[delphidb96]

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.

But more and more businesses *are* surviving - as long as much larger corps don't get together with their paid shills in the legislatures to create a legal framework to force said new-method businesses out of business. Almost all the problems with doing business on the internet comes from increased efforts by the legislatures (who only want to steal more money - through taxation) and their moneybag contributors (who see the legislation as a way to beat up on the innovators) to force regulatory burdens upon the internet business models.

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?

The main reason most publishers aren't heading to the BAEN model isn't because it's too pie-in-the-sky so much as because the *other* publishers are so wedded to their 'We must have a total lock on customer loyalty by trapping them from using their ebooks in any way or on any device we don't like' philosophy. It's a severe form of 'buggy-whip-factory' mentality.

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.

Baen, that lovely publisher of trade pb, *HARDCOVERS* and *MMPBs* is still in business because it puts out *quality* product. That, of course, brings in money. And Baen is already at the forefront of the ebook wave, so it will survive. I cannot say the same of the more regressive 'traditional' publishing houses.

Derek