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Originally Posted by GA Russell
My concern is with the here and now, and primarily about backlist fiction.
As I have stated elsewhere, there are no Perry Mason books legitimately available as eBooks. A pirate can and will make eBooks of them easily and then give them away free.
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Can and have. I've seen them.
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Assuming that a publisher has the rights to them, and just hasn't gotten around to them, I think that publisher should do his job and e-publish the books, and price them at something very nominal like 99 cents.
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That's a huge and probably unfounded assumption.
For books that
are that popular, publishers have an incentive to keep them in print. Backlist sales of established sellers go a long way toward smoothing out the peaks and valleys of new release successes and failures. (Mind you, I don't underestimate publisher stupidity. I've heard of cases where publishers lost rights to a title because they forgot they
had the rights, and let them lapse unintentionally. They forgot they had the rights, but the author/author's agent didn't, and promptly formally requested that the rights revert.)
If I had to make a guess, whoever has the rights is either doing a poor job of marketing them, or has a higher idea of what they're worth than a publisher is willing to pay.
And republishing at that nominal 99 cent price has issues, even if the publisher
has the rights. Author, author's heirs, author's estate, or author's agent might just think the books can command a higher price, and do everything they can to toss blocks into that road.
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These large cost sums bandied about may be appropriate for new books, but I do not think they are relevant for backlist fiction.
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See above about one of the functions of backlist books. Imagine
you're an author with backlist titles out there, and are trying to make your
living as a writer. Do you think you'll be happy at your publisher choosing to reissue your titles as ebooks at that nominal 99 cent price? When you may see 20 cents or less on a copy? (Your royalty percentage will be set in your contract.) See my previous comments about books competing for reader's
time. I don't see the fact that they are really cheap increasing sales enough to come anywhere near "making it up on volume."
I understand why getting them at that price is a good deal for you. I don't understand what makes it good for the author or the publisher.
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Dennis