Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
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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The buyers have been doing this in the DTB market since the first used bookstore opened. The cost of DTBs is only partially based on cost of production, the people buying new hardcovers do it because they can't/won't wait (or for gifts), those who want new at a cheaper price wait for the paperback, and those who want it even cheaper, wait for the used paperback (or hardcover) to drop to half paperback cover price in the used bookstores, or next to nothing at yard sales.
What was suggested was that when the number of sales drops to the level where in the DTB world it would be considered out of print, the price should drop to a level corresponding to used paperbacks. The author and the publisher would get the proceeds instead of the used bookstore. Everyone's happy except the used bookstore owner. In particular, the author and publisher keep getting some revenue, where they would have received nothing once the book dropped out of print.
The main concern for the author and publisher is that if older works never go out of print, they're always in competition with new books. One could argue that this is a good thing for earlier books in a series, because if they never go out of print as an ebook, then readers will not be as reluctant to buy the latest book of a series because they can buy the predecessors and catch up.