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fjtorres · 05-02-2014, 05:42 PM

They also used to do subscriptions.
Unlike the other corporate publishers they to understand their readers.

Their problem is at the other end, with authors and their price structure: their books sold because they were cheap diversions but the only reason they were cheap was that they've been paying substandard advances and royalties for years. That worked when it was just them and Kensington. Once their authors did the KDP math and compared getting $0.28 per $5 paperback (and $0.06) per ebook to getting $0.50-$2.10 by going Indie, the writing was on the wall.
Realistically, I'm not sure what HC can do to restore them to profitability than to milk the backlist for all the ebooks it's worth, formula or no formula, the demand for their core product isn't enough to cover their overhead.

Other than their backlist and the brand, the biggest asset HQ has is their LUNA imprint. And that is a specialty/niche operation.

It'll be interesting what Murdock's minions make of HQ if the deal is approved.

05-02-2014, 05:42 PM	#7
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	They also used to do subscriptions. Unlike the other corporate publishers they to understand their readers. Their problem is at the other end, with authors and their price structure: their books sold because they were cheap diversions but the only reason they were cheap was that they've been paying substandard advances and royalties for years. That worked when it was just them and Kensington. Once their authors did the KDP math and compared getting $0.28 per $5 paperback (and $0.06) per ebook to getting $0.50-$2.10 by going Indie, the writing was on the wall. Realistically, I'm not sure what HC can do to restore them to profitability than to milk the backlist for all the ebooks it's worth, formula or no formula, the demand for their core product isn't enough to cover their overhead. Other than their backlist and the brand, the biggest asset HQ has is their LUNA imprint. And that is a specialty/niche operation. It'll be interesting what Murdock's minions make of HQ if the deal is approved.