Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
I think this ignores one of the important changes brought about by ebooks, the long tail. Publish a paper book and in a few months or a year at most it goes out of print and you get no more income from it. Publish an ebook and it might generate at least some income for the rest of your life. Publish both and every resale of the paper book can introduce a new reader to your future work as well as to your older work.
Barry
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That is the big difference. Of course, for midlist and up authors, they re-release books every 7 years or so. Once they get enough of a backlist catalogue, they get a decent revenue stream. This particular model has been around for a while and is fairly well understood. The ebook model isn't quite as well understood, so it generates anxiety for the authors. They worry about piracy and their backlist losing value. (Jerry Pournelle use to call his backlist, his 401K plan).
From a consumer point of view, I love the ebook model. When I find a new author that I like, I can quickly snarf up that author's complete catalogue. It seems obvious to me that in the long run, it's going to help authors, but then again, I'm not the one betting my livelihood on it.