MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Discussion: eBook Publishing Model proposals

Lemurion · 12-17-2007, 04:47 PM

Here are what I see as the keystones of a successful e-book model.

1) Price: In order for e-books to succeed they have to be priced in-line with the public's perception of the value of e-books, which appears to be approximately the same order as a mass-market paperback or slightly less. Baen sells most new releases for $6 individually and a lot of their backlist is available for $4 each as individual books. They also have a bundling program which works to get new authors out there. Ignoring the bundling as a special case, I would say that a sustainable model should be based on the idea that the purchaser of an e-book gets less than the purchaser of a p-book and so the e-book edition should always be at least a little lower than the cheapest currently available p-book.

2) Flexibility: There are a plethora of different e-book formats out there, and no one device reads all of them. This means that in order to provide service to the majority of the market a book needs to be either available in multiple formats or in a single format that can be read by all devices. It also helps to be able to change formats as one moves from one device to another. Baen and Fictionwise (with their multi-format e-books) do this well, as they allow multiple downloads of purchased books in different formats.

There are other factors such as author/book exposure and piracy , but since they are not unique to the e-book model I'm choosing not to focus on them. Many, if not most, pirated e-books derive from scans of p-books and so their availability is going to remain completely independent of any e-book distribution and publishing model under consideration.

Personally I do think Baen's model is worthy of consideration because while they do serve a niche market (Science Fiction/Fantasy) they are a major player in that market and their model has proven successful for them. It's sufficiently successful that over the last year they have added non-Baen books to their Webscriptions storefront.

One conclusion we can draw from Baen, and also Fictionwise, is that DRM is not required for profitability. This is important because DRM adds to price and reduces flexibility, which means it should not be employed unless required by the publisher.

I think a cross between Baen's and Fictionwise's models would likely be most successful, with an absolute minimum of DRM and maximum of formats.

12-17-2007, 04:47 PM	#42
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	Here are what I see as the keystones of a successful e-book model. 1) Price: In order for e-books to succeed they have to be priced in-line with the public's perception of the value of e-books, which appears to be approximately the same order as a mass-market paperback or slightly less. Baen sells most new releases for $6 individually and a lot of their backlist is available for $4 each as individual books. They also have a bundling program which works to get new authors out there. Ignoring the bundling as a special case, I would say that a sustainable model should be based on the idea that the purchaser of an e-book gets less than the purchaser of a p-book and so the e-book edition should always be at least a little lower than the cheapest currently available p-book. 2) Flexibility: There are a plethora of different e-book formats out there, and no one device reads all of them. This means that in order to provide service to the majority of the market a book needs to be either available in multiple formats or in a single format that can be read by all devices. It also helps to be able to change formats as one moves from one device to another. Baen and Fictionwise (with their multi-format e-books) do this well, as they allow multiple downloads of purchased books in different formats. There are other factors such as author/book exposure and piracy , but since they are not unique to the e-book model I'm choosing not to focus on them. Many, if not most, pirated e-books derive from scans of p-books and so their availability is going to remain completely independent of any e-book distribution and publishing model under consideration. Personally I do think Baen's model is worthy of consideration because while they do serve a niche market (Science Fiction/Fantasy) they are a major player in that market and their model has proven successful for them. It's sufficiently successful that over the last year they have added non-Baen books to their Webscriptions storefront. One conclusion we can draw from Baen, and also Fictionwise, is that DRM is not required for profitability. This is important because DRM adds to price and reduces flexibility, which means it should not be employed unless required by the publisher. I think a cross between Baen's and Fictionwise's models would likely be most successful, with an absolute minimum of DRM and maximum of formats.