Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
This is one of the few areas where licensing might work--being able to sell 2nd edition (or 3rd, 4th, or whatever) to people who already have the first edition, at a reduced price, the way many software vendors sell 3.0 at half-price to registered users of 2.0.
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Upgrades/updates. What a tremendous idea. It could even open up new markets.
- Technical books: The buyer for Java for Dummies 2008, who would rarely repurchase the full-price 2009 edition, would probably pay $1-$2 for the 2009 update merged into his full eBook.
- Different language: for those who think they might want to learn a language. There could be an option to merge the two books paragraph by paragraph.
- Biography: e.g., a sports bio about a current player, where a couple of years more of playing might warrant an upgrade. (Although society doesn't need the many biographical upgrades warranted by the varied exploits of O.J. Simpson.)
Fiction writers would probably find ways to cash in via updates. (Gah, we'd need to read Amazon reviews for the original and all subsequent updates!)
And publishing bigwigs might be less paranoid about offering upgrades once they knew only the updated information was being sent out (a PC-based book-merge program would be easy to implement).
And the merge could be turned on or off, or the updated info presented in a different font, for those who want to see what was in the original.
Or it's a terrible idea. Consumers' wallets will be milked dry by updates and sequels. And writers will look to embellish their "milk cows" rather than being creative. Oh, they already do that?