Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
I do too, but does such a price point exist for ebooks? We found it for music, but I'm not convinced it exists for ebooks. Authors don't have performance venues to supplement reduced royalties. There are many authors leaving the business *today* because they can't make enough money anymore, even though their writing is just as good as it used to be.
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Real-world experience suggests that $6 per book (quantity one) with discounts by way of bundles, multi-format support, and no DRM is sufficient to deter piracy. While simultaneously giving authors a royalty that is between that for Trade Paperback (that's the big expensive paperbacks) and hardcover and also giving the publisher a higher profit margin than they get from a paper sale. And that $6 per book is right from the start -- even when the book first comes out in hardcover.
That's the Baen Books approach. It's been working well -- ebook sales are larger than all non-US paper sales combined (Canada included), and are growing a good deal faster than paper sales. And paper sales are growing too. Even in the current downturn, where publishing is hurting and sales are down.
The business model is out there; it seems to work fine. I am mystified why other publishers don't do the same.
Xenophon
P.S. My net cost per book from Baen after all bundle discounts and excluding titles purchased more than once (due to bundles) is around $3.40.