Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Yep. You're suggesting that the big publishers could digitise their entire back catalogue (of which they have rights, at least) for a relatively insignificant sum.
I don't believe this to be the case, or they would be doing it, or at least, be planning to do it, very quickly.
As if they could do it, it would be a no-brainer to do it. Since they're not doing it, there must be some reason why they're not doing it. Cost seems most likely, if not in the actual digitisation work (which would need to include proofing), perhaps in the legal aspects of finding out which books they have ebook rights to, and which they don't.
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It's all about control. The publishing culture has many, many, years of control of content. (and I include many authors in the culture as well).
I keep thinking of Don Rickles in
Kelly's Heroes.
Telly Savalas: "Nobody's moving that Tiger."
Don Rickles: "Then make a deal."
Telly Savalas: "What kind of Deal?"
Don Rickles: "A
Deal deal! Maybe the guy's a Republican..."
The publishing industry refuses to make a
Deal deal. Here's sample deal.
Publisher X has print right to author Y's back list, or most of it. No e-books have been released. Publisher X offer the following deal...
A 50/50 split of revenue. The publisher has a new imprint - call it Backlist Books. Price $5 per book, no DRM. The publisher does
nothing to provide the text, that's the author's job. The publisher point out that the author can scan his own, or see what's available on the "darknet" to steal back and use them if they wish. The publisher doesn't care. If the OCR proofing is bad, readers can complain to the authors.
The revenue is small ($2.50) an e-book, but the costs are even lower. From the publisher's viewpoint, just web hosting costs. From the author (or heirs and assigns) either scanning costs, or downloading effort. And of the authors were
really smart, they'd put a placeholder for their books not yet offered, begging for a fan to do a nice job scanning for the author.
Offload to cost to the customer.
$2.50 a copy gross may not seem like much, but you're making $0 as is now. Piracy? Is it not better to get some revenue and some piracy than no revenue and some piracy? That's been Baen's bottom line for years. They, and their authors, don't seem to be at bankruptcy's door because of it.
But you give up control....