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Lots of problems....Who owns the e-book rights? Without rights, the authors can do nothing...
Assuming you have the rights, how much will you settle for? Let me use Baen as an example. They claim e-book revenue is 10-20 percent of p-book revenue. At 50% to website retailer, (once again using Baen as an example gross of $4 a book) leaves $2 a copy. If you sell 10,000 copies a year p-book, you'll sell around 2000 copy of e-book. That's $4,000 gross, max, before your overhead. That's not a lot of money.
Conversion costs. Re-scan, re-proof, re-layout, re-cover. It'll come out of the author's pocket. Of course, there are shortcuts. Check the Darknet for your books. If they are well proofed and formatted, steal 'em back! if they're not out there, do you have any dedicated fans who will do the job for Whiffle credit? Or maybe for a sharecropper fee? (say 10% of your gross) You don't want to burden your finances or time by paying it all upfront. Too much risk, too little reward.
Most likely, you'll only get beer money out of you e-book rights this way. Still... you'll keep your customers satisfied, satisfied...
Most important, you have to have a common site for readers to go to. What I find sad is many author trying to do this on their own, and nobody but the most die-hard fans even know they're doing it...
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