First of all I want any responses to be civil. I am posting this after dealing with many different elements while selling and promoting my books. My detrmination is that the book business is rapidly transforming itself into one that does not control its own destiny.
I dont see that. More worrisome is the bottom line the big companies that own Random House, et al, are concerned with that is squeezing the entire industry.
I dare say that it is becoming an offshoot business of other mediums. Notables in other fields view books as a quick revenue generator from their fan bases and publishers do as well. Non book specialist retailers use books as loss leaders to draw people in to shop for other goods.
Some view it as revenue generators; the Star Trek books are a good example but for most houses their books are their revnue, period. Non book specialists dont use books as a loss leader, they use them to cimpliment other things in their store; a store that caters to Hummel figures, for instance, will carry books about Hummels.
Most of these are self inflicted wounds by the traditionalists in this business who are failing to capitalize on a hidden gold mine to make themselves relevant again. Who are the traditionalists: Big retail book chains, large newspapers and the publishers themselves.
"traditionalists" as in people who want to sell good quality books people will buy. And what is this hidden gold mine? POD vanity presses? hardly.
Major newspapers won't review POD/Self Published authors and at the same time book review editors lament their budgets shrinking or the book review sections going away altogether. Most book review sections I see now are a collection of reviews from outside reviewers or review services. The book editor does nothing more that decide which third party reviews will be printed. What's their value if they only place stock reviews.
"review services" never heard of those. My paper syndicates reviews from the New York Times and has a part time reviewing books by local authors (from small, local presses, never a PA book). My paper doesn't have "a book editor" but has a lifestyle editor.
A real value would be to come up with undiscovered gems from self published/POD authors that you can't find in every grocery store or discount chain. Why that is not a weekly mission baffles me. It would pump some life into the busines and make those sectons relevant again. What happened to a reviewer presenting the next new big talent to the world.
PA doesn't promote their books at all; their is no way even the NYTimes reviewer will know about your book unless you send him a copy. "Pump life"; last time I checked book review sections in any paper I've read are alive and kicking.
The big retailers should feel required to offer a forum for POD/self published authors as they continue to drive out independent bookstores. When an idependent closes, the open arms they had for new authors is replaced by the often closed door of the major corporate chain. The independent store and authors needed each other, the big chains are almost just the retail arm of the publishers and their policies almost directly reflect that defacto status.
"Feel required"? Why? Because they wont stock your PA book? No independent bookstore I know will stock a PA book, even from a local author. The big chains and the publishers are in a symbiotic relationship, they do need each other but are hardly "just the retail arm of the publishers"
The publishers stall technological advancement. The recording industry fought the digital music wave until it left without them. Now artists marvel at how much they make off of ring tone downloads. Ebooks should be big by now but the fear of a loss of control and how to keep the revenue going into the same pockets hold it back.
Apples to oranges. There is nothing wrong with the technology, many small presses use POD. The problem comes to scale; printing one book on a POD machine costs the same as printing 5,000. With an offset press it is the opposite, that's why it is still used. It's cheaper, faster, better. Digital music is an entirely different model with different rules than book publishing.
eBooks aren't big for a couple of reasons; first of all, there just isn't any device out there that makes reading an eBook anything like reading a paperback. Second, people still prefer a book they can hold in their hands, smell the pages, etc. eBooks have a place and someday might be a larger portion of the book business but it isn't there, yet.
eBooks can be controlled via DRM, so there is no loss of control. Most eBook publishers don't bother with DRM because it inhibits growth in the very field they are trying to grow. My publisher is an eBook place and it offers a variety of formats, with no DRM, even down to html pages.
I think something has to give, with all of the PA authors, self published and POD books out there it is like a dam holding back a mighty river. How all of this writing and publishing activity goes on almost in the shadows of the public is mind boggling. The general public does not care how the book is produced. Not one person buying my books at signings have asked, "Is it POD?" they buy because they like the story.
That's the key: IF they can find your book on a shelf they may like the story and buy the book. But they can't find the book! Thats your mighty dam: no publicity, shoddy discounts.
The question becomes how do we lift the veil off of this fractured segment of the publishing business and expose it to the reading public. We are all swinging our individual hammer, but what will it take to have this part of the business "break through"?
The veil has been lifted and its not a pretty sight. Tell PA to take notes from Tor books. That will make a breakthrough and make 10,999 happy PA authors unhappy as their books are rejected.