Quote:
Originally Posted by ClintBrauer
I don't disagree that things are moving too slow.
The main issue is that the investment should have started long ago. But just a few years ago I had to "persuade" some publishers that costs could be lowered if they each committed to a meaningful volume.
That should have never been the case. But just like much of the large companies out there...people make a living by reacting.
If Baen's model is working for them...then that's great. I'm not sure that any one model will be the "best" for a long time to come.
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Clint has touched on something I was sort-of kind-of pointing at... since Baen is a publisher they're in a rather different position than a company that intends to be an eBook retailer (but not a publisher).
What I was trying to get at is this: Baen's model has been working for them (as a publisher) rather better than the approaches most other publishers have taken. Low prices (maybe even very low prices!), lots of formats, no DRM, and respect for the customers. They make it very clear that they don't take that approach out of the goodness of their hearts, but rather because...
...wait for it...
they
MAKE MORE MONEY that way!
Baen's sales are up in all of paper, bits, and dollars -- even while the industry as a whole is shrinking. They're seeing their ebooks bring in a significant percentage of total sales (I estimate somewhere in the 15%-20% range based on statements from insiders, but I could be off by a bit) -- without having any problems with piracy. And that no-piracy-problem thing holds just as well for NYT best-sellers as for the mid-list and back-list authors. Meanwhile, my records show that my cost per unique eBook from Baen has been a bit under $3.50 per book after all discounts, bundles, etc. (and yes, I subtracted out all the books I got two of because they were included in two different bundles).
The message I was intending to aim at Clint is this:
Low prices, lots of formats, customer convenience, and no DRM is a winning combination in the eBook world.
But I also realize that Clint and CyberRead can't just wave a magic wand and make all the publishers CyberRead deals with buy-in to that message. CyberRead has to deal with the pricing choices made by publishers, even when the publishers cluelessly choose to charge more for bits than for paper.
On the other hand, Clint clearly has reasonable contacts in the publishing world (or so I presume based on his previous positions). So I was hoping he could poke some of the less-clueful publishers in a more positive direction.
Xenophon
P.S. @DaleDe -- No, I'm not claiming that Baen has done better than Amazon overall. Rather, I'm claiming that they've driven their eSales to a higher percentage of gross than any other "traditional publisher" I've heard of (and I've poked around through publicly available information quite a bit), while also increasing sales (and sell-through) at a time when the other guys are seeing decreases. And the choices they've made are much MUCH better for consumers than those made by most other publishers.