Zero-Sum Writing

Zero-sum game theory tells us that one person's gains exactly equal the net losses of the opponent.  In writing for hire, the author plays a game in which the opponent equals the publisher. 

For example, in traditional publishing I write an excellent, exciting, highly original,  cozy suspense novel and am paid for it in the expectation that the publisher will pay all the bills that go with producing and marketing a physical book.  That's a zero - sum game, unless the publisher accidentally makes money too; then it's not a game, it's a business.

My novels are sold exclusively as e-books through Amazon.  That is because (A) it doesn't cost me anything in money or hassle and (B) they might make me some money.  Amazon takes a percent of the cut to pay for their automated marketing, so I guess it's a business. 

I recently received an e-mail that vindicates my decision.  It also makes me think about the future of the book, just like everybody else.

I'm certain the physical book will not disappear just because technology makes it possible to read without having one.  The book feels nice in the hand.  A paperbound book is flexible, which is useful when lying on your side to read.  A hardback book can be beautiful, and a jacket cover, if it's old enough and still in one piece, can command a hefty price from a collector.  But some of the numbers in that e-mail just blow me away.  The numbers come from a survey conducted by the redoubtable Publishers Weekly:
Most publishers produce over 50% of their titles as e-books
80% of publishers produce e-books
68% of them use Amazon .Com
58% of them use Apple's iBookstore
94% of publishers plan to produce e-books

Holy cow.

Now, here's where zero-sum enters the picture.  When I wrote My More Than Sister, I fiddled with the idea for three or four months, wrote the first draft in white heat during  NaNoWriMo November 2010, rewrote it for a year, rewrote the whole thing during NaNoWriMo November 2011, and polished and repolished it for the first six months of 2012.  I designed the cover myself, making use of my art school education, so the whole thing cost me no money.  Now it's ready for Amazon.  Like every other novelist, the characters in this book have dominated a great deal of that two years' gestation.  You know where I'm going with this: my financial profit, considering all the time involved in writing it, is almost zero no matter how many e-copies are sold.  But  then, so is Amazon's.

I mean to say this: most novelists, like most painters, actors, poets, and thinkers, do it for love, not money.  A very tiny percent make a living of their craft. 

It's my personal opinion that the publishers of e-books, like the authors they so nobly serve, are participating with us in a zero-sum game where each can profit for very little expense.  Long may they prosper.