[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Am reminded of some discussions I had here a while back regarding the purpose and efficacy of the publisher. Obviously, printing and physically distributing a text is not the only cost, so the issue of pricing is murky.

Very much so. I think some folks have unrealistic view of just how low books can be priced.

Whether you publish a book electronically or in paper, you have an assortment of costs: the cost to acquire the title in the first place, the cost to edit it, the cost of providing a cover design and art, the cost of creating the final marked up version from which printing plates are made or electronic editions generated, any marketing that is done, plus a share of the allocated overhead of the company that publishes it. Ebooks save on costs of paper, printing, warehousing and distribution, but the book will still cost to produce, and will impose a minimum figure at which it can be priced, simply to cover the costs.

It would be great if you could encourage some of your publishing pals to contribute or peruse these fora. That might give them more evidence of the (possibly) changing landscape of bookselling.

I can try. The problem is that they all have jobs and lives, so finding the time to hang out in places like this is the challenge. (The Senior Editor at Tor I just dropped a note to about their electronic editions is a single Mom with a kid starting to think about college. Guess how much free time she has?)

I know that I would feel better about ranting if I knew that someone was listening, and was willing to interact. Feel that the notion of transparency could help publishers out here; would prefer collaboration over contention.

So would we all.

The model at this point is probably Baen's Bar, a set of electronic forums on their web site (and also available as newsgroups). The late Jim Baen used to hang out there and interact with the readers. Toni Weisskopf, who took over as Publisher after Jim's death, has her own forum, and many of Baen's authors do as well.

I have cautious hopes that other publishers might get the idea, but it will require corporate culture changes that will come slow and hard.

Must be honest, that I never before was much of a book buyer, for all my bibliophilic posturing. Partly because of my tastes, location, and temperament, I mostly frequently the public library or used bookstores. When I started buying more first-run texts, railed and balked at $25.00 for a hardcover fiction book. Tried to allay this cost by starting a communal lending library, or something akin to book crossing http://www.bookcrossing.com , but with friends.

$5.00 is a good price for books, and I would go as high as $10.00 for a text I absolutely craved.

Hey! How about a referral program? If I send my friend a link from a publisher's website that results in a purchase, I get a kickback via paypal or account with the publisher?

That might be promising.

I frequent used book stores, but that's because a good bit of what I want isn't in print, and a used book store is where I might find it.

My local bookseller actually lives in Ohio - he deals at a lot of the SF conventions I attend and help to run, so I normally come home with a substantial stack. (My SO is a very fast reader, capable of going through a book a day. I settle for having time to do one or two a week.) I do buy hardcovers, but I'm not fussy about edition: I have an assortment of SF Book Club copies because I simply wanted a durable reading copy, and didn't insist on a trade edition.
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Dennis