When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
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When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
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Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#2I only skimmed this, have not yet read in great detail, but it made me think about backlists in indie publishing.
This is a thing for self-published authors as well, only we tend to take a more optimistic view on the backlist: a large backlist is more of a benefit than a challenge. It is necessary to keep putting out new books of course to get new visibility, but income stability comes not from readers buying your shiny new book - it comes from them buying _all of your other books_ after they read and enjoy the shiny new book. The backlist is generally considered king for a sustainable self-publishing career.
It does come with maintenance, however. As the post mentions, my early books are just not very good. Heck my new books are not very good either, but they're better than my early books. Likewise, covers and blurbs go out of date and need to be refreshed once in a while. It is work - but a large backlist is in the end what keeps you afloat.
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#3A very interesting read!
Hyperlinks are a particularly challenging area.
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#4[flagged]
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#5> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.”
> I think we agree at this point that a nationality is not a super-cool Halloween costume, but I’m not clear on whether Clarissa’s putting on yellowface or has just borrowed her mother’s lipstick. And so how do we handle this? This is not Huckleberry Finn — it’s not a book about race, where we talk about the history and the controversy. Should we be concerned with this type of incidental racism in an ebook that we’re selling today, one that looks just like the new, and hopefully more enlightened, children’s ebooks we’re publishing in 2015?
That's something I never understood: rewriting books from the past to match recent cultural trends. What happened happened, whether you like it or not. (I also don't really get the Halloween costume controversy, but I acknowledge there's something to debate there, unlike with the history-rewriting topic which is just dumb).
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#6> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…
You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985?
Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change?
Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently.
Publishers make changes to ensure books keep selling.
They are human and don't always make the right decision. But they aren't doing it for any reason other than profit.
My daughters are Asian I wouldn't buy them a children's book where "be Chinese" is considered an acceptable Halloween costume.
The publishers would probably prefer I consider purchasing it.
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#7> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…
I fail to understand why a story about a child innocently dressing up as someone from another culture is perceived by some Americans as racist.
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#8> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…
You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…
Her book was based on a poem of the same name, written in the 1800's, in which ten children come to an untimely death.
Famously, Christie set out to deliberately write her most technically challenging book, having ten people murdered on an island in a manner in keeping with the poem, whilst still keeping the reader guessing whodunnit. Most readers agree it was her best book by far.
The idea that the book is racist simply because of it's title is a rather modern phenomena (not to mention changing the title and poem somewhat hides her original challenge).
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#9> And here is a lovely classic children’s book — from 1960 — that’s about two little girls, and a witch, who has a baby, and a spelling bee, an actual bee that spells things. And there’s a minor part of the story where the girls are putting on their Halloween costumes, and one is a witch, and the other is “a little Chinese girl … and she had makeup on her face.” > I think we agree at this point that a nationality is…
You really don't understand why editors decided to rename Agatha Christie's 1939 book Ten Little Niggers in 1985? Or is that a "recent cultural trend" where you can understand why publishers followed the trend and made a change? Because once someone admits that change was okay, it's no longer a question of principles and just a series of judgment calls that different people will make differently. Publishers make chan…
>
My daughters are Asian I wouldn't buy them a children's book where "be Chinese" is considered an acceptable Halloween costume.
There also exist people who would rather avoid buying books where the publisher changed the content in 1984 style to appease the woke moaners.
Re: When Nothing Ever Goes Out of Print: Maintaining Backlist Ebooks (2016)
#10I only skimmed this, have not yet read in great detail, but it made me think about backlists in indie publishing. This is a thing for self-published authors as well, only we tend to take a more optimistic view on the backlist: a large backlist is more of a benefit than a challenge. It is necessary to keep putting out new books of course to get new visibility, but income stability comes not from readers buying your sh…
> Likewise, covers and blurbs go out of date and need to be refreshed once in a while.
Why? The reader understand that they are from another time.