Indie Aisle Blog

Comicons are taking over!

May 31st, 2010 | By Ovi Demetrian Jr | Posted in PromotionSales


Photo by JohnKit on Flickr

I went to this year’s Phoenix Comicon which was much bigger compared to last year’s and better organized. Besides having a great time talking about comics and stories, I noticed that for indie comic creators and book authors being part of the Con was a great way to promote themselves.

Even from all the panels I went to, the common advice successful comic creators and authors had for promotion was to go to various conventions and talk to people in person. From getting a booth to participating in panels, being active at various events is one of the best ways to interact with fans.

It’s all part of the community-building process. It’s the same reason using various tools like Blogs, Twitter and Facebook, works well. Simply put, to let people know about what you do, interact with them.

Here some other tips I kept hearing discussed during panels:

  • To get your work talked about, put effort into getting reviews, even if it means tracking down bloggers who might be interested in your work and sending them review copies
  • Making your work a series released on a shorter-term basis could be an easier investment with some quicker results versus spending years on the perfect novel
  • Think of ways to create merchandise around your work since that’s what can sometimes make you more money than the story itself

Comicons and other conventions revolving around stories and the worlds they create are everywhere now and there’s more of them starting up than ever before. If you haven’t been to one, you’re missing out on some great fun!

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Retail vs digital books cost comparison

March 5th, 2010 | By Ovi Demetrian Jr | Posted in DistributionPublishingSales

In a recent New York Times article, the author tries to make sense of the math for the cost of a traditional book versus an ebook after the recent $13-15 price tag set for ebooks. Based on their numbers, I’ve attempted to compare how the old retail model compares to the new ebook model in a couple of simplified graphs:

Retail Bookseller

Average cost: $26 (Hardcover)

Digital Bookseller

Average cost: $13

Author
Publisher
Bookseller
Printer


In the Retail model, on a $26 hardcover book an author would get $3.90 (15%), the publisher would get $6.80 (30%), the bookseller would get $13 (50%) and the printing and shipping would cost around $1.30 (5%). In the Digital model, the retail bookstore is essentially eleminated along with the printing and physical shipping costs and in their place are online shops like Amazon.com. In this model, the author gets $3.25 (25%), their publisher $5.85 (50%) and the online shops $3.90 (30%). These are rough numbers, but they give us a good idea of how costs breakdown.

Ultimately, the biggest difference in cost is for the customer which will greatly incentivise digital sales in the years to come as the technology for reading ebooks becomes more accessible. And while the amount made by authors appears to be about the same, a lower cost to the customer means more sales longterm and more going to the author. The biggest thing to take out of this is that the author’s piece of the pie has increased and as the market continues to evolve there’s opportunity for it to increase even more!

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