Quote:
Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
The rules for one market don't apply for the other market. Backlist fits the niche market, but not the "Hollywood Mindset" market. And this thread is about what's good for the"Hollywood Mindset" and not the heavy reader market. Hence the conflict.
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Agreeing with most of what you wrote, but isn't this thread really about publishers making money?
You can make money off of niche markets. (See also, Baen, ha.) There's no doubt about that. You can
probably make profit off of a niche market like back lists. Certainly some authors have done so very well.
So if the question is merely "Can publishers make money by converting their backlists to eBook format, sticking them up on Amazon, and taking the long view?", I think the answer is surely YES!
Not a lot of money, not bestseller-sexy money, but money.
Lee is also, I think, dancing around The Subject That Cannot Be Rationally Discussed by talking about price points and whether or not consumers will tolerate them. I think, in general, that most people will pay $10 or less for a backlist book that they crave and $6 or less in general for a backlist book that they might like, and anything over that price point they most likely won't buy. Whether or not THAT is profitable for the publisher remains to be seen, but I don't know why it wouldn't be over the long haul.
I think the biggest problem is that publishers aren't taking the long view. Not that there's a lack of evidence for THAT.
