Anthony, E-Reads' Technical Director, conducted the greatest migration since the Ice Age

My phone console has a number of speed-dial buttons. There is RC Phone Home, of course. There’s one for our foreign sub-agent with whom I talk daily, and there are those for frequently called clients. There are intercom buttons for buzzing staff. And then there’s the Anthony Button. Anthony is E-Reads’ technical director. The button for his station is bright red. On a Friday morning in December I hit the Anthony Button. Hard.

As that day dawned I noticed that I had not received emails for eight hours. Refreshing and other tried-and-true techniques for goosing the get-mail function availed nothing. Then I clicked on the E-Reads home page. Some of it came in, but where the banner should have been was an error message.

I leaned all my weight on the hot button: ANTHONY! PICK UP!

Anthony had already seen the outage and analyzed it.  “Our cloud server is running on fumes.  We’ve loaded so many files recently that it’s maxed out.  We have to migrate our files to a larger server.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this was happening?” I asked, logically.

“I did,” he reminded me.

And he had.  But a move from the 60 gigabyte capacity of our current server to the 300 gig one we needed was a jump of four or five times the cost and I had dragged my heels.  To make room for more uploads Anthony had trimmed a bunch of junk files but it was hard to tell exactly how close the meter was hovering over Empty.

Once the system went down he didn’t wait around to determine if I was being penny wise and pound foolish (that was now a given). He immediately committed us to the larger server. But the changeover is not implemented with the snap of one’s fingers. Hundreds of thousands of files great and small, text files and jpegs, excel spreadsheets and metadata folders plus backups had to be migrated from computer A to computer B. But even with supercomputers running at peak speed, the transfer would take a minimum of 72 hours. In fact it took 96. Down so long it looked like up to me.

Meanwhile, though our resourceful technical director managed to rescue enough gigabytes to enable us to use our email, our website had to be taken offline.

If you’re looking for a definition of helplessness, try gazing at a “Sorry” message on one’s own website for 24, 48, 72, 96 hours. Though I was assured we had triple backup redundancy, excluding the portable hard drives I ferry once a week between home and office, the paranoid terror of a permanent failure haunted my dreams for four consecutive nights.

On the fifth day it came back, and it was good. Thank you, Anthony.

Wretched though this incident was, the bright side is that it was the result of a company that is growing – growing at a rate of of about 40 gigabytes a year.

Watch this space for the announcement that we’ve topped one terabyte.

Richard Curtis

Is the pen mightier than Perseus's sword?

Perseus Book Group, a leading publisher and distributor for small presses, has announced a service to distribute and market self-published books, particularly out of print titles whose rights have been reverted to authors.  It will pay a 70% share of net revenues to content providers, as opposed to the 25% share paid by major publishers and 50% by some independent e-book publishers including E-Reads.

“The service,” writes the New York Times‘ Julie Bosman, “arrives as authors are increasingly looking for ways to circumvent the traditional publishing model, take advantage of the infinite shelf space of the e-book world and release their own work. That’s especially the case for reviving out-of-print books whose rights have reverted back to the author.”

The service is not offered to the general public but is open only to authors represented by literary agents. And though it offers distribution (to such retailers as Kindle, Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony) it does not produce the books themselves, meaning that the authors have to create (presumably through scanning) text files, proofread them, format them (such as putting them into ePub), design covers, and undertake other editorial functions now performed by full e-book publishers such as Open Road, Rosetta, and E-Reads (full disclosure: Richard Curtis is CEO of E-Reads).

Perseus CEO David Steinberger made it clear that while the new company, called Argo Navis, “provided distribution and marketing services, the author remained the publisher,” writes Bosman. “While authors get a much higher share of the revenue under this arrangement, they’ll receive fewer of the services, and financial support, provided by publishers under more conventional contracts.”

Authors and agents interested in Perseus’s offering will undoubtedly factor in the time and labor involved in producing books themselves, but this service nevertheless opens the door for literary agents to find a comfortable place in digital publishing on behalf of their clients.  By helping their clients to produce books, they can justify the higher commissions or management fees that many agents now seek to balance softening revenue flow resulting from a struggling book industry.  It is also a way for agents to strengthen bonds with their clients whose eyes may be roving in the direction of independence and self-publication.

New Service for Authors Seeking to Self-Publish E-Books

Richard Curtis

E-Reads has signed a deal with UK publisher Gollancz to publish e-book editions in the UK and Commonwealth of almost 400 science fiction and fantasy titles as part of Gollancz’s Gateway initiative.

Orion deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards and Gollancz digital publisher Darren Nash negotiated the deal, which includes works by more than 50 authors, with E-Reads founder and president Richard Curtis and agent Danny Baror of Baror International. Titles by authors such as Greg Bear, Harlan Ellison, James Gunn, Fritz Leiber and George Zebrowski will be published in Gateway editions in 2011.

Deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards said: “Richard Curtis has been a pioneering figure in e-book publishing in the USA, and E-Reads has acquired rights in a lot of books which were on our wish list for Gateway. I’m therefore delighted that we’ve managed to persuade Richard that we’re able to offer a persuasive plan for selling them in our markets.”

Curtis said: “Though E-Reads has been distributing its e-books in the UK, we felt that our authors would be better served having a British publisher take charge of sales and marketing. And what better publisher than Gollancz, whose amazing fantasy and science fiction list is a perfect fit for our own?”

Gollancz’s Gateway project launched earlier this month, making more than 1,000 titles by authors including Philip K Dick and Arthur C Clarke available as e-books through all major e-retailers.

In connection with comments about literary agents who also operate publishing ventures, digital book industry authority Mike Shatzkin said this about E-Reads:

It is worth noting here that there’s one dog that hasn’t barked. Richard Curtis was the first ebook publishing agent. He set up his E-Reads business over a decade ago. He also pays 50% royalties. Richard did not create E-Reads to compete with publishers on royalties but because when he did publishers just wouldn’t do the ebooks. He has built his enterprise since that time to nearly a $1 million annual business (meaning that he’s delivering half-a-million a year to authors for properties that, at least until very recently and perhaps still, would never have been put into ebooks by a publisher.) But his name is noticeably absent from the chorus using higher ebook royalties as a public prod to bedevil publishers.

For the complete article click here.

Responding to input both from readers and authors, E-Reads has cut list prices for a wide range of selected e-book titles.  Many novels previously priced at $9.99 have been slashed as low as $2.99.  All nonfiction, previously priced at $12.99, will now list at $9.99 or lower.

“After surveying readers and authors and studying creative pricing strategies developed by independent authors, we felt that a drop in price per unit would be balanced by a rise in volume,” said E-Reads CEO Richard Curtis. “The move seems to have worked, as our volume has already risen 10% in the month since the changes took hold. We will continue reviewing and adjusting prices as the market demands.”

E-Reads, founded in 2000, is a leading independent reprinter of previously published books. Its e-books are sold worldwide in the English language at the Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, Diesel, Kobo and other retail and library websites, and trade paperbacks at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Diesel-eBooks.com Announces Direct Partnership with Richard Curtis’ E-Reads

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 1, 2011

Contact: Kelley L. Allen
Phone: (908) 294-1818

Leveraging the power of Diesel’s new Web store platform, E-Reads has designated Diesel-eBooks.com its preferred eBook retailer.

Richmond, VA—Feb. XX, 2011 – The Diesel eBook Store , one of the world’s largest independent eBook stores, today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with E-Reads, a leading publisher of quality fiction and nonfiction reprints. Richard Curtis, founder of E-Reads and president of a leading literary agency, is a highly respected and innovative figure in the publishing world.

As part of the agreement, Diesel-eBooks.com will be the preferred retailer of E-Reads’ extensive list of titles on the E-Reads.com’s site. All E-Reads eBooks will be sold without encryption.

E-reads has an extensive catalog of 1200 eBook titles by renowned authors in a variety of genres including romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller Authors include Hannah Howell, Harlan Ellison, Greg Bear, Robert Silverberg, Dan Simmons, William C. Dietz, Janet Dailey, Jennifer Blake, Alan Dean Foster and John Norman, to name just a few.

“Diesel has soared to a prominent place among e-book retailers and we‘re very gratified to cast our lot with them,” said Richard Curtis, President of E-Reads.

“E-Reads is an industry pioneer and Richard Curtis has always been a strong voice for eBooks. We are so thrilled to have them on board as a direct publisher,” said Scott Redford, owner of Diesel-eBooks.com

As part of the deal, a new proprietary PubDesk interface, through which the publisher can access its inventory, run reports and modify its metadata, has been created and will launch shortly on Diesel-eBooks.com.

Diesel-eBooks.com launched its brand new eBook retailing platform in December 2010 and is unique in the marketplace for their expanded categories and their ability to host customer created bundles. Their new site also boosts a suite of new features such as the “Deal of the Day”, social networking , video integration, access to over two million free eBooks via partnerships with Google and Smashwords and a new and improved search engine.

About the Diesel eBook Store
Launching in December 2004, Diesel-eBooks.com is one of the world’s largest independent eBook stores, offering over 2.4 million original eBook titles including hundreds of exclusive cyber bundles for deep discounts. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Diesel-eBooks.com sells titles from hundreds of publishers including Harlequin, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, O’Reilly, Penguin, Random House, and Smashwords and in multiple formats including ePub, Microsoft Reader, Mobipocket, and Palm/eReader and PDF for all eBook devices and eReading hardware. Forty categories and 2,700 sub-categories mean customers find it faster at Diesel eBooks.

About E-Reads
Founded in 1999 at the dawn of the digital era by renowned literary agent, Richard Curtis, E-Reads™ is the oldest independent e-book publisher in the field and an innovative leader in the modern book industry. Their mission is to bring out-of-print books back in electronic and print formats and create an independent e-book market for authors.

Leveraging the power of Diesel’s new Web store platform, E-Reads has designated Diesel-eBooks.com its preferred e-book retailer.

The Diesel eBook Store , one of the world’s largest independent eBook stores, today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with E-Reads, a leading publisher of quality fiction and nonfiction reprints. Richard Curtis, founder of E-Reads and president of a leading literary agency, is a highly respected and innovative figure in the publishing world.

As part of the agreement, Diesel-eBooks.com will be the preferred retailer of E-Reads’ extensive list of titles on the E-Reads.com’s site. All E-Reads eBooks will be sold without encryption.

E-reads has an extensive catalog of 1200 eBook titles by renowned authors in a variety of genres including romance, science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller Authors include Hannah Howell, Harlan Ellison, Greg Bear, Robert Silverberg, Dan Simmons, William C. Dietz, Janet Dailey, Jennifer Blake, Alan Dean Foster and John Norman, to name just a few.

Read the full announcement here.

E-Reads goes mobile!

From now on it will be easier to access E-Reads on your mobile phone. We’ve developed an easy-to-use way to access our blog posts on any Android, iPhone, blackberry, and other browser supporting smart phones.

Just go to ereads.com on your mobile device.

Photo by Leslie Curtis

Publishers Weekly‘s Craig Morgan Teicher and Rachel Deahl have surveyed leading e-book publishers and learned that with one exception, none of them is paying advances.

The exception is E-Reads.

Teicher writes that “Most e-book original publishers interviewed by PW do not offer advances, explaining that the rules in the e-books world are different from traditional print publishing.” Literary agent Richard Curtis, founder of E-Reads, doesn’t seem to have read the rules. Though E-Reads has worked on a 50-50 profit-sharing basis from its founding ten years ago, Curtis realized that in order to attract authors and agents he had to offer a business model they understand, and there’s nothing authors and agents understand better than advances.

Curtis also told PW he foresees a day when e-book rights will be an independent marketplace similar to the one for audio rights. Writes Teicher: “Curtis said that he sees advances as incentives in what is becoming an increasingly competitive marketplace, where authors and agents may withhold e-book rights when they sell print rights in order to get a better deal for the e-book.”

Actually, Curtis quietly revealed the news a few months ago, but PW picked up on it. In a Digital Book World interview with Emily Williams, co-chair of the Book Industry Study Group Rights Subcommittee, Curtis disclosed that “we’re beginning to pay advances.” For an industry that has operated on a back-end, no-front-money model, this is a significant precedent.

The interview was conducted in connection with a DBW webinar on the subject of literary agents who are also e-book publishers. Curtis launched E-Reads in 2000 in anticipation of the digital revolution and it currently carries a list of some 1200 previously published titles in science fiction and fantasy, thrillers, romance and general fiction and nonfiction. Also participating in the September 14th event are Arthur Klebanoff, founder of Rosetta Books, and Scott Waxman, who recently launched Diversion Books.

Typically, when making deals with mainstream publishers agents throw the e-book rights in for no further advance money.  The explosive sales growth of the e-book industry now makes prepayment of royalties more feasible, and being the first to offer them gives E-Reads a competitive advantage to augment its industry-leading 50% royalty, twice the current going rate offered by trade book publishers.

The story of Curtis’s founding of E-Reads – it was called “Curtis’s Folly” by some of his mystified colleagues – how he built it into one of the leading independent e-book publishers in the business, how digital technology has enhanced his approach to agenting, and his surprising views on the future of print publishing may be read on the Digital Book World website.

And you can read Teicher’s PW article here.

John Douglas

E-Reads has responded to the surge in new e-book retailers with an upload of more than 200 titles to Apple iPad, Kobo, Diesel and Google editions.  The ten year old publisher, a leading independent in the e-book and print on demand space, is currently converting its 1000+ title inventory to the specific specs of these and other newcomers in the retail field, as well as older customers.  And of course, you can visit your favorite retailer where you’ll eventually see all E-Reads titles on sale.

Among authors in E-Reads’ upload are Harlan Ellison, Greg Bear, John Norman, Dave Duncan, William C. Dietz, Fritz Leiber, Sean Williams, Janet Dailey, Nancy J. Cohen, and Hannah Howell. Click here for the complete list of June uploads. And remember, that’s just the first of many. So…watch this space for news of new uploads