Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
In fairness to Tor, I should point out that they are getting their catalog into ebook format, though gradually (the ebook of Sunborn came a year later than I'd expected), the ebooks are starting to show up in a wider range of stores (Sony, B&N, Kobo, etc.), and the prices so far as I've seen lately do reflect drops in price for paperback, etc.
They're not getting everything right, but they're getting a lot right.
As for DRM, I've yet to receive a satisfactory answer as to why they didn't follow through on their expressed (to me) intention to offer DRM-free books. But I suspect it was either a Macmillan uber-decision, or it was just too hard to do, given that most of the distribution system is already geared to require DRM.
As for price, I'm happy that they're dropping to equal mmpb prices. I have sympathy for the viewpoint that they should be lower, but only up to a point. Ebooks are still something of a specialty market.
Anyway, I agree that the survey missed the mark on many of these questions, and I wish they'd provided a space for comments. (I'm still not sure if it was a Tor survey or a Macmillan survey.)
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The problem though is the price. I get discount coupons in email from Borders. I can get anywhere from 25% to 40% off. Since the agency pricing, I would have to pay $7.99 for the eBook of
Sunborn where I can pay less at Borders for the paperback. So actually, the price doesn't equal the MMPB price as the MMPB price can be discounted and the eBook price cannot. I signed up for a Fictionwise club membership that is now rather useless to me due to the Agency pricing.
Yes, the prices are coming down, but still staying a bit high with eBookstores no longer able to have sales on the Agency Five's titles. I was willing to pay $9.99 for some eBooks that are still in hardcover. But when they went to paperback (regardless of format), I wasn't willing to pay $7.99 or more. So really, basing the eBook price on some overly priced paperback was a lost sale. And the agency pricing is going to lose money as I won't be buying their eBooks at $9.99 and thus, if I do, it will have to be a lower price then that.
Why do these morons (yes, they are morons) think that $7.99 for an eBook is good when the shops are not allowed to have them on sale? The MMPB can be put on sale via coupons. but the eBooks cannot be on sale.
So what I have been doing lately is using the library more for eBooks and more for paperbooks. All this is doing is losing these morons money and the authors will be making less as well. So what I think is that all the authors effected should complain as loud as they can to the morons in charge of business stupidity.