Quote:
Originally Posted by Happ
I would like it that more and more small businesses like Baen could thrive. That was, after all, the Internet promise, in the beginning, remember? Authors alone, and small publishers, would get a piece of the pie. This was a dream that died early when the ‘free’ business model killed it. Now unless you have lots of people around to click your ads you make almost no money.
Baen would prove great if its business were so good that everyone started to copycat it. After all, e-book publishers are trying to copycat Kindle which in turn is trying to copycat iTunes. And this all is for a reason: money. These models suck to you and me, but make money. More than Baen. What does this tell you? That Baen’s model has a future and that iTunes’ model doesn’t?
So, my verdict is that Baen has not gone bust yet just because it is publishing trade paperbacks and there is money in this. Without that, Baen would cease to exist. So if e-books become more a more common and trade paperbacks more and more cumbersome, Baen will go bust. Unless it changes its business model.
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My coin is still sitting on the table.....