Thread: Interesting article on book pricing and why it might rise
View Single Post
Old 12-03-2010, 10:03 PM   #173
DMcCunney
New York Editor
DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DMcCunney ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
DMcCunney's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,384
Karma: 16540415
Join Date: Aug 2007
Device: PalmTX, Pocket eDGe, Alcatel Fierce 4, RCA Viking Pro 10, Nexus 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks View Post
Well the parent company DID stop TOR from putting out ebooks on BAEN's site. There was a nice little agreement early on to sell ebooks through Baen (this was before Kindle) and somehow...someone up in corp. didn't like the idea of ebooks and the program was canceled. Now, of course, the ebook direction is changing, but Baen has been out there with ebooks from early on (and Tor was briefly a part of it.)
Tom cut the deal with Baen to sell Tor content through Baen's Webscriptions. It got to the point of being announced by both Tor and Baen when Holtzbrink pulled the plug. The problem was that Baen does not apply DRM to Webscriptions offerings, and Holtzbrink had the unreasoning fear of piracy that causes DRM to be applied in the first place.

Subsequently, Holtzbrink got a new CEO who was opposed to DRM, and the deal was supposedly on again. A note from Tor Senior Editor Patrick Nielsen-Hayden indicated it was in the hands of lawyers for both sides for the proper dotting of Is and crossing of Ts, but that was a while back. (Patrick also stated that Macmillan was in the process of digitizing Tor's back catalog, and ebook editions would be forthcoming at some point.)

My guess is that Holtzbrink is trying to craft a coherent digital strategy across all their lines. I had a conversation with Pablo Defendini, the former Producer at Tor.com, where he freely admitted that what he was doing had visibility beyond Tor, and was being watched by other parts of Holtzbrink. (In fact, Pablo didn't work for Tor when running Tor.com, though he started out there as a Junior Book Designer. At Tor.com, his boss was a Macmillan VP in charge of digital initiatives.) I suspect Holtzbrink has decided that they are a global publisher, and if ebooks are to be sold, they'll do it, rather than have a unit contract with a tiny independent to do it for them.

Quote:
The big guys/boss must stir the pot now and again if for no other reason that to give chaos a chance.
Yes, unfortunately.
______
Dennis
Last edited by DMcCunney; 12-03-2010 at 10:18 PM.
DMcCunney is offline   Reply With Quote