Thursday, 31 March 2011
eST
Okay then, several people have suggested that I branch out into electronic publishing. The idea would be to make new issues of ST available via the Kindle store and other outlets. The price of each issue would be low, to be competitive with other little magazines - say £1.50 per issue. This would mean most of the income going to the publisher - Amazon takes 70 per cent of sales under $2.99, apparently - so any revenue raised would be small. My idea is to use this little income stream to offset rising printing and postage costs, and so keep the printed version of the magazine afloat. What do you think?
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11 comments:
Sounds like it's worth a shot.
Go for it.
Yes, it is only 35% royalties under $2.99, but the flip-side of it is that lower prices can mean higher volume sales. You're not locked into it, so you can always play with the pricing until you find what works best for the market.
Would be good to encourage those who you know might buy ST in ebook to all do so across a day or two. The way Amazon's sales ranking seems to work is that a few sales - if close together in time - can send a book soaring up the charts - and the charts mean exposure and exposure means sales.
I put a collection of my published short crime fiction up on Sunday, so I'm watching how things work on there with great interest. Briefly made Amazon UK's top 20 for crime short story collections today (print as well as kindle), which was fun.
Good luck!
I have just put my raven-related fantasy for teenagers, 'The Emerald Table', on Kindle because no publisher wanted me to change my genre of crime fiction. Kindle certainly opens up possibilities at virtually no cost.
On the other hand, many people do like a physical magazine and ST is always beautifully produced and collectable. I would keep publishing in present form if you can, but put it on Kindle as well. I don't think those who prefer print would give it up for the electronic version, so you would stand to gain anyway.
All the best, whatever you do!
Jane Jakeman
Thanks, chaps, for sage advice and encouragement. I can't emphasise strongly enough that ST has to remain a 'real' magazine to be worth doing at all. I moan about printers and the postal system, but in the end a physical booklet is the point, for reader and author alike. That said, it would be great to build a wider ST community via Amazon and maybe other outlets.
Sounds good to me.
Sometimes I buy two copies of a book: a physical and virtual copy. I'll always prefer the haptic experience of reading a physical book/magazine. That said, the virtual copy has the advantage of "being around" when you find yourself stranded, and all you've got is your cell...and Kindle.
I'd say go for it. Making a publication available to readers, whether physical or digital, is what's important, at least to my way of seeing things.
I'd go for a Kindle subscription.
More positive comments - thanks! My main concern is that I couldn't pay the authors out of the meagre pickings of cheap epublication. Though of course I'll still have the poll for best story and people will still receive free copies of the physical mag.
Can only speak for myself but the payment issue wouldn't worry me a bit. Anything that helps keep the paperback version going.
Speaking of which, if it's not old news, I see that eight ST stories are included in Ellen Datlow's best of 2010 horror honourable mentions: http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/2011/03/11/
Paper please. Congrats on the Datlow incklusions.....
.....incLUsions !!!.....
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