Quote:
Originally Posted by DixieGal
IMHO, it seems to me that expecting all books to be available in all formats is asking a lot from publishers. It would be an inventory nightmare! Such a system would practically require book orders to be processed individually to meet the desires of purchasers, which would be labor-intensive and cause the price of books in any format to skyrocket.
Not that I wouldn't personally love to have any book I desired in any format I wished for... ;-)
DixieGal
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i don't know enough about the industry to really address that, but isn't that basically what Print on Demand does ? the way i see this model working is that probably at the very beginning they would print a certain number of books (but less than they do now, if they are really pulping 40%
), which can be sold through traditional bookstores. however at the same time, the ebook is available (content only) for an appropriately lower price. perhaps they will want to maintain the system of "expensive hardcover first, cheap paperback later" (i can't see them giving that up) in which case i assume the ebook would also have to be somewhat more expensive when first released.
after the stock has been depleted, depending on the demand, they could either print another (small) run, or publish the paperback on the same principle, or switch exclusively to a POD system which would be more or less like being able to create your own custom format (i don't know how POD works now, and if you can order hardcover / softcover, but if you can't i think it must be possible to put that in place).
what would be nice would be to make the paperback available from the beginning as well, even if only through POD, however as much as that would please some people (probably a lot, actually), i doubt publishers would accept that.