[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

The people on this forum are divided into different categories:

I don't think we all neatly fit into those categories, nor that those cover everyone. (But they're a good starting point for discussion.)

1. The publishers are right - the rest of you just don't understand the process of publishing
My guess is that these people work in the industry. They never give a quote for what they just know makes the cost of books and they always relate to the cost of hardcovers.

I don't think they all work in the industry, although I believe several of them have done so at some point. Watching them dodge around Baen's success is always fascinating.

5. The prices of ebooks will go down in time - the rest of you can pay as much as you want, but I can wait for the price to drop
They have long lists of unread books, a library pass, and the addresses of several used books stores. They can wait.

I'm mostly here. (You missed fanfic. I may never run out of Sherlock Holmes slash to read. Certainly, any new book that wants my money is going to have to convince me it's likely to be at least as entertaining as what I can get for free at the Archive of Our Own.)

7. Ebooks should cost as much as I am willing to pay
There are a couple of people around here who think that the cost of ebooks should be much lower, and essentially want to pay as much as I usually give a street performer.

I'm partially here, too. Most of my paper reading was used or borrowed books, and that's the prices I'm able to afford. I can, of course, just buy half or a third as many books, now that I've switched to ebooks... and I do. And make up the rest of my reading time with free books.

I am intrigued by the number of publishers and authors who would rather risk getting none of my money than sell me a book for mmpb-or-less prices. And amused by the number who would rather sell me nothing than risk my giving a copy to a friend.

I have, in the past, gotten books from torrents & other non-legit sources. I've stopped, because many authors insist that they are very, very hurt by this.

I'm really not sure how they're *more* hurt by that, than by not being read at all, but shrug, it's their choice. Since their books aren't in my budget, I don't buy them, don't read them, don't recommend them, don't buy the paperback for a friend because I don't know if I'd like the author.

With no ebook equivalent of the "$5/bag bargain book sale," authors have no way of reaching new audiences that aren't specifically seeking them. Right now, with the ebook market being all new and weird, this doesn't seem to matter; nobody knows how much word-of-mouth and booksharing has ever affected pbook sales nor how to translate that to digital sales. But I firmly believe that eventually, the digital marketplace will be dominated by authors who have figured out how to get at least some of their work to go viral.

Which can't happen if they hold to the strict "1 purchase = 1 reader" economic model.

(No, I don't know how to make sales work if they're giving away free copies. Works for Konrath; doesn't mean it'll work for everyone. But solving that problem, not making tighter DRM lockdowns, should be their top priority; none of us learned to love books by reading only newly purchased books, and authors didn't get to be bestsellers by keeping their books in the hands of the original buyers only.)