Looking back to last year's reading

OK, didn't want to make this academic exercise, but thought it wasn't fair for those who did, nor to the people mentioned here...

So, here you are:

Great books read : tons.

Shitty books read : Since I didn't pay much, tons of first chapters, but none to the end.

Great Twitter friends met : Some, but great ones.

Great Writers discovered : Some, but much more than without my ereader.

OK, last one I'll detail some (in no particular order except language):

[English]Andrea K Höst * (http://www.andreakhost.com/) Author of the YA SF Touchstone trilogy and of a few other also great (and more adult) Fantasy novels.

[English]Michael J. Sullivan (http://www.riyria.blogspot.com/) Author of the Riyria Revelations (Soone tra,nslated to French and sold by the great French Milady/Bragelonne publisher)

[English]Debora Geary (http://www.deborageary.com/), Author of the "Modern Witch" series

[English]Nathan Lowell * (http://solarclipper.com/ et http://www.lammaswood.com/) Author of Science Fiction (Solar Clipper) and Fantasy (Tanyth Fairport), who tell extraordinary stories of ordinary people (or the reverse).

[French]Jeff Balek * (http://jeffbalek.com/ ) The short and precise phrases virtusoso, mastering both humorous Comics (Le Plup),  SF (Le Waldganger), and litterary ebooks(Macadam Gonzo) ...

[French]Pauline Doudelet * (http://www.paumadou.com/) OK, I admit I prefer her short/diverting stories to her more profound ones. She knows it, and I hope she doesn't mind ;-) 

Authors with an * are available for now at the best retailers (no DRMs/no Amazon), but I loves the other ones too !

Please note that EVERY ones of these writers is (or has been) self-published (or pure-player published), that at least a third of them live from their Electronic Books writing, and that I would never have "discovered" them if not for ebooks.

I have a few candidates for this new year, we'll see where they take me...

I also fear that my deliberate choice to not buy from Amazon anymore will "cost" me too much in "non-discovery", that I'll miss too much, so my only e-reading resolution for this new year will be to stand by this decision !

How Amazon is winning the Indie Battle

Until the start of december, my life as an "indie" reader was really good, and went along with my convictions all right : When I felt I discovered an author I liked, or a book was recommended to me, I would look it up at Smashwords, ask about it in an epub version, and if none was available, would go to Amazon, and depending on the DRM status and my "wanting" level, sometimes would buy there.

The world as it used to be

I saw Amazon's pro-indie as a benevolent one, of course using it to put pressure on Big6 publishers, but that went all right with me. Amazon did not on the other hand put pressure on the concurrent retailers, at least regarding that market. They "courted" the authors, giving them a great review system, good visibility, consideration, non-discriminating conditions, and lots of customers.

On the other hand, the other retailers just were seeing indie writers and publishers as sub-par book providers, and did see no use to help them.

Smashwords, in it's role of distributor, was doing as it could, opening a channel to the retailers. However, since those did NOT do anything, sales were just more random, depending either on genre or on luck to get discoverability. Of course, these retailers having lots of distinct quirks about what is acceptable to them make it no easier for Smashwords to send ebooks, and forces it to use it's MeatGrinder to make sure the ebooks are distributed. Add communication lag between Smashwords and the distribution channels... Ouch !

So while some authors were making better on non-Amazon platforms, the big majority fared better at Kindle.

Still, publishing on multiple platforms cost not much more than on a single one, and sometimes brought more money, the "common wisdom" was to put eggs in different baskets and multiple platforms.

The blog reviews, in addition to retailer reviews and notations were helping "independent" publishing get notoriety and lose some of it's black mark. A few midlist, or unknown, writers GotLucky™ (JA Konrath), and became famous outliers, giving notoriety and credibility to the entire indie movement.  

Far from discouraging this, Amazon was only waiting for the right time to come. Indie was a great tool, but if it had tried to take it for itself, Amazon would have had trouble getting as much traction as it has now on it. On the contrary, it started its imprints, giving a a boost to a few writers, selected without risks among the successfull ones.

Harvest Time !

Beginning of december though, was the GOOD time to harvest, just before the Christmas season.
Enter the KDP Select program, in which indie-publishers can enroll individually (and for a renewable duration of 90 days) each of their book.

First, the author gets 5 "free days", during which he can set the price to "free". While it may seem a bad financial move, going free for limited time has often proved to have good results in generating reads, which generate reviews and recommendations, which generate additional sales either when the book is off-free, or on other non-free books by the same author.

Secondly, Select enrolled boks are put in the "Prime" library, which means they can be burrowed for free for "Prime" customers, at most one at a time. Some direct "money compensation" is done through a fund, divided between the authors depending on the total number of borrows, and  each author's books. With the program's success, we can now know that this financial compensation should be at best symbolic, but it's not the only compensation for the author : the borrows/lendings are taken into account by the ranking algorithm. This means that the more a book is borrowed, the more it climbs in the ranking, hence the more it is borrowed, but also bought by the non "Prime" customers. This seems to largely compensate for the dollars loss. As a nice side effect, it also adds value to the "Prime" membership, by giving them access to a greater number of titles.

Last, the author/publisher gives exclusivity to his book for the entire 90 days duration. Which means that "established self-publishers" not only lock themselves to Amazon, but also attract their followers in their wake. These new customers, will of course discover other self-publishers, buy from them through Amazon, augmenting Amazon's share in their revenue, and finally prompting them to subscribe to Select.


Additionaly, by asking for the exclusivity, Amazon ensures that books will be designed primarily for its Kindle platform, and as a second thought for the other ones. Once an author has put it's book exclusively on Kindle Select, he will be less inclined 90 days later to start formatting anew for the other platforms, especially if he had good results on Kindle.

These 3 effects combine to create a "virtuous" (for Amazon) cycle, that attracts authors, who attract customers, who attract authors ...

How has it worked, so far ?

Well, from what I see at the KindleBoard's Writer's Cafe, where a great number of self-published authors spend some time, the big majority of those who made more than 70% of their sales at Amazon went "Select" for at least a few books. And those who DID go Select, have done so with (so far) gret results, getting more visibility, and climbing the rankings.

I can direct you to Kevin McLaughlin's Early Evaluation of KDP Select Program post to show you how it all went... Basically, Large Publishers are toast, Indie get a BIG visibility boost.

As an other result, some of the authors I like are going exclusively Amazon, and since I decided to not buy there ... Poor me !

For those who decide to go exclusive, I'd suggest something though : What if you planned ahead, twice a year, a 5-10 days of "No Select" period for all your books ? You could put them for sale directly on your website, in epub format, so that us, non "Kindle" owners could buy and read them ?

Update : a list of links to Author's blogs about this (on their blog, or forums)
http://ljsellers.com/moving-toward-amazon-only/
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,94067.0.html

A Hard Decision

That's it, it's over, I won't buy and/or recommend Kindle anymore.
I'll keep on using Amazon as an information provider, as a discovery tool, as a source for free ebooks, but I won't buy paying ebooks from them anymore. Similarly, I won't add reviews to their products, or give them any way to use my reading

My reasons ? It's not playing fair anymore.

It wants customers to use other places as a showroom ? Fine with me, for ebooks they're the best Showroom in town, and I'll make my choosing there, but will buy elsewhere.

It asks exclusivity ? Fine, I'll buy exclusively elsewhere.
I won't comment more on these subjects, it's already been extensively covered on the web.

These elements were already over the top, but I still had a tiny margin in me to accept this but...
The last straw ? It doesn't show the DRM status of ebooks it sells. I'll buy books where I can choose with this criteria.

I know, you english readers don't have this last problem... but it seems, Amazon HAS changed it's stance on DRMs indications.
The day of Amazon's French Kindle store opening, I found out that the DRM status was not displayed on it, and wondered if it was a glitch, or a strategic decision. (Amazon Kindle France and DRMs : different strategy or Bug ?)

I tried then and mobilize about it, but with no great result. Of course, it could be a bug, or a temporary situation.
Roughly a month later, I contacted them through the support service, and the only answer I got was :
"It's nominal (no bug), but we'll express your concern to the appropriate department (ie. When Hell Freezes Over)."
 (Amazon's answers regarding DRMs on Kindle France)


Bragelonne /Amazon meeting

Next, came Bragelonne's (one of our main SFF publishers) meeting with the Kindle France team (Insatisfait par les réponses Amazon à Bragelonne sur les DRMs (Mis à jour)).
What came  out from that meeting is that Amazon can't deal with Bragelonne's (through it's distributor Immateriel) choice of protection scheme : marking. Since it can't (won't ?) mark books, rather than leaving them completely unprotected, they prefer putting DRMs. (But didn't refer that fact to Immateriel/Bragelonne until asked about it).

Please note that this "upgrade" is not only Amazon's doing, it's also the case for FNAC, which partnership with Kobo has led to the same situation.

Nonetheless, Amazon's inability to propose marking forces Bragelonne to compromise on it's no DRMs stance.

But it's not over : if you read my analysis of Bragelonne's report (not translated yet, sorry), you'll see that Amazon has led Bragelonne to believe DRMs where a necessary part for customers to have access to the full "Amazon" functionality : lending, text-to-speech etc...
As I surmised, and was later confirmed by more knowledgeable sources, this is complete bullshit, as it mixes specificities from mobi/azw files, with the DRM's implementation. And if it WERE in fact true, how come that same problem was only  evident in the French store sold ebooks ?

But that's old again ! Why choose to manifest now ?


Well, the new change is in fact a few days old : The Kindle France Store is not the only one to no longer display the DRM status of ebooks : The Italian and Spanish stores share that same "particularity".

This proves (to me) that it's in fact a strategic choice to not disclose the presence of DRMs to users, which is against French law, European directives, and the customer's and public's  interest...
As you may know, DRMs are one of my pet pieves. So, in addition to the others predatory moves, has pushed me over the tipping point.

So, from now on, I will stop giving money to Amazon.

Smashwords and Agents

Yesterday evening, I saw the latest Smashwords blog post "Smashwords Launches Ebook Publishing Service for Literary Agents", and had to read it twice, making sure I hadn't missed anything, and well understood what was written. Well, let's say that I'm not really impressed by their latest move. The Passive Guy and Dean Wesley Smith must have transmitted me at least some kind of germs through the web, because I now have some kind of "aggressiveness" towards agents that I didn't have earlier (I barely knew they existed  ...)


So, here is the comment I posted : 


Mark,
as you may know, I'm a fervent Smashwords supporter, and will remain so. Still, this new service seems to me a little bit dodgy.

If I refer to the Publisher and Agent's doc, (http://www.smashwords.com/about/publisherdocs)you give roughly the same role to agents as you do to publishers.
I'm not sure it's in everyone's interest as it is right now.

I follow (along with a great number of self-publishers I think) closely a few blogs, among others that of Dean Wesley Smith, and of "The Passive Guy", and they BOTH concur on one point : if you have an agent, insit on "split" royalties and walk away if they don't allow that.

I think they have enough experience to grant them at least some consideration, and that you should allow that "split royalties" option in case some "agented" author wants to publish through Smashwords, but insists on split royalties.

One way to allow that would be, when a book is attached to both an author's account (no ghost)  and an agent's one, for them to "fix" the "repartition". If both don't coincide, books sells are blocked .
Also, an author should have to approve a book's reassignment by the agent to an other author or ghost account before it takes effect.

Note also that this option could also help publishers by having the "royalties distribution" done at your level directly. If you don't want to allow that, a "lock" keeping an agent from switching to publisher if "split books are attached would also need to be implemented.

Of course, if the author doesn't have a real account, all the money should go to the agent, as is the case now.

Hope you don't mind (again) me giving my 2 cents and "criticizing" Smashwords, but at the moment, I don't think this new service is really on par with what you've accustomed us.

Amazon Kindle France and DRMs : different strategy or Bug ?

After the happy news of Kindle's arrival in France, I feel a little unease for a few days :

While the choice of some Kindle publishers (self and classical alike) is to not have DRMs, it seems the Kindle France Store applies DRMs ebooks  regardless of that choice. This is also true for foreign books. So if some self-publisher, adding the book in the US KDP, decides to have no DRM, it is nonetheless used for the "french" ebook store.

A few self-publishersI know have confirmed having been presented in KDP with the choice of DRM/noDRM, while Bragelonne (one of the major SF/Fantasy classical publisher), opposed to their use told me (Twitter inside) :

"Not us. We provide the files without DRMs. We can't do anything about it, Sorry".

"DRMs at Amazon are not of our initiative, we have no choice with the .azw layer".

"We provide the files without DRMs, after that it's Amazon's cloud that make it encrypted".

From what I've seen, even books published without DRMs through other Kindle platforms (Kindle US for example) are present on the KindleFR store WITH the handcuffs.

What I don't understand is that until now, and on all the national Kindle platforms, Amazon clearly stated regarding its DRM policy, that they don't decide it, but leave it to the publishers to decide. Not only was it clear, but it also WORKED that way. Well, if some publishers want to shoot themselves in the foot, that's their right after all, but here, the DRMs seem to have been applied regardless of the publisher's choice.

Finally, even if Amazon's Help page state that a restriction may be in place, at least some kind of HINT may be better, to show that the books ARE DRM ridden.

It may be possible that the DRM encryption are used systematically, whether the number of devices being limited.

It also may be a simple bug , in which case it may be important to raise it as soon as possible, so that it's corrected and not too many DRMised books are sold.

Lastly, it may be a strategical choice, in which case it's most important to mobilize against Amazon strong-arming DRMs in the French Kindle Store, before perhaps establishing them worldwide.

Boule De Cristal au carré !

Lorsque je veux avoir une idée du futur de l'ebook, je regarde dans ma Boule de Cristal Numérique, c'est une habitude. Mais voila t'y pas que ce que je vois dans ma Boule de Cristal, se met à prédire l'avenir !!
Dans un nouveau blog But Why Would You…. Ever Try To Predict the Future In Publishing?, Dean Wesley Smith (que je vous recommande de suivre si vous lisez l'anglais) fait 6 prédictions pour le marché des ebooks US.

J'en fait une très rapide et superficielle traduction ici. Si vous en souhaitez-plus, allez lire, et s'il y a suffisemment de demande (et si j'en ai le temps) je referais ça pus précisément.

Prédiction 1)(facile !)  La période de Noël va être d'enfer pour les ebooks
Le nombre de livres papiers vendus va diminuer dans le premier semestre de l'année prochaine, ce qui va causer la panique sur le terrain et dans les journaux. (La fin du monde, après tout c'est bien en 2012)

En même temps, les profits de certains editeurs vont augmenter pour certains grâce à l'augmentation des ventes des ebooks (fort marge) et la diminution de vente des livres papiers( moins de coûts de production, distribution etc). Et pour certains, passage à une part importante d'impression à la demande.

Prédiction 2)(facile aussi!) Recommencement à chaque période de Noël de la prédiction N°1, avec des bouleversements et re-consolidation autour d'un modèle orienté vers le POD (impression à la demande) et sans le système des retours.

Prédiction 3) (facile encore) Certaines maisons d'édition vont avoir des problèmes pour diminuer les coûts d liés au papier et seront soit liquidées, soit vendues par le groupe auquel elles appartiennent. Les autres vont s'adapter et survivre, notamment grâce aux plus fortes marges  sur le numérique liées aux contrats avantageux avec les auteurs, et à la re-publication des fonds "backlist" de ceux-ci.

Prédiction 4) (allez, encore assez raisonnablement facile) Les schémas présentés au dessus vont continuer, avec de nombreux nouveaux entrants, distributeurs,éditeurs, librairies (virtuelles ou physiques). La distribution mondiale des livres en langue anglaise va bien augmenter les profits des éditeurs, ce qui va les mener à la demande des droits "internationaux" sur les oeuvres au lieu des marchés nationaux. Mais pas que les gros éditeurs, les auto-publieurs aussi.

Prédiction 5) (déjà en cours) les librairies qui auront été faibles et stupides vont fermer, mais au profit de plus petites et indépendantes. Au bout du compte, elles vont trouver un moyen de compléter les manque à gagner dans l'aide et le conseil à l'achat de livres électroniques, vendues à travers elles.

Prédiction 6) (Allez une vraie prédiction cette fois)  Dans 5 ans,  1 livre vendu sera en papier, pour 3 électroniques. Les formats survivants au passage du POD seront les "Brochés" et "Cartonnés". Les livres de poches auront disparus.

Amazon's Special Offer : the dual-bladed razor

Late, but only by a few weeks, here is one analysis of the new Kindle line-up

The Amazon announcements at the end of last September  came like a bombshell : With the lesser model priced at $79, the Touch at $99 and Kindle Fire going for $199... All in all it was dynamite against the competitors.

I'll leave alone the Kindle Fire for now, for the current post, I'd like ton concentrate on the eInk readers (regardless of 3G) :  Kindle and Kindle Touch.

A few minutes after the announcements, an observation arrived, explaining how Amazon managed to sell its hardware for so low prices : The prices all include by default the "Special Offer" discount.

This "Special Offers" is what I call the "double bladed" razor. Why 2 blades ?

The first blade

What I call the first blade is the announcement and first launch of that "Special offer" a few moths ago.

It was then, actually, a discount on the base price, where the user accepted, in exchange for the reduced price, to receive targeted offers and discounts, displayed on non intruding locations.

Of course, many were disturbed by the offer, but still, it allowed new consumers to enter into the then still exclusive ebook readers club

It also allowed Amazon to keep it's Kindle competitive with regard to the other ereaders, while they were preparing the next generation Kindle line-up.

And now, last moth came ...

The Second Blade
Jeff Bezos managed to make a great new Magician's trick with this one : transform a "discount product" into a prestige but cheap one. If he had tried and sell us directly ,like that, his $79 Kindle, without having prepared the customers with these "Special Offers", everyone would have called him names for "cheating" on this price. He would have been shouted at by angry mobs, almost lynched...

But no, not only are these "Special Offers" not that bad (non invasive), but for some it's almost a feature, due to the discount coupons, which are regularly sent by Amazon (even sometimes on "Wish List" Items, if I get it correctly) ! On some US forums, I see customers having "reimbursed" their Kindle through the Offers, and some regretting not having bought the SO version instead of their standard one.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/special-offers-kindle-could-be-amazons-groupon-competitor/4687

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/amazon-should-special-offer-all-of-its-kindles/4766

And for those who want to get rid of the SO, Amazon just started this new service : Pay to remove the SO:

http://www.myce.com/news/amazon-offers-the-ability-to-pay-to-remove-special-offers-on-kindle-52868/

Well, for customers, that's not that bad, don't you think ? But for competitors, winter will prove a hard season to pass...

From a technical point of view, this new e-ink Kindle line-up doesn't prove really extraordinary, except maybe for the X-Ray, but I'll maybe talk to it later, when we know more about it.  All in all, if you check in detail, and "ignore" the Special Offer prices, except for the Amazon store link, and the proprietary file format, these readers are on par hardware-wise  with what the others do, and outside of the US, I'm not sure how well they'll do. 

Shit, it cuts !
But the "tour de force" is that in the US, Amazon can now use this "Special Offer" as a scalpel to practice a "cachectomy" (chirurgical ablation of the cash) by forcing the other competitors to concede lower pricing if they don't want to loose market shares. And of course, while this sponsors subsidized offer doesn't cost much  to Amazon, it allows it to lower its prices 30 to 40 % under equivalent equivalent reader's prices.

And lastly, 30 to 40%, when near symbolical prices such as the 100$ barrier one, it allows one to go way under it, with the $79 Kindle as proof, and the $99 Kindle Touch just under the $100. If they want to compete, the others will need to empty their cash stashes...

Please note that this trick only works in the US for now, but as you know, on the Gillette razors, there may be way more than 2 blades, and I'm ready to bet that Amazon has already prepared blades #3, 4, and 5, ready to ship when necessary.
Some ideas of what they could be :
- Do the same thing, but international, using the US example as a lead to find "Special Offer" foreign partners.
- Prove the X-Ray feature's interest, and show how it's un-adaptable to epub (through software patents ?), using it's dominant position and proprietary format to still enhance it's market share....

But in the meantime, here, in France, we're welcoming Amazon as the "savior", who may finally come and start the ebook market, blocked as it is by the French Publishers.

What's an ebook's thickness ? A call to every publisher/retailer.

When I bought paper books, I used to have certain buying habits : Cjhecking out the author, the cover and blurb, the book's "format" and its prioce.

I transposed most of these habits to ebooks, but it leaves me deprived of one of those criterias : format.

When choosing a book, I check out it's physical dimensions (width,  height, thickness) and its content : number of pages, fontface size and spacing.This allows me to estimate it's "length" and the time I'll take to read it. I also know from experience that I usually prefer longer works, hence my biasing towards them, but depending on the genre and mood, I can choose some outside of my "security zone".

I know I'm far from beeing alone, even if some readers consider on the contrary that a book's length shouldn't be taken into account when choosing a book. For them, it's the intrinsic quality of a work that matters, with proof "The Old man and the Sea", a masterpiece closer to the novella rather than a novel.

Anyways, for a reader, this criteria is difficult to evaluate for electronic books : usual clues (number of pages, format) loose their meaning.
The file size, too dependent to included graphical/multimedia files, is really tricky and allows unscrupulous writers to "cheat".
The number of physical pages can also be "manipulated" by choosing distinct margins, typesets sizes, and line spacing.
A "locations number" (a la Amazon) is also completely proprietary and artificial.

The most "probant" indicator is for me the words number. Easy to compute and check, for "pure" text, it completely conveys a book's length. On the other side, for readers, used to count in "pages", it has no direct "meaning".

To fulfill this need to assess a book'e length, I suggest to ALL our ebooks providers to converge to a common "ebook standard page" definition, of for example 250 words. I know that 250 words is completely arbitrary, but its rounded, easy to convert to/from, and quite close to what's usually seen on paper.
So please everyone providing/distributing ebooks (publishers, self-publishers, retailers) please add to the description (meta-)data this number of "equivalent pages" (epages ?). This would be a great plus to customers.

Last note : and don't forget, when you compute this number of epages, to NOT COUNT anything not directly related to the book : TOC, author's biography/bibliography, bonuses, other books excerpts etc.)

Editeur VS Editor. Fight !

Dans toutes les discussion actuelles que j'ai en français sur l'auto-édition/publication, revient un problème de vocabulaire : le mot "éditeur" et sa "traduction" directe "editor" sont loin d'être équivalentes. Bien que pas complètement "faux amis", on est très loin d'une adéquation totale.

Le terme le plus correct pour traduire "Éditeur" serait "Publisher" (qui pourrait être en retour traduit par "Publieur" mais ne l'est qu'en référence au terme anglais.). Je vous renvoie à l'article Wikipedia pour plus de détails (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Édition_littéraire)

Cet article Wikipedia présente la chaine du livre en 5 étapes :

• La création,
• De l'auteur à l'éditeur,
• De l'éditeur à l'imprimeur,
• L'impression
• La commercialisation.

Sur ces 5 points, seuls les second et troisième points sont directement couverts par l'"editor" anglais.

Une définition de ce terme (restreinte au domaine des livres) pourrait être "personne qui corrige, révise ou adapte un texte". 

Un découpage plus fin peut encore être effectué :

L'acquisition editor, est un "employé" du publisher, dont le rôle est après un premier filtrage, de choisir parmi les manuscrits reçus un certains nombre de candidats "sérieux" à publication. Intégré à l'équipe éditoriale, il poussera ses "poulains" pour qu'ils soient publiés.

2 liens :

Acquisitions Editor (http://www.right-writing.com/acquisitions.html)

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/09/acquisitions-editor.html

Puis, on peut distinguer différents niveaux de finesse au niveau de l'édition :

Cohérence globale, Style général etc... sont plutôt gérés par un "Copy editor".
Son rôle est de rendre un livre homogène et cohérent. Par exemple il cherchera les "trous" ou les incohérences dans la trame, les mauvaises habitudes stylistiques de l'auteurs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_edit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editing

Le "Line Editor" est plus concerné par la cohérence grammaticale, syntaxique, ponctuation etc, au niveau des phrases ou des lignes de textes.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-line-editor.htm

Enfin, le "Proofreader" (Relecteur en frannçais ?) s'assure de l'absence de coquilles après formatage du livre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proofreading

Bien sur, un editor peut exceller et exercer dans ces trois "niveaux", mais pour autant, à force de relecture d'un même texte peut perdre sa "sagacité".

Dans les faits, un "éditeur" à la française prend à sa charge les taches liées à l'"editor", ce qui lui permet de publier un texte sans fautes majeures, tel qu'attendu par les lecteurs. 

De ce fait, il semble évident qu'un auto-publieur sous sa casquette de Publieur, doit assurer (personnellement ou en faisant appel à des "editors" externes) ces tâches d'édition.

[MAJ] Obtenu par l'intermédiaire de l'HADOPI quelques équivalences "françaises" aux termes anglais :

le proofreader est le "relecteur des épreuves"

le copy editor serait le "relecteur du texte", celui qui fait des suggestions de réécriture

le line editor serait celui qui vérifie la typographie et la place des virgules et des points

(pas de certitudes sur les deux derniers)

Merci à eux :-)

[MAJ2] Voici un article très clair concernant les relectures ! Ça me manquait !
http://lafeuille.blog.lemonde.fr/2011/09/26/bookcamp4-leconomie-de-la-correction/
et puis
http://www.liberation.fr/culture/0101612104-correcteurs-a-rude-epreuve

(Auteurs auto-publiés) Comment trouver le succès

Il ne suffit pas d'avoir une Boule de Cristal Numérique, il faut aussi savoir la lire. 
Une boule de cristal, ça présente des courants, des flux... Moi j'aime bien lire (entre autres) le flux porté par J.A. Konrath. J'ai déjà traduit un de ses textes ici, "L'imprimé est éternel". En voici donc un autre ... "How to Succeed"


Je suis innondé de courrier électronique, souvent de personnes me remerciant ou me demandant des choses.
Voici une courte récapitulation des questions que je recois, et des réponses que je donnerais si j'avais le temps :

Q: Quel est le secret pour vendre beaucoup de livres ?
Joe: Il n'y a pas de secret. Il faut écrire de bons livre, avec une bonne description, un bon formatage, une belle couverture, le vendre pas cher, et persister jusqu'à avoir un coup de bol.

Q: J'ai un livre, mais il ne se vend pas. Comment dois-je le mettre sur le marché ?
Joe: Ecrivez un autre livre, et encore un, et persistez jusqu'à avoir un coup de bol.

Q:  J'ai changé ma couverture 56 fois, mais mes ventes ne décollent pas.
Joe: Il faut continuer à écrire jusqi'à avoir un coup de bol.

Q: Joe, j'ai suivi ton blog, et tu es la raison pour laquelle je m'auto-publie. Comment as-tu fait pour vendre autant ?
Joe: J'ai persisté jusqu'à avoir un coup de bol.

Q: Joe, tu es un pionnier, un héros, un Gourou. Tu mérites tout ton succès. A quoi l'attribues tu ?
Joe: J'ai juste eu un coup de bol.

Q: Tu parles beaucoup de chance, comment puis-je augmenter mes chances d'avoir du bol ?
Joe: Continue d'écrire des bon livres avec une bonne description, un bon formattage, une belle couverture, et de les vendre pas cher.

Q: Le talent et le travail ne sont-ils pas plus important que la chance ?
Joe: Ils peuvent augmenter tes chances d'avoir un coup de bol.

Q: J'ai fait tout ce que tu dis, mais je ne vends toujours pas. Quel est le problème ?
Joe: Tu n'as pas encore eu de coup de bol.

Q: Mais la route de l'auto-publication n'est elle pas pavée d'or ?
Joe: Personne ne mérite de gagner de l'argent en écrivant. Le monde ne te doit pas de te donner de quoi vivre, et tu ne peux pas considérer que de nombreuses ventes te soient dues. Il faut simplement que tu y travailles, jusqu'à avoir un coup de bol.

Q: Combien de temps ca prends, d'avoir un coup de bol ?
Joe: Ca m'a pris vingt ans et deux millions de mots écrits.

Q: Mais si je n'ai jamais de bol ?
Joe: C'est que tu n'as pas essayé assez fort, ou assez longtemps. Ou tout simplement tu n'écris pas assez bien.

Tout le monde n'est pas un joueur de foot de première division. Ca nécessite un ensemble de qualités, dont la chance. Mais tout le monde semble penser qu'il peut être un écrivain, simplement car il peut assembler quelques mots. Certains livres numériques mal écrits peuvent se vendre correctement, tout comme certains livres papier mal écrits se sont bien vendus. Mais si tu écrits de la merde, tu diminue tes chances d'avoir un coup de bol.

Je crois que la crème remonte et que la merde coule. Les livres numériques sont l'opportunité parfaite pour tester cette théorie, parce qu'il n'y a plus de barrière à l'entrée. Avant les ebooks, les garde-barrières historiques décidaient de qui était publié, et déjà alors de nombreux livres échouaient à trouver leur public car ils n'avaient jamais vraiment leur chance pour le faire.

Les livres numériques ont une durée de vie sur étagère infinie. Et les librairies numériques ont un espace d'étagère infini.  Si ton livre est bon, il a un temps infini poour être découvert. L'infini, c'est un long moment pour trouver un public.

Q: Est-ce que ca peut vraiment me prendre "pour toujour" pour atteindre le succès ?
Joe : J'ai écrit ORIGIN en 1999. C'est le livre par lequel j'ai obtenu un agent. Elle a essayé dur de le vendre à trois reprises, en 1999, 2005 et 2008, recevant plus de 50 lettres de refus par chaque société majeure de New York.

Maintenant, ORIGIN est classé 274ème dans la boutique Kindle, et a obtenu plus de 100 notes 5 étoiles. J'ai vendu des dizaines de milliers d'exemplaires.

Ca a pris 10 ans à ORIGIN pour trouver son public. Je recois tellement de lettres de fans à propos de ce livre que je vais écrire une suite. Tu peux t'arrêter si tu veux. Ou tu peux t'y accrocher jusqu'à avoir un coup de bol. Il n'y a pas de réponse facile. Pas de rustine rapide. Pas de raccourci vers le succès.

Personne ne te force à faire ça. Il faut que tu aimes le faire, et que tu croies en toi.
Même quand tu échoues.
Surtout quand tu échoues.

Si tu n'échoues pas, c'est que tu n'essaie pas assez fort.

Et si tu n'essaie pas fort, il va te falloir bien plus de temps pour avoir un coup de bol.

(Mise à jour le 22/05/2012 pour améliorer la fluidité. Toujours pas parfait, mais ça fera l'affaire)

La Boule de Cristal Numérique...

En France, le livre numérique est en retard de quelques années sur les Etats-Unis. C'est assez triste par certains côtés, mais pour d'autre c'est très chouette : A part si un acteur majeur s'amusait en France à faire différemment des USA,  on n'a pas besoin de boule de cristal pour prédire le Futur !
Mais non, les gros éditeurs de là bas sont les même que ceux d'ici, alors ils déclinent leurs recettes à l'international. On peut donc sans trop de crainte projeter ce qui se passe là bas à ici dans un ou deux ans, une fois qu'Amazon et consorts se seront jetés sur le marché Français.

Alors regardons ensemble dans le futur, au travers de ma boule de cristal.
Je vois ...
- Une création bouillonnante, avec de nombreux écrivains, publiés ou non, s'auto-publiant.
- Un changement de la perception de l'auto-publication, avec des maisons d'édition proposant des contrats aux auteurs "coupables".
- Un rapport "rééquilibré" en faveur des auteurs.
- Une remise en cause du statut des "agents".
- Une descente des prix de livre aux alentours de 5$, certains à 1$ ou même étant mis à disposition gratuitement.
- Une réapparition de genres perdus.
- Un accroissement de la lecture, et un rebond du marché du livre grâce à l'ebook.

Allez, ça sera 100€ pour la consultation, et rendez-vous dans deux ans pour voir où on en est ...

Et selon vous, y a t'il des raisons pour lesquelles ce ne serait pas comme ça en France ?