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Originally Posted by caleb72
I actually wonder what the impact would be to having only global publishing rights. Has anyone tried to project how that would change things? Do you think it could wipe out the presence of bigger publishers in smaller countries? Could there be any impact on the availability of English works (for example) in other languages?
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I don't know of a publisher who has tried it because in the past there's distribution issues. They have to find a local publisher to the region. That said, Amazon is doing it with both their print (POD) and their ebooks. But that is going to impact mostly self-published or backlist authors who do control price. As an indie, I can charge different prices in different regions for both print or ebook. I pretty much let the exchange rates dictate the prices (meaning it's a straight across equal deal) but in the case of ebooks on some publishing platforms, there is a different "lowest price possible." Specifically kobobooks comes to mind. I can't charge less than .99 pence for example (even though given an exchange rate, I think a 99 cent US price is closer to 79 pence.)
So there are some things that make pricing a bit wonky.
Will what indies are doing impact prices? I think so. Sure, some people won't read indie work, but there are a lot of readers looking for free and bargain books. It may not sustain indies in the long run, but it does pressure publishers to compete at least on occasion (sales, to get visibility, etc.)
I don't think any traditional publisher is nimble enough to change the way things work now. They may attempt to buy ebook rights for all geos and sell that, but printing is more complicated unless they choose to do some sort of POD deal.