Quote:
Originally Posted by Zedd
then do not buy it. Don't really know what to tell you.
Try looking at it from the authors and publishers point. If peopel are not buying them, why bother releasing more?
|
Hi Zedd,
First of all, thanks for the sanity and courtesy of your contributions, which have been a joy to read
In this case, however, JS Wolf is on the side of the angels. Bringing out only one book in a series is self-defeating.
Compared to the cost of the original paper edition, producing a subsequent ebook is almost trivial in terms of both effort and cost. There are plenty of people on these boards who produce well-formatted ebooks with a few hours work, starting with files that are much less satisfactory than those available to a publisher.
On the other hand, I as a reader am not going to commit hard cash (not to mention reading-time) to the first book in a series if I suspect that I am going to be left feeling irritated by the unavailability of subsequent volumes. I am simply not going to buy a dozen paperbacks in a series, period; that phase of my life is over. But I will [I have] buy whole series in electronic form - often in one purchase, since I don't have to carry them home!
Publishing only the first volume is also self-defeating for publishers in that people who
do buy the first book and then find themselves left in the lurch will be far more prone to turn to illegal copies, which are out there anyway. Failure to produce legitimate editions simply feeds the pirates.
I'm sorry you're being made the focus of the frustration many of us feel at the fact that that publishers seem incapable of realizing that the market is already there - if they would just produce the goods in a timely and reasonably-priced manner. We are like kids with our noses pressed to the window of a bookshop that too often seems closed to us for no good reason.
And once again, thanks for the graciousness of your replies.