Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
Actually, I think the original point was that Baen's model might be a better choice of example of what works than the example of Apple's model, because Baen deals, successfully, with e-books rather than music -- the gist being, why compare oranges to apples when you have a perfectly good orange to compare them to?  |
Because I don't think they are that far apart. Digital music and digital books are essentially software products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
That being said, the facts that Baen does have an actual e-book store, from which they show a profit, and have a number of bestseller list titles available from, which seem mysteriously resistant to piracy despite their glaring lack of any DRM would seem to be extraordinarily relevant to the current topic of discussion. 
I understood that you wished to discuss how e-books might be successfully and profitably marketed in the mainstream, but perhaps I misunderstood your intent? |
I guess it depends on your definition of mainstream. I sense that you may be attached in some way to Baen (I don't know, something in the tone of the responses is almost defensive) so this may have something to do with it....so let me put it this way:
How many Oprah Book Club selections are being sold by Baen as eBooks?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
If I don't misunderstand, then I'd figure that a specific, real-world example of a company that's doing a darned good job of doing precisely that in a particular genre would be of interest, along with the details of how they're going about it.  |
I do not believe that if Baen were selling more of and different kinds of DRM free books with a super broad appeal that this would be the case.
I don't *know* this, but my experience with the other fork in the road tells me that "Pop" is what ends up flooding the waves, not Indie.