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Post by writeway on Jan 25, 2019 18:29:43 GMT
Apparently Loveswept is closing. Agent Kristin Nelson broke the news on Twitter. Don't know much more yet but you guys can check it out on Twitter: twitter.com/agentkristinNLAWow, not surprised. KU and indies make it near impossible for trade romance books to compete. RH probably felt it was best to give up than keep trying. |
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Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Jan 25, 2019 18:59:17 GMT
Romance authors are much better off going indie anyway. Way more money lies along that path than old, dead publishers bones. If trad wants to continue existing then it needs to start not paying authors at all unless they reach a certain threshold which they will not disclose under any circumstances, and find a way to either get companies to sponsor books or create their own ereader and insert their own ads into it. Or only publish books which are more popular in print. My opinions anyhow. If there was an ereader which only carried trad books, all of the big publishers would then leave amazon, and they'd either have to rely on us indies to carry them, or they'd shut down. Hmm
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Post by kateelizabeth on Jan 25, 2019 20:48:55 GMT
I just heard about Loveswept closing about 20 minutes ago. Who's next?
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Post by writeway on Jan 25, 2019 22:39:21 GMT
No telling who is next. I am betting that there will be no more small presses by 2021. I mean every year there are tons closing that we don't even hear about. I'm not shocked by this at all and I agree that if you write romance or any other genre dominated by ebooks you are better off on your own.
Someone posted on FB that at the last RWA conference Loveswept authors were complaining about horrible pay, bad sales, and apparently many authors were leaving the company out of disgust. Again, this is what I heard on FB from someone else but not surprised.
What many don't realize is that big houses threw these digital imprints up to capitalize on the ebook market, not to build authors' brands. They really just duped them because Random House and other big houses with imprints don't even deal with these digital imprints. It's like a separate company so authors don't get the backing and support as they would if they published through the main Random House imprints.
I don't know why authors sign at these imprints unless it's just so they can say they were published by Random House but it's not in the same vein as someone who is with a traditional imprint. Digital-only authors don't get any advantages. The books are overpriced and the companies don't even promote them.
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Post by dormouse on Jan 26, 2019 0:23:54 GMT
No telling who is next. I am betting that there will be no more small presses by 2021. What many don't realize is that big houses threw these digital imprints up to capitalize on the ebook market, not to build authors' brands. They really just duped them because Random House and other big houses with imprints don't even deal with these digital imprints. It's like a separate company so authors don't get the backing and support as they would if they published through the main Random House imprints. I don't see these imprints as the same as small presses. Digital only is a poor concept and was an early big publisher idea of how to deal with the ebook phenomenon & KU. Their problem is that they are loaded with costs and have little freedom. And however little they pay, it's still more costly than being an indie. Historically big publishers grew from small successful publishers set up by entrepreneurs with a passion. and an ability to pick good books. Pulp publishers were set up by entrepreneurs who understood their target market and marketing. Poor managers fell by the wayside. It's very different at the moment - big publishers are monolithic not just big (and as rigid as you would expect of a monolith) and there's a host of self-publishers. And in some genres new successful indie entrepreneurs setting up 'content farms'; these may become the new pulp entrepreneur successes. |
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