E-publishing: Curious About Behind-the-Scenes
I hope I put this in the right place. You'll probably see many of my posts prefaced with this statement because I've gotten reprimands on other boards for improper topic placement. I said in the intro forum that I would ask some odd questions. I would like to live up to my reputation LOL! I am curious about the "behind-the-scenes" of E-publishing. I see the websites everywhere with their books and submission guidelines, but I would like an insiders view :) Is E-p done out of people's homes, or is it done at a specific place of business? How does one get a job for an E-p company? Do editors and cover designers get paid, or is it a labor of love? (I know I left out some people - editor and cover designer was all I could think of) How many people does an e-book go through from arrival at the publisher, to actually being published? (if it is chosen to be published) If I asked anything out of line, please accept my apology. ~Cadence~

I think it varies an awful lot. I am quite sure that Ellora's Cave has an office, full time staff and pays everyone for everything at a professional level. Other places are one person after work, maybe a friend doing the covers or the author doing their own. There are all sorts of inbetween states where some people are paid, others are not, or only paid in free books or royalties. I would tend to think the publishers should pay anyone who provides services and pay them up front with money, with only the author being paid by royalties. But that may just be me.

You are complete and totally out of line. I expect to see you bent over and ready for your spanking in 15 min. :P Although Kat is on the board I'll hazard the answer for Phaze. The parent company, Mundania, has a physical location. The editors, proofreaders, promotional people are, however, spread across the globe and work mostly from home. She can slap me silly if I'm wrong. Editors often (and different pubs do it differently) get a small percentage off the books they edit. Proofreaders can be paid by the job or by a percentage based on the press. One of my beta readers is a proofer for a few e-pubs and an editor for one. She basically kept her ear to the various publisher lists and checked sites and forums. She also let those of us she beta'd for know she was interested and when things came up, we told her about them. Like landing many jobs its a little about networking. Most cover artists get paid *something*. How much? Don't really know. I do know PL Nunn does many Yaoi covers. If you go out and comission a piece from her it costs about $40.00. I would speculate that she gets something reasonably commesurate to that for the covers she does... but she's also a fairly well known artist in the Yaoi communities. With the publishers I work for I have an editor who decides if they want the piece (and it may be a panel of aquisition editors the first time). That editor also actually edits my work. Then there is a proofreader. Thats my 2c.

It would be nice if every e-pub had funds before it established on teh web, but low overhead is one reason why e-pubs can establish at all, and I'm all for that. There's nothing worse than paying out tons of money on a venture that has slow growth, and e-pubs do have slow growth. There's no getting around it. Perhaps Ellora's Cave was a lucky outfit that started with lots of money to pay editors and proofreaders up front, but somehow, I doubt it. I think they managed to have good erotica to read and persisted until they had a good market to sell to. The key to a successful epubbing company is honest dealings, quality control and persistence, imo. After that, it's finding people who believe in the e-pub and want to see it flourish despite initial low pay. Sometimes the goal isn't immediate good pay, but a future that will have good pay and more.

I do keep an eye out for epubs that start out with capital, EC, Samhain, Loose Id and on the smaller side, Mojocastle would be examples. My thought on royalties is that the author deserves to be paid in proportion to sales--but the cover artist and editor less so. They may so excellent work on what happens to be a less popular genre--not their choice. That said some good presses seems to get some good staff paying that way so, shrug. What little I know is about writing not publishing. You wouldn't catch me trying anything like starting an epub. If I ever say otherwise please shoot me. There are a million easier ways to make money and far more fun ways to go crazy.

Well, I'm not going to dis e-pubs that start low on capital. So long as they pay author royalties on time and stick to a high standard, I'm fine with them. If they keep their overhead low, the customer base will rise because of quality and eventually editors will see a higher profit from book sales and cover artists and proofreaders can get more pay for services. And of course, authors will profit more too. :-)

I wonder how much capital they had to start and how much they had to spend before they saw profits?

Well, they had books racked up and ready to go before opening their websites. So that is some serious investment before any income could come in. But now Samhain is in the top 5 and others that started at the same time... not so much. I have nothing against shoe-string operations but as a writer I know companies with capital are likely to grab more market share and earn more money. It's horses for courses, I guess. I publish with different types of publishers for different reasons.

James Buchanan, I am bent over and ready for my spanking :P Wow! I think I read this thread and never blinked once, I was so fascinated. I would have no desire to begin my own E-pub either. I was merely curious how it worked. The idea of working for one though, appeals because of what you guys said about "working from home." I don't drive a car due to a visual disability, and the idea of working from home is really awesome :) But, that will be something for me to pursue once I learn my way around here better. I love making covers. My only experience with it was in the fan fiction community, but I really loved it. Is there any place in this forum where I could show you peeps some of my work? I have a photobucket acct and can link from there. Or, I can link to a webpage or online photo album. By the way, I have a myspace page. It's just an 'about me' page, and not showcasing anything I've written. But, if anyone cares to stop by, it's here: myspace.com/cadenceblue ~C~

So, I guess I didn't need to give you that lecture in the other thread on accessible e-book formats? :) ERWF has a MySpace page. You can join it if you like.

It seems as if your questions have been answered and I'm tardy. >.< That's ok, I can't really add much as I've only worked on the author side of things. However, I'm sending you a myspace friend's request.

Whoa...I'm not sure if we should be friends. You're too pretty and you'll give me a complex. *hangs head* I sent the friend's request anyways. My poor, poor self-esteem.

Fortunately, I have no worries about your looks giving me a complex. It's not the f/m thing so much as I'm too dumb to manage anything more than a simplex. By the way, I'm also very hard-of-seeing. Lost an eye in Vietnam, the other one's pretty beat up (five corneal transplants) and very light sensitive. Like you, I loath pdf since the white background is, for me, almost painful and makes reading it on-screen very difficult. Bayou Bill 8)