interesting article on the economics of e-content

[Steve Jordan]

Oh, I dunno... some high-end computers (and especially laptops) were going for $5000 just 10 years ago. Your wait might not be that long.

[Sagacity]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

... advertisers are the ones who really hold the purse-strings for newspapers (as they do for TV and radio, for instance). The suggestion I'm making is that it might be the solution to e-papers, and if it works for e-papers, it might for e-books, too.

Steve - if you've got the programmers and the distribution, I've got a solution that might meet your wishes.

Also, I have a micropay-model that works.

Interested?

Ruggero

[Steve Jordan]

Ruggero,
I just have 10 books to sell, conceived, written and formatted by me, which I would be glad to sell cheaper (or even give away for free!) if I was being supported, say, by advertisers. What do you have that fits those needs?

[Sagacity]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Ruggero,
I just have 10 books to sell, conceived, written and formatted by me, which I would be glad to sell cheaper (or even give away for free!) if I was being supported, say, by advertisers. What do you have that fits those needs?

Well Steve - to implement and emploi a new payment-and fonding (financing) system to the market I believe demand involvment by several major players to succeed.
Though, anyone selling any amount of ebooks could benefit from signing up.

1. step is to recognize your markets financial mecanism; the structure of production, distribution, agents, payment and transaction.
Second, I need to know how you wish the technical delivery to work.

To simplify, the line-up of today looks something like this:

--> Author (Contentmaker) --> Publisher --> Production --> Distribution --> Agents (Commissioners) --> Shop (Street, Mailorder or Internet) --> Consumer (Reader) --> Money Transfer (Hard cash or Bank transaction)...

Nothing wrong with that - it's been working fine for hundred of years.
Problem is though, that the electronic market just dublicate the physical market system missing the potential that comes within the electronics itself.

First of all I've change the importance and engagement of several players:
Out goes the Publisher and the Production unit.
The Distributor is no longer defined as a physical company (unit) but any available network - including wireless, bluetooth, hand_to_hand. (It's a misunderstanding to think a website as a 'Distributor'...the actual Web Distributor are the ones that owns the network, the cables!)
The Commissioners and Shops are one: On the internet it's the ones holding a website (like Google, Yahoo...These guys do not make money selling content: They sell ad-space and licenses to search engines! Any sticky content on their websites is paid for by the holder of the website. If you give money to fx Yahoo for 'selling' your ebook is stupid: Instead they should pay you!
What's left is the Money Transfer:
Banks are not the only one - and not always the best - to take care of your money. They don't give credit easely and even take a fee for each transaction. But others do give credits, take no consumerfee and they have done this for decades...we just don't use'em properly.

That's all for now - my 'work' is calling - but I'll be back

[Steve Jordan]

With my present system, I am author of the books, and designer/producer of their packaging (covers). I also act as publisher, choosing the e-book's formats, and designing/producing the advertising medium (the website). My site is the sole source for my books, so I act as distributor also.

I use PayPal to arrange payment with customers, a fairly automatic and simple process (provided the customer has a credit card, or a PayPal account). A third-party script (a one-time expense) allows the system to automatically send the e-book to the customer once it's purchased, within seconds of the purchase. Altogether, it's a very simple, compact and effective system for a one-person operation.

My only overhead costs here are the costs of my domain and web site. The rest of my costs are "cost of living," which is satisfied by my day job. The only adjustment I'd like to make to this system would be to be able to apply funds to direct advertising of my product, but I do not have dedicated advertising funds available to me yet.

I see the possibility of being "supported" by corporate funds, in exchange for reciprocal advertising on my website or within my e-books, and would be willing to discuss the possibility with any interested corporation. These funds could either directly support me as an author (allowing me to leave my day job), or provide the funds for advertising that I need to spread the word about my product. (As yet, I have not approached any corporations with this in mind.)

And that's my system, and my most immediate goals. As you can see, I've already boiled down the process into its essential components, and only lack financial resources to push it to the next level. In that vein, I continue to promote my e-books through indirect exposure (in websites like MobileRead) and word-of-mouth from satisfied customers, in the hopes of making enough from sales (or some other resource) to apply back into advertising.