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Originally Posted by rhadin
Now, because you want to read an ebook rather than a pbook you demand that they be released simultaneously. What makes for the sudden change? I don't get your intense dislike for publishers. Seems to me that a 3 month delay for a cheaper version is not unreasonable and is better than the 12 month delay that exists for paperbacks and with which you have been content for decades.
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Because the ebooks are:
1) Usually priced to match hardcover (although releasing w/paperback might fix that)
2) Often not as well-formatted (lower quality = expectation of more versatility)
3) Sometimes not released at all--and in those cases, there's no incentive not to go to the darknet for them.
If the ebook isn't released with the hardcover, will the publisher list a publication date for the ebook? If not, customers don't know if it'll ever be available.
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I'm proposing that ebooks be the paperback substitute and that the delay be reduced.
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Ebooks are not a replacement for paperbacks; they reach drastically different markets. PBacks reach low-income markets that don't have computers and dedicated ebook readers. Publishers who swapped their cheap, low-tech, well-established market for a high-tech market fraught with weird legal concerns would be shooting themselves in the foot.
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At least I offer a proposal that takes into account the varied interests. Where is your suggestion that balances the competing interests?
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Publishers need to stop being terrified of the torrents, and pay attention to their *paying* customers. It doesn't matter how many unauthorized copies are floating around--what matters is how to get paid for as many as possible. And they can do that with low prices & user convenience.
Any big-name publisher could try an experiment: pick three dozen authors of equal rankings (however they rank them internally); offer half of those authors' works under the current glitchy ebook system, and the other half under Baen's system. Wait one year and tabulate the results.