05-22-2014, 03:58 PM | #16 |
Omnivorous
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They most certainly could, and that's just one of the things that I don't understand about the Big 5. They should be falling all over ebooks. No used books sales. No sharing of books with your best friend. Every copy that is read *should* be paid for. If they'd just get behind ebooks, they could be rolling in profit. But no. We'll just cling to our old way of doing business, piss off readers and authors and finally die a slow lingering death.
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05-22-2014, 04:10 PM | #17 | |
Maria Schneider
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I'm glad they don't control prices more than they already do though... |
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05-22-2014, 06:14 PM | #18 | |||
Wizard
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05-22-2014, 08:40 PM | #19 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 is an example of technology moving forward. Who is it who likes, and dislikes, that? When posters here decry DRM technology, lately I'm seeing the caveat that it's fine for library borrowers like you and me. At least the big publishers aren't saying that affluent book collectors can get their books DRM-free while we hoi pollio get treated otherwise. As for smaller profits, well, a little less might be good, but publishing profits don't have all that much room to decline. For example, Hachette had that quite comfortable 14 percent profit margin last year, but in each the four previous years, they either barely broke even, or lost money. The only benefit to me of there being these big publishers is that their advances support creation of heavily researched non-fiction. If downsizing means that advances against non-fiction book proposals are going to decline much more, that would negate the value of those publishers. It could be inevitable that publishers who support complex long-term book projects will perish the same way that newspaper foreign bureaus and investigative teams have. I hope that's not the downsizing you support. Genre readers may think big publishers are problematic when the genre books appear to be subsidizing the rest of the operation. I do see non-fiction eBooks that are three times longer than a genre fiction or off-the-cuff advice title, and took ten times longer to write, priced at just thirty percent more. Maybe genre can't keep on subsidizing war reportage and biography like that forever. But so long as there is any kind of business case for it, please keep trying. |
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05-22-2014, 10:28 PM | #20 | |
Maria Schneider
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That's not to belittle the effort that goes into them, but there is no reason these tomes can't be self-published. Sure, you'd have to check the credentials, but that is the case now. Just because it is labeled non-fiction doesn't mean it's legit or well-researched. It's still a pick and choose world. My point is those books will not go away even if the publishers change. And I do recall Macmillian trying very hard not to release ebooks at the same time as harbacks and so on. The publishing industry did not embrace ebooks wholeheartedly at all. |
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05-22-2014, 11:01 PM | #21 | |
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05-23-2014, 12:37 AM | #22 |
Wizard
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I would argue that the publishers were technophobes because there were several big 6 publishers that were not releasing most of their books as ebooks until after agency pricing. For example, in the SF genre, I don't think Tor, Ace or Del Rey consistently published ebooks. I knew several SF authors who were frustrated with their publishers because the publisher had the ebook rights and weren't releasing ebook editions.
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05-23-2014, 08:43 AM | #23 |
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Looks like Amazon took the Buy button away from Hachette preorders (both Kindle and hardcover). Preorders mind you.
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05-23-2014, 08:57 AM | #24 | |
Maria Schneider
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Thanks Oak for setting me straight on the ebook releases. I know they weren't excited about doing them for a long time. |
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05-23-2014, 09:43 AM | #25 |
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I like the stance that many Hachette and Little, Brown authors are taking on social media. Some are, of course, raging and flinging invective everywhere, while a surprising number are taking the more pragmatic approach of simply reminding readers about the many other places their books are available for preorder and purchase.
I admit I'm a bit baffled, though, why many outraged authors are recommending B&N. Why do so many feel justified in putting their allegiance behind a corporation whose only real "virtue" was in failing to become the biggest bully on the block (though not through lack of trying)? Is it a "what have you NOT done to me lately" mentality, perhaps? |
05-23-2014, 11:58 AM | #26 | |
Maria Schneider
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More likely they've been treated well by B&N at a book signing or the like. They may have a more personal relationship with some retailers. My B&N doesn't do signings and won't carry bookmarks, etc for any author large or small. But I think they are an oddball store because one of the B&N that is quite a distance from me hosts authors and speakers all the time. They have a rather large Sisters in Crime group that meets there once a quarter and there are always authors around. Of course, I am speculating madly with my reasoning. But I'm a writer. I make things up sometimes... |
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05-23-2014, 03:09 PM | #27 |
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Amazon raises the ante - refusing to sell some Hachette titles like the latest one from JK Rawling: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...ype=blogs&_r=0
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05-23-2014, 03:27 PM | #28 | |
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Last edited by DiapDealer; 05-23-2014 at 03:33 PM. |
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05-23-2014, 04:09 PM | #29 |
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Hmm, both that NYTimes article and the Forbes one in the OP are comparing this in some ridiculous fashion to removing the buy buttons for MacMillan during the price-fixing wars.
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05-23-2014, 06:55 PM | #30 |
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I liked this summary at Slashdot :
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...inst-hachette/ http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/te...ette-spat.html "Amazon, under fire in much of the literary community for energetically discouraging customers from buying books from the publisher Hachette, has abruptly escalated the battle. The retailer began refusing orders late Thursday for coming Hachette books, including J.K. Rowling's new novel. The paperback edition of Brad Stone's The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon — a book Amazon disliked so much it denounced it — is suddenly listed as 'unavailable.' In some cases, even the pages promoting the books have disappeared. Anne Rivers Siddons's new novel, The Girls of August, coming in July, no longer has a page for the physical book or even the Kindle edition. Only the audio edition is still being sold (for more than $60). Otherwise it is as if it did not exist. Amazon is also flexing its muscles in Germany, delaying deliveries of books issued by Bonnier, a major publisher." |
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