[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I assume that the author and the publisher will consider something better than nothing.

Sure, but what "something" is will vary depending upon who you talk to.

As a record company exec once said, How do you compete with free?

By offering something people are willing to pay for.

If a backlist fiction title is currently unavailable as a legitimate eBook, the publisher and the author are getting nothing from eBook sales.

If a non-backlist title is not available as an ebook, publisher and author get nothing from ebook sales. Consider J. K. Rowling, who would not license ebook editions, so the only ebook copies of Harry Potter you could get were pirated. Legitimate copies didn't exist. (I recall hearing she is finally reconsidering her stance on ebooks.)

Elfwreck today in another thread described how easy it is to make an eBook copy. So the pirate copy of this backlist item either exists or could easily exist tomorrow.

Probably does exist now, if the work is at all popular. But most folks may not be aware of it, and may not be interested in looking for it if they are.

A sales pitch could be made that the "official" eBook is a better product than the pirate version, and well worth the 99 cents.

But the public isn't going to want to hear a story about how expensive it is to create an eBook. Not when they know that the pirates are doing it for nothing.

I don't believe anyone is telling the public an ebook is expensive to produce. They are telling the public books in general can be expensive to produce.

And while an increasing number of people are now reading ebooks, you can't assume they are aware of the darknet, or go in search of pirate editions. They may have something like a Kindle, and get what Amazon offers. They may not be aware pirate copies exist.

(There's a prolific MR poster who has no computer, and participates here posting from his Kindle.)

And if I'm a publisher, I'm sure as hell not going to use "better than a pirated edition" as a sales pitch. Do record companies who permit Apple to offer their content through iTunes talk about it being preferable to MP3s obtained through bit torrent?

I've got a Kindle. Amazon sells the book I want. I can pay for it on line and download it now and start reading. I don't have to go searching the darknet for a decently produced copy and take the time and trouble involved in doing so. Instant gratification, and value I'll pay for.

(No, I don't have a Kindle, or want one. I'm just illustrating the notion that convenience rules.)

By the way, when I brought up the concept of backlist items, I had in mind items like Perry Mason whose authors are long dead. I can understand a living author wanting more than 20 cents for his work, but I assume that if the market were there for real money, the "official" eBook would already exist, and he'd already be making the real money. Presumably, the time for making the big bucks on that work of art has passed, and we are now looking at the "found money" stage of the process.

You would like to think so. Unfortunately, not everyone involved agrees with you. I'm more familiar with the SF/fantasy field, and hear horror stories about works by authors long dead whose stuff is not available because the author's estates have unrealistic views of what the works are worth, and ask far more for reprint rights than prospective publishers are willing to pay. I'm quite certain the same problem exists in other genres.

And lots of publishers are still stupid about ebooks, period.
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Dennis