How Traditional Publishers SUCK On eBooks
I’ve been working hard on new edits for my two Amazon bestsellers, Die By Wire and Perfect Killer (and a new cover for PK … preview it here.).
But I got an email last night pointing out just how badly traditional publishers suck at ebooks. And they used one of my own books as an example of how bad things can get. Ouch!
The Amazon review below –cited in the email — and the story behind it illustrate just how bad traditional publishers can get.
“I love this book & read a physical copy a few years ago. I just got the kindle edition & there are mistakes. It looks like whoever typed it up as an ebook, did so on a device with autocorrect. It’s been awhile since I read the physical copy, but I don’t remember seeing these mistakes. Any decent book editor would have caught them. I’d suggest that Amazon have the writer of the ebook copy go re-do their work on this one. All in all though, I do love this book & any authors & books like it. EX: Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, etc.”
Well, yes, it reminds you of Da Vinci Code because this was one of my books plagiarized by that bestseller. But, as pointed out, the Daughter of God ebook is filled with crappy, crappy typos left over from a crappy, crappy scan that no one bothered to correct.
Here’s yet another take on traditional editing: Traditional Bad Editing: Not Just For The Self-Published
OVER-PRICED, UNDER-PROMOTED, NO PAY
Daughter of God’s publisher , Macmillan’s Forge/Tor imprint has fumbled every aspect of one of the best books I’ve ever written. (Anger. Tears of frustration).
Not only have they — like many other publishers — loosed an embarrassingly flawed version on the public, but they have grossly OVER-priced it, failed to do any promotion and can’t even keep the dead-tree version in print.
Oh, I forgot to mention that even though this book came out in 2000 and earned its advance out a way long time ago, they don’t pay me anything for whatever pitiful sales happen despite the price and the crappy, crappy typos.
A couple of years ago, I proposed (numerous times) that since the publisher was incapable of keeping Daughter of God in print, that I create a print-on-demand version via Createspace and pay THEM the same royalty rate on those books that they pay ME.
No dice. So the book goes in and out of print, the ebook text looks like a Chimp hit auto-correct and they over-priced things and don’t promote it. And give me no payment — and thus no reason to promote it like I have with my other books.
See this piece for more on payments: How “Free” Got Me $2,202.29 From Amazon
PROOF OF INDIE CONCEPT: PERFECT KILLER
Perfect Killer, is a thriller whose rights I re-acquired from Macmillan/Forge/Tor.
Because it’s priced correctly and I promote it, it regularly makes the top 10 in one or another Amazon Kindle paid bestseller list. While Daughter of God is usually somewhere between #244,224 (as it was this morning) and #1 million.
And they wouldn’t let me re-copy edit this even if I would — which I would NOT under the current arrangements.
Why?
Why should I spend my limited time as an author to do work for someone who is not paying me when I can make several thousand dollars per month writing, editing and promotion my own e-books including Die By Wire and Perfect Killer?
I am not THAT dumb!
A NOTE TO READERS
I admit that some of the scans I have done from my older (pre-1985 … like Zaibatsu) books have more scan-induced typos than they should. I’m working my way backward in time on all of those books. When better versions of those older books come out, just write me with proof that you bought an earlier, flawed e-version, and I will get you a new e-copy free.
That proof is easy to find: Amazon has every purchase you ever made with them online in your account section. I’ll set up a mechanism for this exchange/upgrade when improved versions are completed.
