Grisham is in the same position as his publishers: They are (finally) aware that the books industry is going to undergo a radical change, and that things won't be the way they used to be. Grisham himself, as famous as he is, now has to face the fact that his future economics will be very different than what they are now. They
might be better. But it will be so different as to be a complete mystery to him at this point, and it's always easier to stay with the devil you know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack Tingle
No, but the flaw in your assumptions is that making a treebook and making an ebook are nearly identical processes, with a big cost saving if you skip some of the treebook steps. That's just not true. Omitting the printing steps saves (as best anyone can account for) about $1.
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Actually, the costs of printing are badly accounted for because no one factors in the adverse effects of printing and distributing paper... namely, the air and water pollution caused by the paper production process, plus the use of oil and requisite air pollution involved in transportation of those materials. Those hidden costs (that we taxpayers pay to clean up, or to pay our doctors when it sickens us) are kept out of the paper trail deliberately... add them in, and the differences between paper books and e-books are much more significant. And since a single reading device can hold hundreds to thousands of e-books, you can multiply that difference accordingly and see the real value of going e-book.
This is only one of the reasons why the industry is going to undergo a radical change, and likely come out the other end looking very little like the industry looks today. Authors like Grisham, and their publishers, will scarcely recognize the new publishing world, and many of them will quit rather than adapt, which is their prerogative. But others will embrace the new models and continue on, maybe not becoming rich like Grisham, or maybe making enough to buy twenty Grishams... who knows? (I'm guessing the former, for the record.)