Sowing a new route to publication

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In decidedly atypical fashion, author Kemble Scott’s new book, The Sower, hit the print market this week. Of course, eSavvy people might know that The Sower was the book first offered for sale as a Scribd.com, and it’s been available for purchase there at a bargain price of $2.00 per digital copy.

Scott, a graduate of Long Island’s own Adelphi University, eschewed the traditional publishing channels and built on the outside the box marketing tools he used with his first novel, SoMa. For SoMa, Scott created black and white videos that showcased locations touched upon in his book. He is believed to be the first author to post a book video on YouTube.

His second book, The Sower, is an edgy, satirical thriller in which a gay man is infected with a virus that cures all other viruses. The only way he can share the cure is through sex, a concept that raises all sorts of interesting moral dilemmas in an alternative version of the present day.

Scott was approached by Scribd. They were looking for a book they could use to open their on-line store and The Sower fit the bill. In May 2009, The Sower was made available for purchase at Scribd.
One of the things that drew Scott to Scribd was the immediacy of the process. He was able to adjust his book right up to the minute he posted it to Scribd, allowing the book to be timely, with references to Swine Flu and Susan Boyle.

Scott’s eBook pricing decision was a bold one, a statement to the book publishers that quality books can be brought to the eMarket at a low price that allows authors and digital publishers to make money. Unlike the paper and ink book blueprint, which typically gives the author a royalty of 7.5%, Scribd offers an 80-20% split directly between writer and Scribd.

SoMa was published by Kensington Press and sold as a trade paperback for $15.00 per copy. His royalties amounted to $1.13 per book. By taking the Scribd route, Scott was able to name the price that would allow a potential reader to download a copy of The Sower. By fixing the price tag at $2.00, Scott garnered a royalty of $1.60 per book – a substantial jump from the $1.13 royalty of SoMa. Even better, the book was easily accessible to the public.

Scott found an unexpected benefit – with traditional publishing, royalty statements arrive once a year, always with money withheld for potential returns. Not so with Scribd. Scott gets a quarterly statement and a quarterly check for his share, all while retaining 100% of the rights to his work.

Now, less than four months after The Sower hit Scribd, a hardcover version has been released by Numina Press, a small independent press out of California. Thanks to the publicity and buzz generated by Scott’s unorthodox methods, he was able to obtain a significantly better royalty rate (20-28% instead of 7.5%). And Scott likes the fact that the book is being produced as a Print on Demand book – books are printed as they are ordered, thereby avoiding substantial waste and returns. As an added bonus, instead of the usual eighteen month turnaround between finished manuscript and published volume, The Sower is available a mere 29 days after the contract was inked.

Embracing new technologies that help bring books to readers has made a huge difference in Scott’s writing career. Scott’s willingness to make readers who use computers, eReaders and iPhones and present them with an affordable read challenges the standard modes of book marketing. It also gave Scott a young, tech-savvy audience (he currently has more than 13,000 followers on Scribd) for future works.

If you are in the Bay Area, you’ll be able to obtain a limited edition at one of the fabulous indie book stores in San Francisco for $23.95. If you are busy studying at Adelphi or elsewhere on Long Island, you can order a hard cover copy from Barnes & Noble or Amazon. The Sower has just gone into Ingram’s catalog, which means hard back copies may show in a bookstore near you.
 

Of course, you can still pick up a copy at Scribd for only $2.00.

For more on Scribd, click here

For more on eBook pricing, click here