I sometimes enroll in a course at Coursera. It’s free and online, and they’re taught by
experts in their fields from recognized schools.
Currently I am taking Surviving
Disruptive Technologies taught by Hank Lucas from the Robert H. Smith
School of Business, University of Maryland.
The course is nice and understandable so that’s why I’m still with it
weeks after its start date. (If you
start a course and find it’s not your cup of tea, it’s simple to unenroll. No one is going to give you a hard time.)
The course has reached a lesson regarding publishing (it
followed newspapers) on how disruptive technology is changing the business. Prof. Lucas has
published non-fiction work and was kind enough to share the numbers. Like a fiction author, the non-fiction author
receives a percent of the net per their contract with their publisher. He receives the average 15% after net - $50
cover price, he receives $4 for each new book sold. I’m adding Prof. Lucas receives nothing for
the sale of a used textbook.
Here’s where publishers may have competition from self-publishing
if authors think along the same lines as Prof. Lucas. The author provides the content – the
intellectual property. He also provided
the interior drawings and illustrations, something publishers used to do. Is the value of his content roughly 8% of the
finished product, or should the author receive more? Prof. Lucas did include in his lecture that
freelance editors and peer reviews are available for hire outside of
traditional publishers – hence, he would need to invest money into the project
like other self-published authors.
Obviously, Prof. Lucas has a promotional advantage over some
self-published authors. He can assign
the book as part of his in-person course at his college, or teach a MOOC (massive open online
course) at Coursera to get his name in front of eyeballs interested in the
topic that his book(s) also covers.
