CHAPTER EIGHT: Voices from the grave.

Dead people still do talk. Here is a example.

Publishing the old way. Dead.

The "big guys" have built a trap. This trap is filled with presses, paper, ink, binding equipment, staff, editors, layout, and so on. All these people need to be paid which means they have huge overhead. And guess who pays for that overhead? Yup, the author and the book buyer.

Now take this huge empire and throw in a small publisher and a single author like myself or J.A.Konrath into the mix and see what happens. Low overhead because all the people small publishers have are freelance. No press, no printer, no ink and everything done is cash and carry. Guess who makes out better? Yup the author and the book buyer.

e-books throw this off kilter even more. Here is a way a author or small publisher can get out the work and it is low cost and high return. Here comes the undercutting... Here comes the e-book revolution and the wave of e-readers under 100 bucks. Here comes the small time author that can now compete with James Patterson in the same room with Steven King.

Is this bad? Is this good?

We will see. But I am for the author... I am in the corner of the author and if this shift is what it takes for the "big guys" to wake up and see that the way you have been doing business is not working anymore, well lets just see...

BTW, in what time ever in history could a guy like me make a living on writing without selling 100,000 books the old way? When has there ever been a batter time to be a writer? I say never!

So, strap on my friends... this is going to get interesting in a hurry.