Transparency

Once upon a time - last week - publishers kept sales figures a closely guarded secret, even from authors. Royalty statements came every six months (usually), and were notoriously difficult to decipher.

But the age of transparency has dawned. And perhaps prodded by Amazon -- or so suggests the authoritative industry email newsletter and website Publisher's Lunch/Publisher's Marketplace - Simon and Schuster has opted to present authors with as much up-to-date information as possible.

From the email newsletter:

As a timely answer to the NYT's awe on Monday that Amazon gives authors "direct access to highly coveted Nielsen BookScan sales data" (in very small slices, mind you), Simon & Schuster has formally announced their new Author Portal. A "principal feature," called My Sales, gives both authors and agents "access to the most recent and life-to-date sales information for all the active print, audio and electronic editions of their Simon & Schuster titles." And the data dashboard shows granular information for "national accounts, online booksellers, mass merchants and other retailers, aggregated by channel."
CEO Carolyn Reidy says in the release, "The portal reflects our determination to give our authors the resources they need and want in order to make publishing with us a positive experience, and to partner with them in making their publications the success that they deserve to be." Other features are designed to help authors build better online platforms and enhance their usage of social media.

You can subscribe to Publisher's Lunch here.

Of course, one can only wonder how many authors will be checking the site every hour, whether the sales figures update that often or not.