The back list is a powerful asset and it's also something that the eBook world makes possible to fully use. That said, I don't understand why it should be offered at super-low prices.
Readers have a limited number of hours per day to read. Which means they can justify buying only a limited number of books. If they pirate a book and read it, that means they have just spent some number of reading hours on a pirated book and have no need to purchase a book to fill those hours. Sure, if it were a matter of bringing in a new reader, it might be worth it. And it might be worth it for a particular author who's been pirated to attract a new reader for the rest of his back-list. But for the industry as a whole, there are only so many hours in the day, so many books that can be read. Face it, books are cheap entertainment even at list price. Free books can work as promotion, to attract new readers to an author, to introduce new formats, that kind of thing, but ultimately we need readers to pay if we want to keep authors and publishers in business.
Rob Preece
Publisher,
www.BoksForABuck.com