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I’m at BEA sitting in on the PublishersLaunch Conference. ?The first event after the lunch break was a Mike Shatzkin interview with Barry Eisler, the author of the popular John Rain series of suspense novels (Hard Rain, Rainfall, etc.). ?The nominal topic was Barry’s decision back in March to turn down a 500K two-book deal with St. Martin’s in favor of self-publishing on the Kindle. ?However, Barry broke fresh news in this interview – he’s publishing the next John Rain novel with Amazon’s new Thomas & Mercer imprint. ?Amazon will release the digital edition first – giving Barry very favorable terms compared to ebook royalties in traditional deals.

Barry really blew Mike’s mind by inverting the value perception of the print edition in comparison to the digital edition. ?Barry suggested that given the royalty rates, he views the print edition as primarily a promotional tool for increasing sales of the digital edition. ?Further, he believes that authors who receive the favorable royalty rate for digital will be willing to accept a lower royalty on the print edition. This is a complete inversion – in a traditional print deal, an author would get 25% of list, which winds up roughly splitting the take with the publisher after costs come out. ?In the e-book edition, the author gets the 25% of the publisher NET instead.

Contrast that 25% take with the 70% royalty that Amazon pays a self-publisher, and you can understand the concern and frustration that many authors have communicated about the traditional publishing model. ?Barry has taken the next step by not just sidestepping the traditional model, but by working with Amazon to articulate a vision for a new combined print/digital model in which the participants exchange value based on their respective priorities.

We’ll see a lot more about this deal in the news going forward, and I’ll be shocked if Amazon doesn’t continue to show this kind of aggressive creativity as it strives to build the Thomas and Mercer brand.