As an author, how do you feel about the $9.99 ebook subscription service?

writingnewbie · Oct 1, 2013

It looks like HarperCollins is on board for the majority of their backlist.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...yster-offers-access-instead-of-ownership.html
Oyster Offers Access Instead of Ownership

Launched a little over a week ago with much media fanfare, Oyster is a New York City–based e-reading startup that offers consumers an all-you-can-read e-book subscription model for $9.95 a month. The company currently has a selection of about 100,000 titles, and members can read an unlimited number of e-books for as long as they subscribe to the service.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...ibd-launches-e-book-subscription-service.html
Scribd Launches E-book Subscription Service

Scribd, a digital distribution, document storage and book discovery platform, is launchng a subscription e-book service that will give users access to an unlimited number of books for $8.99 a month.

In addition to offering “a majority” of the HarperCollins backlist (titles go up to mid-2012), Scribd’s subscription service at launch will offer titles from a wide variety of independent houses such as Rosetta Books, Barrett-Kohler, Sourcebooks, Workman, Kensington and E-Reads.

The # of paying subscribers to reach $1 billion, $0.5 billion in annual revenue:

$1 billion / ($9.99 a month x 12 months) = 8.342 million paying subscribers

$500 million revenue = 4.171 million paying subscribers

bearilou · Oct 2, 2013

Not something I'd be interested in. I read slowly, for starters. Second, I kind of like having the ebooks available for whenever I'm interested in reading them and it looks like that I'd have to keep up with the subscription to have access to them.

sarahdalton · Oct 2, 2013

I'm dubious about the royalty situation. I need a high royalty to continue selling the way I do. If Oyster or Scribd become the next big thing there's a good chance I could lose my readers.

But, on a realistic note, how many books do the average person read per month? I know I only read 2 or 3 so it wouldn't be worth it for me.

Alitriona · Oct 2, 2013

Before I decide how I feel about it as an author, I'd like to know ahat the authors get out of it rather than what the reader gets. It someone reads a lot, it could be good for them as a reader.

Amarie · Oct 2, 2013

I have two books on the Harper backlist and I'm going to go over my contracts to see how that sort of royalty would be calculated. The contracts were written long before this was ever envisioned, and offhand, I can't think of any clause that covers it.

MJNL · Oct 2, 2013

Many libraries now allow you to borrow e-books for free (each for a limited amount of time, and usually one at a time), so it'll be interesting as a reader to see if this takes off.

As an author, I don't know how this subscription model pays the writers, so
I can't form an opinion.

LOTLOF · Oct 2, 2013

As a reader I would be very interested. Paying $9.99 or $8.99 a month to read as much as I want of a back list seems like a good deal. Even if you only read two books a month it would be worthwhile, never mind if you devour four or five.

As an author I am completely against it. I have no idea how the royalties would be defined, but it seems unlikely to be much. Anything that devalues my product is bad for me, regardless of how good it might be for the customer.

amergina · Oct 2, 2013

I'd want to know what the bottom line for me is.

Koschei · Oct 2, 2013

Seems a bit steep to me. Then again, I'm a student so am a bit tight with my money.

jjdebenedictis · Oct 2, 2013

As a reader, I think it could be a good deal, depending on the reader.

As a writer, and as others have said, I want to know how much the author gets paid.

Dreity · Oct 2, 2013

I realize this is a different company in a different profession, but I'm working my way through a few articles about how much musicians make off of Spotify. So far, it doesn't point to being a sustainable replacement for individual record sales. It makes me wonder how similar the numbers would be for authors with these programs.

WeaselFire · Oct 2, 2013

I voted on the fence, but I'm not really on the fence. I just don't care. Nobody forces an author to participate.

Jeff

veinglory · Oct 2, 2013

Meh. As a reader I would not participate as I don't read enough and are often reading specialized material or review copies. So economically it would not make sense.

As a writer I would probably opt in so as not to be a grinch, but expect to be under-paid.

girlyswot · Oct 2, 2013

WeaselFire said:
Nobody forces an author to participate.

I guess that depends on the contracts you've signed and what your publishers decide to do with the rights you've given them. I bet quite a lot of authors will find their backlist on these services without explicitly signing up to them.

Jess Haines · Oct 3, 2013

As an author, this raises a number of concerns about how the royalties and payments might work.

As a reader, I'm not that excited. I already have an overloaded Kindle I hardly use. I still prefer paper to ebooks.

ironmikezero · Oct 3, 2013

It has little appeal to me as a reader, as my wife and I are local library patrons and supporters.

As authors, we are not favorably disposed - especially since there is little reliable royalty information forthcoming from appropriate sources. Rumors suggest that royalties will likely be averaged and subsequently paid from a generic/collective pool of some sort of net receipts as yet to be determined.

IMHO, this does not bode overly well for authors.

LBlankenship · Oct 5, 2013

It was said that Smashwords was going to distribute to Oyster and they were going to send an email detailing the royalty situation... but my mailbox has been empty since that. Has anybody heard any more about that?

Mutive · Oct 5, 2013

Hmmm...as a reader, I'm unsure that I'd go for this. I definitely read enough to make it worthwhile...if I only read Harper Collins backlist. But generally when I'm buying books, I buy something that I really want to read...which Harper Collins may or may not publish. (And may or may not be backlisted.) When I'm just browsing and trying out stuff I may hate, I tend to use the library anyway.

I suppose that if the vast majority of publishers were in on this, I could see it working. (Since I do spend >$10/month on books.) But without a huge selection, I'd probably rather just go to my local library.

James D. Macdonald · Oct 5, 2013

As an author? Show me the money.

writingnewbie · Oct 7, 2013

James D. Macdonald said:
As an author? Show me the money.

We will know soon enough...

http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/09/smashwords-signs-distribution-agreement.html
September 5 2013

I expect Smashwords titles to begin shipping to Oyster in about three weeks. At least 72 hours before we begin shipping to Oyster, I’ll send out an email alert to all Smashwords authors and publishers. The email will contain complete financial details, including royalty rates and sampling thresholds, so you can make an informed decision about your participation.

Though the "about three weeks" has passed and then some.

Sept 5 + 3 weeks = Sept 26.

It has been more than 11 days since then but no email from Smashwords regarding Oyster royalties yet.

bearilou · Oct 7, 2013

writingnewbie said:
We will know soon enough...

http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/09/smashwords-signs-distribution-agreement.html
September 5 2013

Though the "about three weeks" has passed and then some.

Sept 5 + 3 weeks = Sept 26.

It has been more than 11 days since then but no email from Smashwords regarding Oyster royalties yet.

This does give it a boost from me. Mark Coker, I believe, is still interested in making things agreeable for the authors at smashwords.

I checked my channel manager on smashwords and it does have a category for Oyster to opt in or out, like other channels. Says that it hasn't shipped yet, though.

I'm adopting a wait-and-see at this point but so far my faith in Mark hasn't been shaken.

WriteMinded · Oct 16, 2013

As an author, I don't know. As a reader, I am laughing. No way.

As an author, how do you feel about the $9.99 ebook subscription service?

As an author, how do you feel about the $9.99 ebook subscription service?

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Don't like it

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