Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Well, they know that the book buying public will pay agency prices for premium talent. They were right about that.
You should also understand that it takes a LOT of money to do the R&D and to build out the infrastructure for the new money and that investment money comes out of current sales. When people talk about new media, you get the impression that its all unicorns and rainbows that don't have to be paid for because the Internet changed everything. However, servers and programmers and bandwidth and developers all have to be paid for. Shatzkin says it this way:
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I don't worry about the big 6's future...They don't have one.
The issue you dance around is as follows. I have a choice of a $2.99 indie ebook or a $12-14.99 Agency ebook.
Will I get 4-5 time more entertainment out of the Agency ebook, on average? Only if I do, is it "worth the money". Otherwise, I'll spend the $2.99.
This is nothing new, the entire history of the pulp magazine industry was premised on it.
Doc Savage sold consistenly more than 200,000 copies a month. It cost 15 cents. The "best seller" of the era ran $1-2 a book in hardback. People voted with their dollars for pulps. More pulps were written and sold than all the best sellers combined, for the period of 1900-1950. Just like people eat fast food instead of a fine restaruants. Costs matter.
What is new is the fact that an author who wants to, can have complete control of his/her business, and cut out the middle men who are currently eating up 90% of the revenue. But to do that, they have to be businesspeople, not just artists.
Read Robert A. Heinlein's
Grumbles From the Grave. Look at how concerned he was about the
business of writing. That's why he was such an economic success...