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Originally Posted by BuddyBoy
My only quibble would be that the $6 represents a wholesale price since no retailer is involved (and thus equates to $12 retail), and your - and their - definition of profitable may not be enough. What's their ROI? There are a lot of business eeking our a living for the love of what they do, but in a larger business sense, I wouldn't really consider them "profitable."
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Baen doesn't actually sell them directly - they sell through Arnold Bailey's Webscriptions storefront which is a separate entity. In addition to Baen, both NightShade Books and Subterranean Press also sell through Webscriptions at the $6.00 price point.
It's at least self-sustaining.
As to definitions of profitable: Baen books thinks it's profitable and while they're not one of the conglomerates, they are one of the larger independent publishers. (They were set up to provide an SF/F arm for Simon and Shuster to distribute). I do know they make more from eBooks than from all foreign sales combined - so that certainly implies that $6.00 is a reasonable price for DRM-free eBooks.