BUG JACK BARRON & THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE

BUG JACK BARRON & THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE
                              a comparative ebook experiment
                           
For some time now, I’ve been exploring and experimenting with the exfoliating frontiers of ebook publishing--the business end, the hardware end, the software end. You can read all about it on NORMAN SPINRAD AT LARGE--the complete THE PUBLISHING DEATH SPIRAL and THE FUTURE OF EBOOKS IS NOW.  (http://normanspinradatlarge.blogspot.com/)

But on the experimental side of the business end, I’ve been experimenting only with do-it--yourself, and confining myself to titles with computer files I could lay my hands on by hook or from crooks.  Meaning whatever I didn’t write on a computer or couldn’t find a scanned pirated version of could not be made available.

But that meant that BUG JACK BARRON--denounced on the floor of the British Parliament, the basis of a famous unmade movie in Hollywood held captive by Universal, more or less in continuous print for four decades in France, nominated for various awards, published in more languages than I can remember, reprinted in more editions in the US than I can remember, generally considered one of my magnum opuses and certainly the most famous--could not have an ebook edition because it was written on a typewriter.

Until now.  

(more on BUG JACK BARRON, the Bug Jack Barron show, the non-movie

The Bug Jack Barron Show

Bug Jack Barron the non-movie


But now I am experimenting with ebook publication through an independent ebook publisher.  Reanimus.com is a start-up company whose service to the writer is to scan backlist novels when necessary, create ebook versions in the various significant formats, place them on its own online bookstore site and on the major sale sites like Amazon directly or through aggregators like Smashwords, and hopefully help to promote the product.  This relieves the author of various tedious and perhaps only marginally doable tasks that he just might perform himself, as I have with the exception of the scanning process, but would rather not.

In exchange for which, the ebook publisher takes a percentage of the gross, or rather at least in large part, the net after the major retailer and maybe the aggregator have taken their percentages of the gross, leaving the author with something a good deal less than the 70% you can get when you do it all yourself, hopefully making it up in the volume, said hope hopefully not the punchline of a very old joke.

Reanimus pays no advances, but otherwise this is much like being a traditional paper book publisher and part of a potential business model for the future of epublishing not unlike the old publishing model for paper books, except that the royalty rates are much better.

So the question is, do I come out ahead by self-publishing or by doing it through an ebook publisher?  I’ve put together and self published an original ebook short story collection called NEW WORLDS COMING consisting of later uncollected stories and Reanimus is publishing THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE, my first collection, considered something of a classic and once a book club choice, but still two short story collections, so a pretty good experiment designed to answer that question.

 THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE ON AMAZON
 http://www.amazon.com/Last-Hurrah-Golden-Horde-ebook/dp/B0050SS66M/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1305513178&sr=1-21

THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE ON REANIMUS.COM
http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1001

Reanimus is also publishing the first ebook edition of BUG JACK BARRON and that is something else again.  A novel of a certain historical literary significance, and forty years after its first publication perhaps of more realtime political significance than ever.  Published in most of the world’s major languages, still in print in several of them, including English, currently in an Overlook small press edition after a long strange trip through many other editions down through the years.

But the Reanimus edition is a first ebook edition actually published by an ebook publisher, making BUG JACK BARRON far more widely available than Overlook could with a trade paperback, and at a cheaper price too.  What will happen?  Quien sabe?  That’s why it’s an experiment.  And one the results of which should tell us something about the possible future of ebook publishing and/or ebook self publishing.

BUG JACK BARRON ON AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/Bug-Jack-Barron-ebook/dp/B0050SS00E/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1305513942&sr=1-20

BUG JACK BARRON ON REANIMUS.COM
http://reanimus.com/store/?item=1002

And whether I just might take the ultimate experimental step and one way or the other publish a novel never before published in English in an ebook first edition.  Way out there, and scary, but I’m thinking about it.  And so is my publisher.  And what happens with BUG JACK BARRON just might help us decide.

That novel is the notorious OSAMA THE GUN and why it is notorious and presently unpublished in English you can see and hear on my YouTube video series of the same name.



OSAMA 1
http://www.youtube.com/user/normanspinrad?feature=mhsn#p/u/21/nkVgVlz0TuY
OSAMA 2
http://www.youtube.com/user/normanspinrad?feature=mhsn#p/u/19/JnbxxBgo0eY
OSAMA 3
http://www.youtube.com/user/normanspinrad?feature=mhsn#p/u/16/1nT15yiY_PE
OSAMA 4
http://www.youtube.com/user/normanspinrad?feature=mhsn#p/u/15/6SaVnlJNQdc
OSAMA 5
http://www.youtube.com/user/normanspinrad?feature=mhsn#p/u/11/1CVL6Qtvdb0

Comments

  1. Anthony N. EmmelMay 18, 2011 at 6:19 PM

    I so want Osama the Gun! I read straight through the part that you posted online a few months back.

    As a distributist, I say go self-publishing! But, then I'm for people making the most profit out of their personal endeavors. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted EvansDecember 28, 2023 at 6:25 PM

    Nice sshare

    ReplyDelete

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