Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
It's the people currently buying second hand paperbacks that have the potential to massively increase publisher profits, but that will rely on the publishers getting the price/convenience factors right. I can't really see them doing that, unfortunately.
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There is an obvious advantage for Digital Vs. Physical books.
It would be hard to offer all the works of all the artists or authors to the
public, as physical media. Can you imagine the warehousing and distribution
requirements? So there is a practical limit to what a physical media retailer
can offer at one time.
Not a problem for digital media/books. If you discover an artist or author you
like you could have the option of buying any or all of his earlier works. There
need never be anything "out of print". A retailer can maintain all an author's
works ready for sale with little warehousing cost. How many works are no
longer making money for the Author, Publisher, and Retailer just because
there is no longer any of those books available for purchase?
A book "run" might be a certain number of books, and for a physical book it is
a guess as to how that will meet the demand, over the time it spends as a
book that is "in print". Not an issue for the digital book. Once the one digital
book is available, it can be sold forever, it takes up few resources to remain
on hand. It can be available when a current event or resurgence of the
author's popularity makes for a spike in demand.
Not taking advantage of these features of the digital book seems a waste
and a real missing opportunity to capitalize on the works that are already
produced.
Luck;
Ken