It's like any other business, and probably worse in many ways _because_ you're competing with so many other market segments.
First there are established publishers. Why should I give money to ElCheapoBooks when I could get a book from Tor for the same amount? Unless ElCheapo fills a niche I can't find elsewhere, with a book from an established publisher/epublisher I have a better chance of having it well-chosen and well-edited.
Then there are free e-books.
Thirdly, anyone who's halfway websavvy can give away an e-book, or flog it using Paypal from their website. If I was an author with a following who had a name and who had a web presence, I'd much rather do that than use a small-time e-publisher whose readership is probably about the size of mine.
I'm in the market for ebooks to read on the flight right now. I'll download something from Gutenberg and hop over to Baen.
From where I'm sitting, successful e-publishing looks like a really tough game to me. And yet Triskelion appears to have made a goodish bundle. $55K turnover for a startup ain't bad, particularly as the costs will have been negligible - it depends on how much of the work the owners did themselves. The second year looked... pretty good. And then a complete crash. I'm curious to find out what, exactly, went wrong there.
no subject
First there are established publishers. Why should I give money to ElCheapoBooks when I could get a book from Tor for the same amount? Unless ElCheapo fills a niche I can't find elsewhere, with a book from an established publisher/epublisher I have a better chance of having it well-chosen and well-edited.
Then there are free e-books.
Thirdly, anyone who's halfway websavvy can give away an e-book, or flog it using Paypal from their website. If I was an author with a following who had a name and who had a web presence, I'd much rather do that than use a small-time e-publisher whose readership is probably about the size of mine.
I'm in the market for ebooks to read on the flight right now. I'll download something from Gutenberg and hop over to Baen.
From where I'm sitting, successful e-publishing looks like a really tough game to me. And yet Triskelion appears to have made a goodish bundle. $55K turnover for a startup ain't bad, particularly as the costs will have been negligible - it depends on how much of the work the owners did themselves. The second year looked... pretty good. And then a complete crash. I'm curious to find out what, exactly, went wrong there.