Quote:
Originally Posted by emellaich
What do the rest of the old-timers think? Is the bar everything it used to be? Or is it less central to the Baen 'empire' than it was in the early days?
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The level of traffic in the forums that I used to frequent got so heavy that even one day away made Waaaaay too many posts to read. I've been a barfly from about three bar crashes ago, just before webscriptions actually started. I used to read everything in 1632, but so many new people joined that I couldn't keep track any more.
But my original point still stands: the promise of author interaction still helps interest newer readers.
Another poster commented about Amazon policies, and that brings up a good point. One improvement might be to convince Amazon to allow grouped purchases, so that one price could obtain more than one item. Would a larger publisher be interested in a "monthly bundle" if it could still sell through Amazon or one of the other major markets? I bet Smashwords could be convinced to add such a feature...
Or maybe even B&N could have a sales bundle that is only available when you physically go to the store.
More publishers might be interested if they could still make use of their standard market share and advertising.