christian Dorffer, Mindshapes/Magic Town
Deborah Forte, Scholastic Media
Corinne Helman, Harper Children’s
Lisa Holton, Classroom, Inc.
Eric Huang, Penguin (UK)
Carl Kulo, Bowker
Swanna MacNair, Creative Conduit
Kristen McLean, Bookigee
Tina McIntyre, Little, Brown Children’s
Asra Rasheed, Reading Rainbow/RRKidz
Terri Lynn Soutor, Brain Hive
Andrew Sugerman, Disney Publishing Worldwide
Jonathan Yaged, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
Our one-day program kicks off Digital Book World Week on Tuesday, January 14 in New York City.

Here is a $200 code: Code: DBW13 Register here (prices go up again on December 8), or use the code PUBLUNCH for a 5 percent discount on any ticket option.  Be prepared for sticker shock.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy