I’m also interested in Des’ experience. Your numbers are impressive! What’s your book called? Is it priced at the usual e-book price point? Sounds like you know a thing or two about spreading the word–again, how do you feel readers learned about the book, amid all the competition out there? You’re clearly doing something right!

I know some writers who have started permitting their work to be downloaded for free, and that can certainly bring in a lot of readers . . . and I’m not against that, in the model that finding and connecting with readers is a very core objective . . . but of course that’s a great model for a self-published writer, not for a book press that does need to stay financially afloat. I know people experimenting with that model now, though it’s not something I included in this survey, but it is an intriguing direction for writers in the future, no question.

Joe, I’d pay money to attend a book tour event where you insult people, ha! I’m surprised some marketing department hasn’t appropriated that concept and made it the gimmick of your tour!

Lance, I don’t know if you know Richard Nash, but you seem to have quite a beef with him . . . “ministry” and “do right by your children”–hmm, my goodness. Loving this charged rhetoric on my comments board–I feel like Fox News!

But you know, while it’s clear that we have immense personal differences in terms of where we assign “value,” your point that something clearly needs to change/give is well taken if we do ever want a more financially viable community among the indie/literary publishers. I would not want to see this “change” mean that lit/story/poetry writers all ultimately jump ship to crafting more commercial work (and I don’t believe that would ever happen; it’s just contrary to the inherent variance among people and why they create art), so the change would ideally emerge in the business model itself–distribution, marketing, etc.–we’re in an exciting time in this transition, and no doubt in 2 or 5 or 10 years, things will look quite different than they do today, for better or worse.

Back in the good old days, publishers did indeed put out some books they knew would be commercial failures. Those books might win Pulitzers or Nobels, be the toast of the critical establishment and add some luster to the imprint, but wouldn’t make money. What you forget to mention is those same publishers would produce dozens or hundreds of books that *would* make money, to subsidize the prestige products. While you’ve embraced the first part of this concept, you’ve neglected the second.

What you’re doing now simply isn’t working, by your own admission. Your products almost invariably fail to pay for themselves. Your companies exist on handouts and the willingness of your workers (the writers) to subsidize their own marketing. You rely almost exclusively on a sales channel (indie bookstores) that shrinks every month.

Yet you also have an asset — a small group of customers who care very deeply about your product. With all the relationship-building and couch-sleeping you talk about, I suspect you know who and where these people are. This suggests a niche audience tailor-made for direct on-line marketing and sales. You’re already in essence hand-selling to these people. Why not do it using tools that make economic sense in your situation, so you can pay your authors or buy a new sofa?

Deb Smith’s comments show that an indie publisher can do well by embracing new methods for connecting with its audience — and by dumping the methods that don’t work anymore.

If, however, you really enjoy flopping on the couches of strangers, paying for your own publishing work — it seems the only real difference between (to use Deb’s phrase) “lit-fic and niche book indies” and subsidy publishers is that the latter make a profit — and encountering your audience one-on-one, then no adjustment is necessary. You’ve made your choice.

If the notion that you should be recompensed for your labor is at all attractive to you, you may want to stop listening to Richard Nash. He’s running a ministry, not a business. It may be admirable, but if you want to do right by your children, it’s not a viable path. Your publishing house can’t do your authors or readers any good if it’s bankrupt.

For those of us who do it, what on earth could possibly replace it?

Art