Last week we were chatting on a thread about the future of publishing. I posited that a move toward digital publishing could benefit authors financially because:
a: Publishers would be shorn of printing and distribution costs and would have less of an argument for giving the traditional royalty
and
b. Publishers would suddenly be in direct competition with scores of entrepreneurial epublishers, and would have to pony up more to get and keep good authors.
Today I saw this:
http://www.bookbrunch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=977&Itemid=97HarperCollins UK's Friday Project division is now offering "profit share" contracts in which profits from each book are
split equally between publisher and author. We should all keep a close eye on this. If it works, it could be a harbinger of things to come down the road, when ebook technology is created that can successfully capture children's books (it's not there yet -- not even close. But 5 or 10 years from now, who's to say that picture book e-readers won't be all the rage?).
Whether or not epublishing is something you want to see come to children's books (and we chewed that over iin the previous thread, too), at least there's reason to be hopeful about the earning potential for authors in that new medium.
By the way, here's an interesting LA times piece on the potential for digital children’s books:
Ebooks Catching on with Children -
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/25/business/fi-kidsbooks25 Jon
http://cbiclubhouse.com, Home of the Fightin' Bookworms
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