Are digital books, especially novels, finally becoming viable? We are much closer than ever toward a real revolution in publishing.
In this interview on Digital Book World, Jane Dystel, President of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management talks about how she is working with indie authors.
JG: Prescient words. Back to ebooks. A lot has changed since then in book publishing. How has your business changed?
JD: It’s changed a whole lot, as has everyone’s. I am personally really excited about the ebook revolution. I think we’re at the forefront. We have a digital publishing program that we began in April 2011. We help authors put their books up online. There’s books of course where the books go out of print and the author gets the rights back and they want to see them have a new life. And sometimes people come to us out of the blue, people who we haven’t represented before and if we think we can help we add them to the list.
Dystel’s company takes only the usual 15% commission on ebook sales, not 50% as some agencies are doing. One way to work with digital books seems to be to use it as a way to drum up interest. If a book won’t sell to editors up front, it’s an opportunity to take the book straight to the public; if it sells well as an ebook, then Dystel has been able to turn strong ebook sales into six-figure sales to a traditional publisher.
Traditionally one of the strengths of publishers was that they were a filter, choosing only to publish the best books. With ebooks, this function can be sidestepped and the author can interact directly with readers. How will this change the industry? No one knows exactly, but Dystel seems to be finding at least one answer. If you can find a strong audience online, you might be in line to get a contract with a print publisher.
Dystel will be speaking on a panel at Digital Book World Conference + Expo 2013 in a session titled Straddling the Models: Authors Choosing to Both Self- and Traditionally Publish on Jan. 17 at 9:15 A.M.
If anyone attends, I would love a report on her session!
Read more on Alternate Publishing.
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Good post. There is a much smaller investment for the publisher with ebooks, so I’m wondering if they will keep their standards as high or lower them a bit for this kind of publication. Still, their name will be on a book.