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Originally Posted by J. Strnad
If the Big Five priced their ebooks 20% less than the street price of the cheapest print edition, I would have no problem with the agency pricing model at all.
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What about the case where the ebook is released simultaneously with the hardcover?
Quote:
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When a book goes out of print, the ebook could enter the under-$5 range and compete with used books. That's a market opportunity I don't see the big publishers taking advantage of.
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How could they? When the book goes out of print, the author (or author's agent) can formally request that the rights revert. They can then attempt to sell it to another publisher, or the author may choose to self-publish in POD and ebook format.
Ebooks and Print On Demand have caused a rethinking of just what "out of print" means. Before those, when a publisher decided to stop selling a book, it was declared out of print, and unsold copies either wound up on remainder tables (hardcovers) or were pulped.
With ebooks and Print On Demand, current contracts specify a level of sales for both, and if the sales drop below that level, it's considered evidence the publisher is no longer actively trying to sell the book and the book is considered out of print. If it weren't for that, the publisher could theoretically hold onto the rights forever, because ebook and POD editions would be available. I don't think that's something
any author would be happy about.
An author may choose
not to ask that the rights revert, and let the publisher do something like that. I'd be reluctant to go for it, as an author
or a publisher. Given that most buyers routinely wait for the PB instead of buying the hardcover to get a lower price, what's to prevent them from waiting even longer for the price to drop to the point you specify?
Hard for the author to make any money, or for the publisher to remain in business under those circumstances...
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Dennis