the misused Nick Page's Eiserne Baron (what an enigmatic title, isn't it?)

guitarz.blogspot.com

This week, on my way to rehearsals, I've been passing everyday in the metro by some ugly poster for I don't know which discount shop trying to convince suckers that their lives will be more complete if they watch TV on a flat screen. For some reason there was on this poster a photo of a caricature rock musician holding a engraved metal front guitar with a bizarre headstock...

I managed to not really see it for three days but this morning I realized that, beside the fact that it's quite exceptional to see on a mainstream media an electric guitar that is not Fender or Gibson, I knew this guitar, and I even love it!

It is actually a new version of Nick Page's Baron, a guitar I presented on this very blog last year, and if at that time you didn't check this Berliner luthier's website, I recommend to have a look there; I really appreciate what they do (and I don't say this because their workshop is in my neighborhood  or because they gave me a hand with some of my projects!). They have some cool guitars - original models and standards - and are particularly good with finishes, including aluminium fronts and better paisley Telecasters than Fender ever released!

Let me add here a more dignified picture of the 'Iron Baron', a real beauty with its Rickenbacker-inspired 'crest wave' horns, sober floral pattern engraved aluminium front, sophisticated binding, big stoptail and acoustic guitar-like headstock. Honestly, if I ever get to buy a luthier's guitar, it would be this one!

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fernandes GM-85 MS Pearl Yellow Kenichi Ito

guitarz.blogspot.com:

ESP are usually the manufacturer we immediately associate with weird and wonderful signature guitars designed for a whole host of Japanese guitarists and bassists, names that we in the West are not familiar with. However, Fernandes have also got in on this act (indeed we have looked at some of these previously), and this particular yellow guitar, the Fernandes GM-85 MS is the signature guitar of Kenichi Ito formerly of the band Iceman.

If it looks familiar to some of our regular readers, that may be because we previously featured a diminutive version of this guitar with built-in amp.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1971 Crucianelli élite stéréo

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here we see a Crucianelli élite stéréo archtop guitar from 1971, currently being offered for sale on a French website. Made in Italy, Crucianelli had strong ties with Eko (as discussed here) and this same body was also used for the Vox Super-Linx which was also produced in the Eko factory.

The most interesting feature of this guitar, however, must be its four pickups - two for the treble and two for the bass strings - and the independent pickup selectors for treble and bass. No doubt this allows for some interesting pickup combinations, which would be made all the more interesting by the stereo output.

Thanks to Dirk Lubbe for bringing this beauty to my attention.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1965 Magnatone Zephyr

guitarz.blogspot.com:

There is something I find really appealing about this Magnatone Zephyr in Lake Placid blue. It's quite a conservative-looking unassuming little guitar, but I find its proportions and softly rounded body horns most attractive, whilst the DeArmond pickups (described by the seller as "STRONG" in capitals) and behind-the-bridge floating trem a la Jazzmaster just enhance its appeal. Instruments like this help to reinforce the notion that there's a lot more to vintage American guitars than the same old usual suspects (Fender, Gibson, etc).

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Home made aluminium lap steel

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This very simple instrument, made out of a piece of aluminium double glazing extrusion, is especially interesting to me as I just bought a Peavey Powerslide and I'm in the process of getting the hang of it. Not a piece of cake by any means.

The builder of this guitar (Airbrake 1 or Marscape 1, depending whether you find him on Flickr or Youtube) has further simplified the construction - and complicated the learning process - by leaving out the fret markers! Which makes his rather modest claim to not be able to play steel guitar even more remarkable. On his Flickr page, he says "I decided to fit 3 strips of tape to show the 5th fret position, the 12th and the 24th. I could have fitted more, but I wanted to try to develop my ear, so I would be able to automatically find the right notes. It takes some practice to do this!" Yeah, you don't say. Check out his not too shabby video. If I could coax something like this from my Powerslide, I'd be pretty pleased with myself.

David in Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

The Crucifixion Tele

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Let me begin this post by saying that I really am not trying to offend anyone here. Although I'm not a religious person I would never mock another's faith. However, I found myself totally flabbergasted when I saw this Fender Custom Shop Telecaster complete with crucifixion artwork. I can't imagine that even the most devout Christian would consider that an appropriate scene with which to decorate the front of a guitar. But maybe, I'm wrong. Still, it's little wonder really that the seller describes this guitar as being "in immaculate condition and has not been played."

Thanks for this one, Bill!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Fender Mandocaster Mandolin 1966

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This Fender Mandocaster or Fender Electric Mandolin as it is properly known, is a nice instrument and is unusual if not rare. A quick Google of Fender Mandolin/Mandocaster does bring up quite a few instances. The Mandocaster was in production for twenty years 56 - 76 so you'd imagine they were popular enough but as it apparently sounded more like an electric guitar than a regular 8 string mandolin, it didn't have that wide appeal. It makes you wonder why fender didn't discontinue it, especially as Gibson had really cornered the market. The eagle eyed of you will have already spotted the 24 frets! Altogether un-mandolin-like.

Coincidently, Gavin's recent post on Grinderman led me to this video of Honey Bee (let's fly to mars) on their Treacle Sessions.

David in Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Framus Tennessee Pro

guitarz.blogspot.com

I've seen this Framus Tennessee Pro before but the regular models in natural finish felt a little bit heavy and boring, like the 50s plywood dresser of my grand-mother, so I paid little attention. 

Then today I found this one, in burgundy - coming then from the Framus custom shop (it's not produced anymore otherwise, but it's not a vintage model, it's pure 2000s) - and it looks really cool, a convincing update of the contoured old German jazz guitars (that made famous the characteristic German carve), with its contemporary Seymour Duncan humbuckers, Gibson-esque stoptail and flamed maple top on a chambered mahogany body. 

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

3-string piano-bass

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's a homemade 3-string bass built from the parts of an old dismantled piano, which includes piano strings, tuning pegs, and - strangely - a hammer (I'm not quite sure how that is employed here, whether there is a mechanism for it or if you simply take it in hand and hit the strings).

You can read more about it here on Dnki's blog.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Warren Ellis Signature Tenor from Eastwood Guitars

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I was watching Later with Jools Holland the other night, and was intrigued by the session from Grinderman whose Warren Ellis was making an incredible sound with what appeared to be Fender Musicmaster or Mustang but with just four strings (see YouTube clip below - OK, so he's obviously using a lot of loops there too).

So, a quick search shows that it's actually the new Warren Ellis signature model tenor guitar from Eastwood Guitars. The alder body is offset like a Mustang rather than an even-waisted Musicmaster, although like the latter it has just a single pickup in the neck position, in this instance it's a blade style pickup. As is common with tenor guitars it has a shorter than usual scale-length of 23", for which the Fender student-model stylings seem all too appropriate.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

In the beginning there was the guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

The Modulus Genesis G3 

This an interesting example of a great solution to a problem that doesn't really exist for many other makers. Maybe it's to give you something to talk about. A way of breaking the ice at parties. "Hey man, crazy tuners you got on that geetar!" Is it really such a huge benefit to have the strings aligned perfectly straight? And, does that outweigh the disadvantages of having machine heads that are practically impossible to replace should it be necessary?

However, it is a very nice looking guitar and the seller says it's one of the best guitars he's ever played. And, as Modulus have stopped making guitars and now only produce basses and they made very few guitars during a short period, it is deserving of the tag "rare".

It may seem, from the slightly cynical tone of my intro, that I'm a bit of a luddite. That's not true. Well it might be but, in this case, it seems like being different for the sake of it rather than true innovation. I'm all for innovation and for the evolution of guitars. In fact, when you look at, say, Fender's bewildering catalogue of micro-variations on the Tele/Strat themes and those hideous limited-edition-figured-burly-swirly-deluxe-looks-like-a-sideboard-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg-made-in-the-USA Premiumcasters, it's clear that it's only the small boutiques that are truly pushing the evolution of guitars forward. And don't get me started on those ****ing "relics"! Sorry, sorry, hyperventilating. Don't worry, I'm OK now.

David in Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

The Acquisitions Editor

INT. MORNING - Fourth Floor of the Hip Happening Building, New York

(Writer is escorted by an Assistant to the Editor's office)

Editor: Good morning! Assistant, can you bring me a cappuccino, skim milk, two Stevias? Writer, would you like something?

Writer: No, thank you.

Editor: Please, have a seat.

(Writer sits across the Editor's desk)

Editor: I'm excited to tell you we're epublishing your new novel. Aren't you thrilled?

Writer: I'm flattered. But there are still some things I don't understand. I was hoping you'd make them clear for me.

Editor: Of course. I'm here for you. We're partners now. Exciting times.

Writer: Yeah. Well, first of all, I'm trying to understand the royalty structure.

Editor: That's boilerplate. You get 25% of the net sales receipts.

Writer: With the agency model, that means I earn 17.5% of the list price.

Editor: (beaming) Not bad, huh? If it was one of those old-fashioned paperback books, you'd only be earning 8%.

Writer: But paperbacks cost $7.99. You want to publish my ebook for $9.99.

Editor: We've determined that's the best price.

Writer: How?

Editor: Pardon me?

Writer: How have you determined that's the best price? Have you done studies? Polled readers? Experimented with different prices?

Editor: We arrived at $9.99 by comparing it to the prices of paper books.

Writer: But paper books cost money to create. There's printing and shipping. And even with that, paperbacks are still cheaper than $9.99.

Editor: We're just following the market.

Writer: Actually, you're not. You determine the selling price. You're setting the market, not following it. And $9.99 seems high.

Editor: You should just let us worry about that. That's why we're partners. You concentrate on the writing, we'll handle the business end. It's part of the service we provide.

Writer: What exactly is that service, again? I mean, there's no printing or shipping...

Editor: Do you think those are the only costs involved in bringing a book to market? (forced chuckle) You writers are so naive.

Writer: Please. Enlighten me.

Editor: Well, we edit. Books need editing. We also create the cover art. Books, even ebooks, need covers.

Writer: Go on.

Editor: The list is so extensive, I have a hard time remembering it all. There's, um, catalog copy.

Writer: You feature ebooks in catalogs?

Editor: Well, no. But we do a lot of marketing.

Writer: How exactly to you market ebooks?

Editor: Because it's all so new, we're still trying to figure that out. But we just flew the whole office to Seattle to have meetings on how to market ebooks. We were there for two weeks. I think we're making some real headway.

Writer: (under his breath) Maybe you should have a meeting on how to better budget your money.

Editor: That meeting will be in Florida, next month. It's at the Ritz Carlton. We're paying Warren Buffett to be our guest speaker.

Writer: (sighing) Are there any other costs involved in bringing an ebook to market?

Editor: There's advertising.

Writer: You advertise ebooks?

Editor: We're planning to, eventually. Maybe on that Facebook thingy. The kids seem to love it. We also use Twitter.

Writer: Facebook and Twitter are free.

Editor: Facebook ads cost money.

Writer: How many Facebook ads have you personally clicked on?

Editor: None. Those stupid things annoy me.

Writer: So, let's be clear on this. There are no printing costs, shipping costs, or warehousing costs, and you don't do catalogs or advertising or marketing...

Editor: (snapping his fingers as if remembering something) We also format and upload the ebooks to retailers.

Writer: How long does all of that take?

Editor: Excuse me?

Writer: To edit a book and make cover art and format it?

Editor: Well, we could spend two or three weeks working on a single title in order to get it ready.

Writer: Nine months.

Editor: What?

Writer: Nine months, working 60 hour weeks. That's how long it took me to write my novel. That seems a bit longer and more labor-intensive than your three weeks. Yet I'm only getting 17.5% of the price that you set. Do you know what your percentage is?

Editor: Off the top of my head, no.

Writer: You get 52.5%.

Editor: Really? Huh.

Writer: To me, that doesn't seem fair.

Editor: You don't seem to understand that you need us. Without editing or cover art...

Writer: (interrupting) Let's say the ebook sells ten thousand copies. Which, at your inflated price of $9.99, seems unlikely. But let's say it does. That means I earn $17,500...

Editor: A respectable figure...

Writer: ...and you earn $52,500. Even though you only worked on it for three weeks.

Editor: But you gotta admit, we made a terrific cover for it.

Writer: True. But for fifty thousand dollars, I bet I could buy some pretty nice cover art on my own. I bet I could pay a doctor to raise Pablo Picasso from the dead and have him do the cover.

Editor: Don't forget editing.

Writer: How long does it take to edit a manuscript?

Editor: Excuse me?

Writer: In hours. How many are we talking? Ten? Twenty?

Editor: It might go as high as fifty hours, with multiple read-throughs and the line edit.

Writer: How much do editors earn an hour?

Editor: Excuse me?

Writer: Let's say fifty bucks an hour. I think that's high, and I also think your fifty hour estimate is high, but even if we go with both, that's only $2500. And according to the Artist & Graphic Designer's Market, book cover art should cost around $2000.

Editor: Don't forget formatting and uploading.

Writer: I can pay a guy $200 to format and upload the book. In fact, I can also pay a guy $300 to create a cover, and an editor $500 to do both content and copy editing. But you're not charging me $1000, or even $4500. You're taking $52,500. And that number can get even bigger. If I hire my own editor and artist, those costs are fixed. You continue to take your 52.5% forever.

Editor: You don't seem to understand. Do you know how much it costs to rent this office? We're paying $25k a month, and that doesn't even include utilities. I've got three assistants. We all have health insurance and 401k. Expense accounts. Do you have any idea what it costs to take agents out to lunch?

Writer: My agent didn't broker this deal.

Editor: You're missing the point!

(Assistant enters, with coffee)

Assistant: Here's your cappuccino, Editor.

Editor: There's another cost! We paid five grand for this cappuccino machine! How are we supposed to stay in business unless we take 52.5%?

Writer: (standing up) I think we're done here.

Editor: Wait a second! You need us! Without us to validate your work, you'll never be considered legitimate! You'll just be some unknown, satisfied rich guy!

(Writer turns to leave)

Editor: Think about what you're missing out on! When we do cover art, we do it without any kind of focus group, and we don't pay any attention to your wishes! We arbitrarily change your title to something we think is better, without any proof! We take twelve months to release a book after you turn in the manuscript when it would only take you a week! We pay twice a year instead of the monthly check you'd get doing it yourself, and our accounting practices are hard to understand and quite possibly shifty! Also, we'll drop you for no particular reason! You can't turn your back on all that!

(Writer pauses, then turns around)

Writer: Look, it's true that I do need a good editor.

Editor: See! I told you!

(Writer hands Editor his business card)

Writer: When your company goes bankrupt, and you're unemployed, I want you to look me up. Send me a letter. One page, double spaced. List your qualifications for editing my book, and your rates. Also include a SASE. If you don't hear from me in six months, no need for you to follow up--it means I'm not interested...

TrueTone vintage guitar ... any more info?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

James from Krazy Cat Music in San Antonio, TX, has been in touch again with another interesting vintage guitar to show us. He writes:

We've been getting a lot of cool old cheesy guitars lately; this one's a bit harder to find info on. TrueTones are Kay and Harmony guitars with different headstocks, and were sold at Western Auto in the 60s. This one's got two pickups, two volumes and two tones, 3 way toggle. Still has the original cheesy wooden bridge on it. 3-bolt neck. This sucker's got killer vintage tone. Not sure of the model on this one, if anybody knows drop us a line.

If anyone knows anything more about this guitar, please share with us the comments below and we'll pass any on info onto James. Thanks!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Ebook Pricing

In my last post, we had a long comment thread where many folks chimed in about the price of ebooks.

I thought I would distill my thoughts into a new blog entry, and explain why I believe $2.99 is the new ebook standard.

There are a few ways to support this claim, but before I begin, we need some background.

It all starts with print.

Currently, the majority of authors are offered boilerplate contracts with fixed rates for print books.

Mass market paperback is 8% of the cover price (though some houses offer 6% or even less), After a certain number of books are sold, it can escalate to 10%.

Trade paperback is 7.5%.

Hardcover is 10% for the first 5000, 12.5% for the next 5000, and 15% for everything after that.

So, for a $7.99 paperback, the author earns 64 cents per copy sold.

For a $13 trade paperback, the author earns 75 cents.

For a $25 hardcover, the author earns $2.50 to start out, though it can get to $3.75 if it sells well.

It is worth noting that these royalty rates are low because there are a lot of costs built into a book sale. Besides the costs absorbed by the publisher (editing, cover art, marketing, advertising, factoring the the cost of returns, plus overhead from salaries, rent, utilities, etc.), there are also printing and shipping costs. The distributor gets a cut. The bookseller gets a cut as well.

But the time the writer gets their cut, there isn't very much left. That's why hardcovers are priced as luxury items. You spend twenty-five bucks to be entertained by something for eight hours--something that I spent months of my life working on--and I get $2.50.

Now let's take a small detour and discuss ebooks.

Ebooks are a tricky product. Their costs are much lower than their print counterparts. No printing or shipping, no distributor, and the bookseller cut is smaller. There is no need to inflate the cost to factor in returns, because returns don't require shipping, warehousing, or printing.

I'll also put forth that the marketing and advertising costs for ebooks are much lower, and fewer people are required to create an ebook, which means less overhead.

Bottom line: Ebooks cost less to produce.

This is a Good Thing. Especially because customers want ebooks to cost less.

There is an acknowledged bias against the worth of downloadable content. This bias is partly emotional, and partly fact-based.

Facts include:

Ebooks cost nothing to distribute or produce.

Ebooks are intangible--they don't exist in a hard copy.

Ebooks have restrictions like DRM and proprietary format, which makes them worth less because they can't be shared, copied, or transferred.

Emotional response to downloads include:

I get a lot of stuff for free on the internet, which must mean it is worth less.

If something can be copied, it has no tangible value.

Copyright is not enforceable in a digital world, so everything should be free, and intellectual property is worthless.

Bottom line: Ebooks cost less, customers know this, and customers want to pay less.

Ebooks should be a bonanza for publishers. They cost less, they require fewer people to produce, and entire wings of their business could be downsized or eliminated, saving a lot of overhead.

But I believe publishers have seen ebooks as a threat to their long-entrenched print book business. I've I've said before: publishers should be connecting writers and readers, but they seem more concerned about selling paper.

That means protecting their paper-selling business. They've done many things to ensure this.

-Push the agency model so they control the selling price of ebooks
-Window ebook releases until after the print version is released
-Keep ebook prices artificially high
-Refuse to release ebook versions of some books, or in certain markets, or for certain platforms
-Demand DRM, which consumers hate (iTunes no longer uses it for that very reason)
-Devote time and energy and money to combating piracy, which is a waste of time and energy and money

None of this embraces the future and prepares them for making fat ebook profits. Instead, it alienates their customers, angers their authors, and leaves them even farther behind as ebook domination draws closer and closer.

Bottom line: Ebooks cost less, customers want to pay less, publishers don't care.

So where are the authors in this?

The boilerplate for ebooks was 25% of the net sales receipts. Instead of basing it on the cover price, it is based on what the publisher receives from the seller.

So on a $9.99 ebook on Amazon (price set by the publisher) is sold to them for $7, which means the author earns $1.75.

Now compared to hardcovers and paperbacks, a buck seventy-five is a pretty good royalty.

At least, on the surface it is. But not when some other things are taken into account.

On a hardcover, and on a paperback, there are so many costs that the publisher earns very close to what the author earns--three bucks on a hardcover, about a buck on a paperback.

But on a $9.99 ebook, the publisher earns $5.25.

$5.25 for simply uploading it to Amazon? Sorry, that's way too much.

Not only that, but they do a lot less to bring an ebook to market, and pay a lot less to get it to market. Lower costs, lower overhead, but jack up the profit? I think not. A world where a publisher earns three times what the artist earns is simply messed up.

If I wrote the damn thing, I deserve the lion's share. A 25% royalty rate isn't fair. Especially compared to print.

It gets worse, though. We've established that ebooks should be cheaper, and customers want to pay less. They certainly don't want to pay ten bucks. So when a publisher prices a book that high, they're losing potential sales. No wonder there's a $9.99 boycott by readers.

My own sales have confirmed this, numerous times. The lower the price, the more money a book earns. This is because value has nothing to do with the list price, and everything to do with how much the author earns.

But it gets worse, still.

By working with a publisher, an author gets 17.5% royalty of whatever price that publisher sets the book at.

By self publishing, the author can get 70% royalty, plus set their own price.

I price my ebooks at $2.99, because I've found that to be the sweet spot. If I price them higher, I make more per sale, but have fewer sales so I lose money.

On a $2.99 ebook, I earn $2.04.

In other words, I earn three times more than I do on a $8 paperback, and almost as much as I do on a $25 hardcover.

And guess what? Ebooks are easier to buy and sell than paper books. Kindle owners can buy my ebooks and get them instantly, without going to the store, or without even turning on their computers. No hassle, no wait.

I like the $2.99 price for other reasons as well. A hardcover requires thought before buying. In this economy it's a big purchase.

$2.99 is an impulse buy. It's no-guilt. It's a bargain. It encourages people to buy, rather than discourages.

Bottom line: I can make more money selling $2.99 ebooks on my own than I can selling $7.99 paperbacks or $25 hardcovers with a publisher.

The fact that I keep the rights, control cover art and titles, and can release the book as fast as I can write it rather than waiting 12 to 18 months, is all icing on the cake.

So let's hear from the opposition:

1. Joe, don't you think books are worth more than $2.99? People have always paid more than that.

Joe sez: A book is worth what it earns the author. Selling a bunch of $2.99 books is more profitable than selling almost as many $25 hardcovers. The public believes downloads should cost less, and the author makes more than they would in print. I think $2.99 is a perfect price to satisfy everyone.

2. Joe, don't you think part of the reason you're selling so well is you're undercutting other authors with your low price?

Joe sez: This isn't a zero sum game. Kindle owners don't buy just one book. They read more than they did before buying their ereader, and if they seem happy to buy more ebooks if they cost less. It isn't a choice between my book or your book. Readers can afford both.

3. Joe, but what happens when publishers start selling at $2.99? Won't you lose sales?

Joe sez: I don't believe publishers are going to go that route for a while. But if/when it happens, I can easily see my sales going up. When people can buy the new James Patterson for $2.99 instead of $9.99, they'll have money left over to spend on me.

4. Joe, ebooks have been around for ten years, and they've always been priced higher than $2.99.

Joe sez: The past is the past. Currently, people want to pay less. I say, give the customer what they want.

5. Joe, books shouldn't be an impulse purchase. Many writers spend years toiling over their manuscripts. Books have integrity and gravitas, and people are willing to pay more for that.

Joe sez: Books are entertainment. We can spend a lot of money to be entertained, and we can also be entertained for free. If you feel your ebook should be priced comparably to a hardcover, or a Broadway show, or a Picasso, knock yourself out. As I said, it isn't a zero sum game. You're free to price however you desire.

6. But if I price my book high when everyone else listens to you and prices their books low, I won't sell very many.

Joe sez: Then write a Broadway show, or take up painting. Then you'll get paid what your masterpiece is truly worth.

7. Your books suck, and the only reason you sell so many is because they're cheap.

Joe sez: I've long stopped caring about what people think of my writing, good or bad. I get enough fan mail, and make enough money, to no longer be concerned about bad reviews, negative people, or the obviously envious. My ego and bank account are satisfied, and I'm lucky I can find an audience while doing something I love. Also, you're an asshat.

8. Aren't you worried about piracy?

Joe sez: No. I'll eventually post long term results to my piracy experiment, but so far I've concluded that piracy hasn't hurt my sales. The way to fight piracy is with cost and convenience. Three dollar ebooks that can be purchased and delivered with the press of a button are the ultimate in cost and convenience.

9. Don't you think publishers will eventually figure out what you have? Some smaller, independent publishers already have.

Joe sez: I erroneously group all publishers together under the "Big 6" banner. If anyone can adapt and survive in this brave new world, smaller publishers are much better suited for it. But if the brand is the author, all publishers, small and big, need to figure out what they can offer their authors to justify taking a percentage of royalties forever. It has to be more than a cover and editing, because authors can get those on their own, and pay one-time costs for them.

10. What happens when Amazon lowers the royalty rate for authors?

Joe sez: What happens when it starts raining acid and aliens invade our planet and the crickets stage a coup and win the majority of the seats in Congress? I'll worry about it when it happens. But if it does happen, we live in a capitalist society. Other businesses will spring up and offer authors more... which is why Amazon is currently taking authors away from Big 6 publishing.

11. The only reason this works for you is because you already have a platform and a lot of books. Other authors can't follow your example.

Joe sez: How many authors get rich, whatever path they take? Very few. A fraction of a fraction are able to make big money selling fiction.

It isn't a question of either selling 100,000 ebooks or selling zero. Everyone falls somewhere in between. This isn't a competition, or a sprint. It's a marathon, and the race is with yourself.

Set realistic goals, experiment, learn from mistakes, keep and open mind, and most of all, write a lot of good books. I believe 99.9% of writers have a better chance to make more money in this new market than they did in the old one.

If you do get offered a print deal, congratulations. But make sure that there is a clear reversion of rights clause if the publisher goes bankrupt before the book comes out (or during its shelf life.) Make sure there is clear language about what "out of print" means. Make sure you get a decent ebook royalty rate. And above all, crunch the numbers and compare what you could potentially make on your own, especially in the long term.

Also you have to remember that I'm just one man following my own path. Your results may vary. You can, and should, form your own conclusions based on your own experience.

I'm sure this is my future. You need to figure out what your future is, and act accordingly.

This Rickenbacker's got legs!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

This 1960 vintage Rickenbacker 100 Consolette steel guitar is one of a species that could be described as a "missing link". Console guitars - essentially lap steels with legs - evolved from the more usual kind of lap steels that you actually play with the guitar on your lap, and would later evolve further with the addition of pitch bending levers and pedals into the pedal steel guitar.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

A Flying V for jazzers?

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Here's a Flying V-styled guitar with a difference - it's an archtop! This guitar was handcrafted by Personal Guitars of Washington, USA, and was recenrly offered for sale on eBay Australia. Thanks to Liam, who spotted this one.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Kenneth Lawrence doubleneck Explorer

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Instruments like this Kenneth Lawrence doubleneck Explorer - with two six-string necks, 24.75" and 27.75" (baritone) respectively - are certainly very impressive looking creations. This particular guitar is currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $18,250.00. The body is made from mahogany topped with premium Hawaiian Koa, and accented here and there with the same plus snakewood for the knobs and pickup rings. It certainly makes for a very eye-catching instrument.

And yet...

Apart from the almost certain likelihood that it's quite an impractical guitar (how often would you need both necks on the same song?) and is almost certainly monolithically heavy, there's something about the guitar that positively screams "Do not touch!" And at that price I think I'd be scared to touch it. I get the feeling that it's not so much a guitar but more a very expensive work of art or else a showpiece demonstrating the luthier's craft. One can imagine that here is one guitar destined to spend its life inside a glass display cabinet - and that's a shame.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Konrath Ebooks Sales Top 100k

I haven't posted my sales numbers in a while, and was going to hold off on this until I got my latest royalty statements. But I've reached a milestone, and decided it is worth sharing.

As of today, Sept 21, 2010, I've sold 103,864 ebooks.

Here's how it breaks down:

My six Hyperion ebooks, from June 2004 until December 2009: 7865

Afraid from Grand Central, from May 2009 until December 2009: 13,973

Self-pubbed titles on Kobo from May 2010 until July 2010: 132

Self-pubbed titles on Smashwords since July 2009: 372

Self-pubbed titles on iPad from May 2010 until August 2010: 390

Self-pubbed titles on iTunes from Jan 2010 until July 2010: 508

Self-pubbed titles on Barnes & Noble from June 2010 until August 2010: 2212

Self pubbed titles on Amazon from April 2009 until Sept 20, 2010: 78,412

So what does all of this mean to the home viewer?

Currently, I'm selling an average of 7000 self-pubbed ebooks a month on Kindle. Those numbers are for 19 self-pubbed titles, though the top 6 account for more than 75% of my sales, roughly 5000 per month.

That means those six are averaging 833 sales, or $1700, per month, each. That equals $20,400 per year, per ebook, for my top sellers.

Those six are my top sellers because they're novels. My other 13 ebooks are novellas and short story collections, which don't sell as well.

Considering the average advance for a new novel is still $5,000, each of these ebook novels is quadrupling that, annually. And these numbers are rising, not falling.

Compare that to the ebook novels my print publishers are controlling. (These numbers are going to be low, because I haven't gotten my latest royalty statements for Jan-June 2010 yet.)

My best selling Hyperion ebook, Whiskey Sour, has sold 2631 ebooks since 2004. That's earned me about $2200, or $34 a month since it was released.

$34 a month per ebook is a far cry from the $1700 a month per ebook I'm making on my own.

Why are my self-pubbed ebooks earning more than Whiskey Sour, which remains my bestselling print title with over 80,000 books sold in various formats?

Because Hyperion has priced Whiskey Sour at $4.69 on Amazon, and I price my ebooks at $2.99.

For each $4.69 ebook they sell, I earn $1.17.

For each $2.99 ebook I sell, I earn $2.04.

So I'm basically losing money hand over fist because Hyperion is pricing my ebooks too high, and giving me too low a royalty rate.

Even the print sales (Whiskey Sour just went into a fifth printing) don't come close to making up the money I'm losing.

If we assume I could sell 833 copies per month of Whiskey Sour, I'd be earning $17,000 per year on it, rather than $5616 per year. (I'm guessing my numbers have gone up recently, and am estimating 400 Whiskey Sour sales per month.)

Let's multiply that times the six books Hyperion controls.

I'm estimating I currently earn $33,696 annually in ebook royalties on those six.

If I had the rights, I estimate I'd earn $102,000.

Do I want my books to go out of print?

Hell yeah.

Now allow me to address the other ebook venues, on a case-by-case basis.

Through Smashwords.com, I've sold 3106 ebooks, but the majority of these have been within the last three months or so.

Smashwords allows authors to sell ebooks through their site, and also supplies ebooks to Kobo, iPad, B&N, Sony, and Diesel. (I haven't gotten Sony or Diesel numbers yet.)

My Kobo numbers are low, because I opted out of Kobo. They discounted my ebooks, which isn't fair to other retailers. But I'm currently working on a deal with Kobo to have my ebooks back up very soon. Kobo supplies books to Borders.com, so I anticipate a bump this holiday season.

iPad has proven disappointing, and I blame the iBookstore interface, which is very user unfriendly. I assume it will get the kinks worked out eventually, but it is currently torture to navigate and browse the iBookstore. Still, almost 400 sales in just a few months is better than nothing.

Of course, compared Kindle sales, I'm selling 70 to 1 on Amazon over iPad.

Barnes and Noble fares a bit better. I'm averaging 663 ebooks per month, which is substantial. It's still about 10.5 to 1 compared to Kindle, but I'm pleased with it.

For iTunes, I use IndianNIC. The 508 sales figure is incomplete, and doesn't count the last 2 and a half months, because their user interface isn't the best. But they're now supplying ebooks to Android, so I'm hoping to get a piece of that growing market.

Actually, I'm hoping to get a piece of all the growing markets, and every market seems to be growing. By the end of the year, my self pubbed books will be on all the major ebook platforms, including:

Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
Borders
Kobo
iTunes
iPad
Android
Kobo
Diesel
Sony

Do you know what that is? That's distribution. The very thing print publishers have had a lock on for a hundred years. Except now, authors control their own distribution.

By comparison, the ebook rights my print publishers control are missing from many of these key markets. On a daily basis I get emails from fans who want Whiskey Sour or Afraid for their device or in their country, but my publishers aren't exploiting these rights.

Am I angry?

Hell yeah.

And to add insult to injury, Hyperion recently packaged my six Jack Daniels ebooks together as a compendium. At first, I was thrilled with this, thinking they finally understood what I've been saying for months. Then they told me the price.

$36.00.

Even with Amazon's discount, that comes to $28.80, for ebooks that are several years old.

That's insane. And yet, a few poor souls are buying it, because it's still cheaper than buying the books separately.

I sent Hyperion several emails, explaining my reasoning for wanting this price lowered.

They haven't responded.

Now the anomaly here is Grand Central. They've sold 13,973 ebooks. Isn't that odd, compared to Hyperion?

Not when you realize that 10,253 of those ebooks were sold during the first month of Afraid's release, at the intro price of $1.99.

Consider that. In one month we sold 10,253 ebooks, just because it was cheap.

Now try to contemplate why publishers continue to charge $5 to $13 for ebooks.

Are you scratching your head like I am, wondering why they don't sell ebooks at lower prices?

Since that promo (and probably because of it), Afraid has been averaging around 465 ebook sales a month. Respectable, but still below my average, and only earning me $1.75 per ebook instead of $2.05.

But that's not a big deal, right?

Let's look at it over a three year period.

If I had the rights to Afraid and priced it at $2.99, I'd earn $51,000.

With Grand Central, pricing it at $6.99, I'll earn $29,295.

Ouch.

Do I want my rights back?

Hell yeah.

I wrote Afraid under the name Jack Kilborn, and received a $20,000 advance. It was released in the US, the UK, and Australia simultaneously. In nine months, combining the ebooks, trade paper, hardcover, and two paperback versions, Afraid sold 53,623 copies and earned $26,839.

On June 18, I self-published Endurance and Trapped, two more novels by Jack Kilborn. I released them in ebook format only, for $2.99 each.

In three months, Endurance and Trapped have each earned $11,424.

So, in other words, I'm earning $35,785 per year on Afraid, in all formats.

Endurance is on its way to earn $45,696 per year, in ebook only. So is Trapped.

And unlike Afraid, where I made the majority of my royalties on the print versions, which will sell fewer and fewer copies, Endurance and Trapped will continue to sell well for years as ebooks.

With Afraid, I went on tour and signed at 200 bookstores. I did a blog tour the month before, appearing on 100 blogs in 31 days. I worked my ass off promoting that book.

With Endurance and Trapped, I announced them on Kindleboards.com and did a few tweets on Twitter. That's it.

Does anyone else see this as a wake-up call?

When I began this ebook odyssey, back in April 2009, I had no idea the market would get so big so fast, or that I'd make so much money.

Since then, a lot of folks have done their best to dismiss what I've been preaching. They say I'm an outlier. An exception.

But I'm not an exception anymore.

New writers like Zoe Winters, Rex Kusler, Vicki Tyley, Karen McQuestion, John Rector, Aaron Patterson, B.V. Larson, Stacey Cochran, Amanda Hocking, D.B. Henson, Eric Christopherson, Debbi Mack, Karen Cantwell, Jonny Tangerine, Stephen Davison, Charles Shea, Joe Humphrey, Gary Hansen, M.H. Sargent, R.J. Keller, David McAfee, David Derrico, David Dalglish, Brendan Carroll, Alan Hutcheson, Paul Clayton, Imogen Rose, Tonya Plank, David H. Burton, Tina Folsom, Maria Rachel Hooley, Maria E. Schneider, Anna Murray, Ellen O'Connell, Edward C. Patterson, Caroyln Kephart, Lynda Hillburn, Robert Burton Robinson, Joseph Rhea, C.S. Marks, K.A. Thompson, J.R. Rain, John Pearson, Tonya Plank, Linda Welch, Ruth Francisco, Sibel Hodge, T.C. Beacham, Ricky Sides, Chance Valentine, Nancy C. Johnson, and many, many others are selling thousands of ebooks and getting on the bestseller lists. Many of them have even cracked the Top 100.

Then there are established pros like Robert W. Walker, Scott Nicholson, William Meikle, James Swain, Paul Levine, Selena Kitt, Richard S. Wheeler, Jon Merz, Simon Wood, F. Paul Wilson, Libby Fischer Hellman, Lee Goldberg, Casey Moreton, Raymond Benson, Blake Crouch, David Morrell, Mark Terry, Marcus Sakey, Ellen Fisher, Christine Merrill, Dean Wesley Smith, Kathryn Rusch, Joe Nassise, Gordon Ryan, Harry Shannon, and me, among others, who are releasing their backlists themselves, along with putting original works directly on Kindle.

I'm not the exception anymore. New writers and seasoned veterans are seeing the future and acting on it.

Publishers, however, are not.

Now allow me to draw some conclusions, make some predictions, and offer a bit of advice.

1. Think twice, and think again, before allowing anyone to buy your erights. I doubt I'll ever have another traditional print deal. I can earn more on my own, especially in the long run. With print losing ground to ebooks on a day-to-day basis, I'd hate to sign with a big house, and then 18 months from now they'll go bankrupt before releasing my book, taking my rights with them.

2. Amazon Kindle is where you want to be, but you should also check out Smashwords.com and IndiaNIC.com. That extra bit of income can turn out to be pretty substantial, and I expect some of these platforms to begin picking up speed.

3. Writing good books is essential. Having a bunch of them is a plus. The more ebooks you have available, the easier you'll be to find, the more you'll sell. By the end of this year, I'll have 28 ebooks available on Amazon. By the end of next year, I'll have at least 34.

4. I've been very lucky. I have a popular blog, and have gotten some good press. The scads of promotion I've done in the past certainly helps. But others are doing just as well, without my platform. And let me tell you, ebooks and Kindle are a much easier route than getting 500 rejections, mailing out 7000 letters to libraries, and visiting 1200 bookstores.

The ebook market hasn't even hit its stride yet. Here are some things I'm looking forward to in the upcoming months and years:

Selling my Kindle ebooks on international Amazon websites (with translations in German, French, Chinese, and Japanese)
Selling my ebooks on Kobo and Borders
Selling my ebooks on Android
Google Editions
$99 Ereaders
Kindle being sold at Best Buy
Getting my numbers from Sony and Diesel
Releasing DRACULAS on October 19
Releasing SHAKEN on October 26

This ride has only just begun. I'll end 2010 having earned over $100k on my self-pubbed ebooks, and that's nothing compared to what I expect to make in 2011. And I'm doing it without touring, without promoting non-stop, without spending a lot of money, and without relying on anyone.

I don't expect the publishing industry to acknowledge this post. You won't read about my ebook sales in Publisher's Weekly. Agents won't mention it on their blogs. If you go to conferences and ask the editors you meet about J.A. Konrath and ebooks, you'll get blank stares, dismissals, or outright hostility.

I'll be at the Novels Inc. Conference in Florida, October 7-10, and that will be the last time I speak in public for at least a year. In the past few months I've turned down dozens of speaking engagements and interviews, and I will continue to turn them down. The amount of email I get from folks wanting ebook advice is daunting and impossible to wade through, so I'm not even bothering to try.

I spent 12 years trying to break into publishing, and 8 years doing everything I could to succeed. Now I'm finally able to write full time, which is what I've wanted to do all along. No more tours. No more appearances. No more accessibility to the entire world.

I'm not a motivational speaker. I'm not a teacher. I'm not a salesman. I'm not a dog and pony show. I'm not an outlier.

I'm a just a writer, dammit. And that's all I'm gonna be.

Don't you want to be just a writer, too?

Teisco May Queen reissue from 1999

guitarz.blogspot.com:
The Teisco May Queen was a late 1960s design possibly borrowed from the Vox Mando Guitar of the same period, or maybe even the Eko Auriga (which had a much cooler reverse headstock design). After all these years, it is very difficult to say with any authority which came first. Anyway, there have recently been a couple of the Teisco May Queen reissues offered for sale on eBay (see here and here). These re-issues were intended for the Japanese market only and few are seen outside of Japan. The quality and playability is said to be much higher than that of the originals, although curiously whilst these two examples (see photos above and below) are supposedly both from 1999, they each have different pickups, vibrato, control knobs and even different Teisco logos on the headstock.

By way of furher comparison, here is an original Apollo-branded May Queen which was allegedly the deluxe version compared with those branded with the Teisco name.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

1960s Wandre Davoli Psichedelic Sound

guitarz.blogspot.com

A quick look at this guitar could make you think that this is just some 1960s German or Japanese take on the ES-335, but a second look reveals that it's more than that, a genuine Davoli Wandre with an alu neck and other weird details like a plastic fretboard...  Not the craziest model so, but a Wandre is a Wandre and we like them, it doesn't have to be all strange looking for that!

Bertram


Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

David Morrell on Ebooks

A few months ago I predicted a bestselling author would publish a new title exclusively on Kindle. Author David Morrell did just that with THE NAKED EDGE, a follow-up to his thriller hit THE PROTECTOR.

Besides THE NAKED EDGE, Morrell has also released nine of his backlist titles on Amazon, including the ground-breaking FIRST BLOOD, which many cite as the first modern action thriller.

David has always been a savvy guy when it comes to publishing. He was one of the first authors to use the term "platform", and has always been smart about the business end of things in this industry.

To see him understand and embrace the future with a move like this is a portend of things to come. He's doing what publishers have failed to do, and he won't be the first heavyweight to do so.

I caught up with David in Monaco, at the Monte Carlo Casino, and we discussed his new move while playing $500 minimum baccarat.

Okay, that's not true. I just emailed him.

David, why did you decide to publish these ten as ebooks?

David: Early this year, Amazon came to my agent, Jane Dystel, about making a large portion of my backlist available as Kindle e-books. These days, print publishers don’t seem as interested in backlist titles as they used to be. When they do commit to a backlist, it’s often so that they can have the e-book rights, which means that the way contracts are now written, the publishers have the e-book rights forever. The Amazon proposal allowed me to keep the e-rights while at the same time receiving the full might of Amazon to promote the titles on a global scale.

We selected nine titles from my backlist (after 38 years as an author, I have a lot of material in the vault). To draw attention to those nine titles, I decided to add an original, never-before-published novel, THE NAKED EDGE.

Joe: The Amazon marketing muscle is the main reason I signed with them for SHAKEN rather than simply release the ebook on its own. (For those keeping tabs on such things, I'm now selling 7500 self-pubbed ebooks per month on Kindle alone.)

THE NAKED EDGE is currently #206 on the Kindle Bestseller list, and I have no doubt it will continue to sell well, especially with Amazon getting behind it.

While publishers are mucking about with enhanced ebooks for the iPad by incorporating video into them, you've taken a simpler, yet still innovate, approach to adding extra value to ebooks.

THE NAKED EDGE has some pretty cool pics in the back matter (which look great in full color on various Kindle apps, and also reproduce very well in grayscale on the Kindle itself.) Do you foresee more authors adding extra content to their ebooks?

David: One reason that I wanted to offer THE NAKED EDGE directly as an e-book is to experiment with what an e-book can be. A main character in the book is a master knife maker, the old-fashioned kind with a hammer and an anvil. In the novel, he makes replicas of famous fine-art knives, such as the one in a 1950’s Warner Bros. movie, THE IRON MISTRESS, starring Alan Ladd as Jim Bowie. It’s an absolutely gorgeous knife that was used in a lot of other movies and inspired many contemporary knife makers, such as Gil Hibben who designed the knives for the last two Rambo films.

Another knife that’s described in the book is the most expensive knife in the world, Buster Warenski’s solid-gold replica of Kind Tut’s dagger. It’s valued at a million dollars. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I could include photographs of these stunning objects?”

If the 18 examples I selected were put into a printed novel, in color, the price would be extreme. But it doesn’t cost anything to include photos with an e-book, so I decided to tailor THE NAKED EDGE for an e-book format.

Joe: It does, however, cost a lot of money to add video, and that's what I'm hearing that publishers are doing. However, Kindle can't do video yet. What sense does it make to create video books when they can't be sold on the #1 platform? (My latest numbers: over 100,000 Kindle ebooks sold vs. 390 iPad ebooks sold.)

Another dumb move publishers are making involves authors' backlists. Either they try to grab ebook rights when the rights weren't mentioned in the original contract, or they make lowball offers for backlists with terrible royalty rates.

THE PROTECTOR is one of my favorite books of yours, so it's great that this is available again. Especially since used paperbacks are selling for $60 on Amazon.

It's insane that this book went of out print in the first place. But it's great for you, because now you can earn more than the sixty cents per paperback you were being paid, while still keeping the price under the cost of a new paperback.

And now you've written a sequel...

David: I love the dialogue between the main characters. Cavanaugh and Jamie remind me of Nick and Nora in THE THIN MAN, lots of amusing male-female banter between them, but with the difference that in my case the banter is accompanied by serious action.

As much as THE NAKED EDGE emphasizes what I see as a healthy marriage, it’s also about the failed friendship between Cavanaugh and a boyhood friend who is now his enemy. The background is that five years ago I ended a 35-year friendship with a man I considered to be my brother. The reasons are nobody else’s business, but I came to realize that the end of a friendship between two men (or two women for that matter) can be as angry and destructive as a divorce.

Here, the consequences of those emotions are harrowing. Skilled at protecting others, Cavanaugh discovers that it’s quite another thing to protect himself, especially from a man who knows him so well. The emotions are frank and honest.

Joe: Cavanaugh is in a short story, “The Attitude Adjuster,” that I included in an anthology I edited, THESE GUNS FOR HIRE. He's my favorite of your characters.

Can you explain why there are two versions of THE TOTEM?

David: In the late 1970s, when I submitted a 550 page version of THE TOTEM, my editor wanted to know why there wasn’t a love interest and why there were so many characters and . . . Let’s just say the editor didn‘t “get” what I was doing.

THE TOTEM is my attempt to redefine the werewolf myth, using science as the explanation, instead of superstition. It’s set in a town in an isolated valley in Wyoming, and one reason for the novel’s length is that I wanted to characterize the valley, to create a substantial sense of place.

In those days, I had not yet been fortunate enough to have a New York Times bestseller, which meant that I could either agree to the cuts or hit the road. Reluctantly, I agreed to the cuts, reducing the scale, emphasizing the town rather than the valley. That version was substantially shorter, almost by half. It had a very different beginning and climax.

I also changed the style, giving the revised text a subtle rhythm, which was my attempt to try to control the reader’s heartbeat. Even in the short version, the book received great reviews and was cited as one of the 100 most frightening horror novels. In 1994, I finally had a chance to publish the original 550-page version. That became the US version while the short version was the UK version.

Now both versions are available in one package as a single Kindle e-book. It’s another way to explore the possibilities of the format. In a printed book, the cover price of combining both versions would have been huge. But here I can add as much material as I want without any extra cost to the reader.

Joe: I did the same thing with my horror novel TRAPPED a few months back--putting two different versions into the same ebook. I'm also doing the same thing with SHAKEN.

Publishers don't seem to understand that ebooks aren't just another format. They have many advantages over print, and are allowing writers to give readers more bang for the buck.

Some readers don't understand this, either. I've gotten many emails from fans who are upset that I'm releasing certain titles as ebooks.

David: I'm getting a little heat for the e-book only option. On the other hand, if the book were a print novel and I waited 3 months for the e-book to be available, as some publishers prefer, then I would get heat for that. It seems very wrong that someone would make an aesthetic judgment based on whether the book is an e-book or not.

Joe: People are resistant to change. But change inevitably comes, and the majority adopts it, usually amid much grumbling. Then they wonder how they ever lived without the technology. Cell phones come to mind. I know several folks who swore they'd never get a cell phone because there was no reason for it. They all eventually gave in.

But even if some readers hate the thought of Kindles, ebooks are allowing writers more freedom than ever before. We're no longer beholden or bound to the whims of editors, sales reps, distributors, coop, marketing dollars, chain-store buyers, and corporate folks who ultimately decide the fate our books. For the first time, we can directly reach readers without any gatekeepers or middlemen who impose their ideas on what works and what doesn't, and we can make 70% royalties, compared to the 8% royalties we've gotten for paperbacks.

I don't want to speak for you, but I find this brave new world liberating and exciting. I can write what I want, without worrying about length, or if it fits into a specific genre, or if the buyer for Barnes and Noble will pre-order enough copies. I control the title, the price, the cover, and the content, and no one else has any say over how I run my career. My success or failure isn't dependent on the whims of an industry that accepts returns, where a 50% sell-through is considered acceptable, where overhead has become outrageous, and where only 1 out of 5 publishing books actually makes a profit.

What is your take on this revolution? Is it even a revolution? You've been in this biz since Gutenberg printed his first bible. Are ebooks a gamechanger?

David: Yes, I think ebooks are a gamechanger.

I’m not abandoning printed books. I collect Dan Simmons books and would not be happy if I didn’t have a signed copy of everything he writes. Some books are so attractive that I love holding them and admiring their artwork. Some books are so compelling that I want to lend them to my friends or buy them as gifts.

But the current system is broken.

I am troubled when I think of how the chain stores charge publishers a fee to display their books and then sometimes don’t display the books anyhow because of a communications failure.

I am troubled by the inefficiency of book distribution. How many authors have gone on a tour only to find that their books are available only in the store where they’re signing and not anywhere else in the city, or in the state for that matter, because the warehouse screwed up?

It bothers me that a new printed book has a six-week shelf life.

It bothers me that books go out of print rapidly (to create warehouse space for new books, which themselves will soon go out of print).

It bothers me that, if an editor wants to buy the manuscript of a new novel, it’s first necessary to get the okay of the marketing department, which in turn sometimes goes to the buyers for the chain stores and asks them “If we publish this book, how many copies would you hypothetically buy?”

This is nuts. There’s something liberating when writers don’t need to base their self-worth on what a conglomerate’s marketing team decides is a good book. The e-book market allows writers to write what they want. There’s no guarantee that a non-trendy book will attract readers, but at least authors now have a chance to find out.

Joe: Amen. When we get to Monaco, first beer is on me...

Uknown Japanese vintage guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Does anyone have any idea what this guitar might be? It has "Japan" stamped on the neckplate but no other clue to its identity, and is almost certainly from the 1960s. The seller suggests Guyatone, Sekova, Kimberly, or Teisco, but is just throwing names out there.

Still, it's a fine looker for the lover of cheesy guitars with its chrome pickguard and four pickups. The seller claims it is a good player too (well, you would in an auction) and is not just one to hang on the wall.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Liquid Metal Guitar Paisley Telecaster (I had a dream)

guitarz.blogspot.com

Dear Santa* / Tooth Fairy* / Kim Jong Il* / Bernard Madoff* (*select your favorite fulfiller of impossible wishes), you know how much I love black paisley for guitar finish - a perfect metaphor of my dichotomous tastes in pop music -, and since I'm a gentleman (as much as I can), I would see it on a sober and classic guitar like a telecaster for example (would put a neck P90 though for a more exciting sound)... Also I'm dreaming for years to get a metal body guitar - a shiny one, not an easy relicking à la Trussart - so combining all this would create the most desirable guitar... 

Alas, I don't believe in miracles and benevolent entities, so...

No, wait, now it exists for good! Liquid Metal Guitars did it, and it's just perfect!  I've been fantasizing for ever on Moollon etched guitars but the paisley pattern really makes my DNA ring... But I'm just an humble musician, and I will never be able to afford such a guitar, so it's still just a dream...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Minimal headless guitar with interesting lap-rest

guitarz.blogspot.com

This nice headless guitar is much likely handmade - its seller calls it a aa-Craaft Shark but aa-Craaft is a German brand of sound-systems (and they also tried to penetrate the guitar amps market - unsuccessfully since there are no traces of this on the Web) and never released any guitar unless I'm wrong - so the sticker on the guitar must come from a speaker...

Anyway, it's a very minimal log headless guitar - you can't be wrong when you build this - but what interests me is the original lap-rest, a very 90s design curved piece of plastic that seems quite fitting... Never saw that before, anyone did?  

EDIT: just received this message from Ed from Laguna: "The picture of what you called a  'lap-rest' is upside down.  My original Steinbergers have a similar plastic 'boomerang'.  It is a pivoting connector for the shoulder strap, not a lap-rest." This means that such a lap-rest is yet to be invented, if I wasn't a lazy looser, I would patent this right away... Ed ends his message with: "Love your blog" so I forgive him for making a fool of me.

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

AT LAST...

...the SEARCH function on this blog finally works! Apologies to anyone who has ever tried to use it in the past and gotten no results. It was useless, and would give zero results for the serach "guitar" even. (Blame Google/Blogger - it was their code).

Of course, the other way to navigate the blog is by checking the A-Z list of keywords at the foot of the page. That and the "You might also like" features beneath each post. But the now-functioning SEARCH box should make it even easier. Hurrah!

Sorry it took so long!

G L Wilson

1965 Kay Vanguard

guitarz.blogspot.com:
James of Krazy Kat Music in San Antonio, TX, emailed these photos of this unusual vintage guitar they just got in. He explains:

It's a 1965 Kay Vanguard. The body is made of some sort of MDF (you can see it where the paint is chipped off on the headstock). The pickguard is very cool! The single coil pickup is glued to the bottom of the pickguard, and the pickguard has a raised section with the design of the underneath pickup. Nothing of the pickup is exposed thru the top (the pole pieces and shape are etched into the pick guard). We've been jokingly calling it the "soap dish" pickup. Single volume, single tone. Strangely enough, the tone is the first knob, which is counterintuitive. Three bolt neck. The headstock still has the sticker of the store it was originally bought at, Mary L. Spence Music in Plainview, TX. The tuners have been replaced over the years, the original screw holes are still evident under the new tuners.

Something else strange too: when I removed the pickguard to check it out, I noticed that the electronics weren't grounded to anything. The pickguard was completely independent from the rest of the guitar.

Thanks for that, James! We always enjoy seeing unusual - and even downright cheesy - vintage guitars. Thanks for sharing.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Dingwall Custom I

guitarz.blogspot.com:
I'd like to feature some contemporary instruments on this blog, without having to resort to the latest slight variations on a theme from the usual suspects, and so it is that we must look to the independent guitar builders. The influence on the above-pictured Custom I from Dingwall Guitars must be all too apparent, but it doesn't slavishly follow the guitar that is its obvious inspiration, and is - I think - all the better for it. With a highly-contoured sculpted body, TV Jones pickups and Bigsby vibrato, this is one elegant T-type electric guitar.

Here is the full press release from Dingwall Guitars:

Dingwall Custom I Guitar

Dingwall Guitars best known for their critically acclaimed high-end bass guitars are going back to their roots with the Custom I guitar. The first guitar in this series combines the look of a classic rock/blues guitar with the fit, finish, performance and tone equaling the very best of the boutique guitar world. It made it’s debut at the Montreal Guitar show and received rave reviews.

Guitar designer Sheldon Dingwall concentrated on several key areas such as tone, resonance, lightweight, balance, ergonomics, tuning stability, seasonal stability, feel and appearance.

Resonance, tone and lightweight all can be greatly affected by wood choice and tone chambers. Years of testing have lead Dingwall to a tone that’s warm and full without the typical nasal quality that some tone chamber designs produce. Traditional woods like alder and swamp ash are used for the body because they provide a great platform to enhance through design. Using ultra lightweight Sperzel tuners and leaving select areas of the body solid to create a ballast effect achieve exceptional balance.

The body’s contours have been designed with several playing positions in mind from standing with the guitar strapped high, slung low, seated in a traditional position or hunched over as you would late at night when playing quietly. The scooped out horn and tapered heel allow unhindered access to the very last frets.

Tuning stability is addressed by combining an ultra low headstock angle in conjunction with a custom formula Graph Tech nut, locking Sperzel tuners a Graph Tech bridge and a customized Bigsby tremolo. Sheldon says “It’s hard to tell the difference between the best sounding guitar and the worst sounding if they’re both out of tune. They both just sound bad.” For this reason Sheldon Dingwall takes the “use any means possible” approach to making sure the guitar plays and stays as in tune as possible.

Seasonal stability is not something that’s discussed or advertised much. Due to the extreme mid-west climate a large percentage of guitar repairs that came into Sheldon Dingwall’s repair shop were humidity related. Glenn McDougall of Fury Guitar (Canada’s first electric guitar manufacturer) taught Sheldon many secrets to a stable neck/truss-rod assembly. By carefully matching neck and fingerboard woods, installing a truss-rod designed to minimize thermal changes Dingwall has created a neck that is extremely stable through temperature and humidity changes. The standard neck is a 3 piece maple laminate with walnut as an option for even more resonance and lighter weight.

The Custom I neck carve is influenced by 60’s C-shaped necks. The fretboard edges are rolled in for a played in feel. The fingerboard features a compound radius starting at a very comfortable 7-1/2” at the nut and flattening out to 16” at the bridge.

A TV Jones Classic Plus is featured in the bridge position with a TV Jones MagnaTron in the neck position. The 3-way blade switch is located out of strumming range to avoid accidental selection changes.

The look of the Dingwall Custom I is pure Rock’n Roll. With the gain dialed up on a good tube amp the bridge pickup nails the crunchy yet warm classic rock tone with a distinct almost cello-like character. Through the clean channel the neck pickup tone ranges from sweet and slightly scooped to warm and jazzy.

For pricing, options and availability contact sales@dingwallguitars.com.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!