Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston
Dumb question...
If the publishers are making as much on e-books as p-books (with the sellers taking the loss on e-books), why the delays in releasing e-book version for many recent bestsellers? It's not like having it in paper only is preventing illegal e-versions from being released.
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Publishers want to make as much as they can, so timing is critical. An editor at Tor Books, for example, spoke a few years back about realizing it wasn't a good idea to remainder unsold hardcover copies of the last Robert Jordan Wheel of Time novel just as you were releasing the mass market paperback copy of that volume, because the retailers might sell the remaindered HC version for less than the PB...
I think publishers delaying ebook releases are doing so for the same reason they normally release a mass market paperback edition up to a year after the hardcover: they don't want to compete with themselves and cannibalize their own market.
The question is how many buyer
only want an ebook edition, wouldn't buy a paper volume in any case, and are simply annoyed by the delay. I don't know. Nor do the publishers, which is why they are still groping for a coherent strategy.
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Dennis