Quote:
Originally Posted by Xenophon
It's important to note that Baen does this, in part, by cutting out one-and-a-bit levels in the distribution chain. Their eBooks skip the "distributor" step entirely (that would be Ingrams, etc. in the paper book world), thus skipping their cut of the selling price as well. In addition, the cut taken by Webscriptions (which is a separate business from Baen Books, although it's occasionally hard to tell that from the outside) is rather lower than that taken by Amazon, for example. Finally, Webscriptions takes on a larger portion of the preparation of eBooks than do other eBook retailers (thus reducing costs for Baen). So most of the improved pricing at Webscription comes from disintermediation, rather than from getting rid of paper and its associated costs.
Xenophon
(All of the above written from memory, so apply an appropriate amount of salt.)
|
That sounds right. But.
It's hardly something which can't be replicated by another company, given the will. Heck, several smaller scifi/fantasy presses are now using Webscriptions (and Tor briefly did, before their corperate parent freaked).
I think the future is grim for "mainstream" hardbacks at the big companies. That is, smaller publishers will still do limited print runs of hardbacks for collectors, art books are not going away and small kids books are going to still be hardback.
Or, more simply: "if all you're gonna do is moan they should take your teeth away!"