Writing Readers discussion

This discussion came up among our writer's group in Utah. There was a post on "The Passive Voice" at: www.thepassivevoice.com.

J.K. Rowling's move could inspire other authors, large and small, to pronounce themselves independent agents in hopes of tapping more lucrative paydays. Ms. Rowling refused for years to release her books in electronic format, retaining the digital rights for herself.

While most other authors have already handed over their digital rights to their publishers-- most recently John Grisham-- Ms. Rowling's deal could promp them to self-publish when their deals come up for renewal or demand higher royalty rates than the 25% of net sales that most publishers offer today on digital editions.

Some may even choose to forgo all traditional means of book publishing and set up their own bookstores, reaping 100% of everything they sell.

"Every writer watches with great interest whenever somebody does something new," said best-selling author Jennifer Weiner, whose next book, "Then Came You," goes on sale July 12. "We all pay attention. If this turns out to be a success for her, for an author who had unheard-of-success by selling through traditional bookstores with books on paper, then some may decide that they, too, don't need brick and mortar stores, or online booksellers, either."

One member commented that she read recently where brick and mortar bookstores are scrambling to remain profitable by charging for author lectures and signings.

Then one of our authors commented that she hadn't heard of that. But the stores where she'd had signings like to have authors come because they bring in customers to the store. Most authors don't care to do signings. If stores started charging, it might squash that altogether.

Our group found it interesting that J.K. Rowling bypassed Amazon AND her publisher, and will start selling directly to the public. That's big! JK Rowling can do that because her name has been branded, and she has a very substantial following.

What does this mean for the little writers like us? In ways, it opens doors. In other ways it's very scary. More and more promotion is falling into the lap of the author. That's why the social media is so important.

Something to think about in this complex world of writing stories.

Did anyone watch the story of JK Rowling on the Lifetime channel? It was quite interesting. Even though she had an agent, she was rejected 12 times before her first Harry Potter book was accepted by a children's publisher.

Her first advance from this publisher was $1,275 (in English pounds). Which she thought was a fortune. It only had a first print run of 5,000 copies.

She published the first few books in England before she was accepted by an American publisher (Scholastic). They paid her an advance of $105,000, for the American rights to her first book, the highest ever paid for a "children's book."

Later came the movie rights. But she had all 7 books planned out from the beginning. She just had to put them together and put them into manuscript form. She had stacks of notes on characters and background, etc.

It was quite an interesting story.