Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenophon
On the other hand, piracy has not been a problem for [Baen's] sales -- even for books that hit the NYT bestsellers list and sold hundreds of thousands of paper copies. In fact, they continue to sell both paper and eBook copies of books that they give away absolutely for free online. Sales of the books they give away go up, not down! Both in bits and on paper!!
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I've been thinking about that some lately, and it occurs to me that the type of people to whom Baen's offerings appeal might have something to do with that.
No, I
don't mean SciFi geeks! It's a bit complicated, so please read the whole thing and I'll try to explain myself.
All fiction, at some level, explores some principles, concepts, etc. of what it means to be Human. Even farce will do so, even if only looking at the question of what's funny or why we take ourselves so seriously.
It seems to me that many, if not most, of the titles that Baen handles consider, revolve around, and/or explore concepts such as honor, duty, and seeking to Do The Right Thing. It also seems to me that folks who enjoy reading those types of stories are folks who are, perhaps, more likely than average to incorporate those concepts and principles into their own lives.
With that as my premise, I submit that folks who are personally concerned with honor, duty, and Doing The Right Thing, are the sort of folks who will pay for their books, sometimes even when they don't
have to.
This leads me to wonder if a publisher which dealt primarily with stories about petty, greedy, thieving, manipulative (complete list as you like) characters as protagonists would experience a similar sales boost under similar circumstances.
Please understand, I'm not trying to belittle Baen's accomplishment in this area, only exploring whether it really means what I think it does.
