Thread: Ebooks high prices - the reasons beyond
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Old 01-12-2009, 01:13 AM   #96
Nate the great
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Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger View Post
I can't answer why Tor didn't start sooner on ebook sales, but it's clear they're serious about it now. I sat one evening working with the man who is overseeing the effort. I'm fairly certain that one obstacle to be overcome is that Tor is part of MacMillan USA, and their planned ebook store will be part of or coordinated with the MacMillan ebook store. (Or so I was told.) I never said anything about books magically appearing when they're tied into Baen webscription, though that is part of their plan--that Baen will be one of their distributors, or retailers. (And please note that even at Baen, things don't always move as efficiently as one might like.)

Obviously, I wish the Tor ebook project would move faster, because my own book is caught up in the delay. And if it's delayed much longer, I'll be pretty unhappy about it. So do I wish they were pushing harder? Yes. But do I believe they will get it going? Yes.

That said, I'll just note that more than one person at Tor expressed the feeling to me that the Mobileread community is sometimes...well, let's just say, less than constructive in supporting their efforts. (Note--the MR community has been great to me, and I share some of the frustration voiced here--but I'm telling you how MR is seen by some at Tor.)

(Why did I even get into this? If I'm smart, I'll leave this topic alone, because I'm not sure I'm contributing anything constructive to it.)
The word magic is my own. I did not mean to imply you said that. I use it becuase I have been told several times that in the not too distant future Tor will sell ebooks. I look at their current abilities, and I see that Tor cannot produce ebooks. This lead me to the conclusion that the new system would appear by magic; there is no indication that Tor is putting it into operation right now.

And as for us being less than constructive in supporting their efforts, well, I have to ask: What efforts? All we can see is Tor mouthing platitudes about the future while continuing to fail in the present.
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