BEN BOVA's most sought-after novel, THE STAR CONQUERORS, now available!

[andrewburt]

Originally Posted by Serpentine

... and in before publishers publish some made up stats about piracy.

No, we're not concerned about piracy. If we did, we'd do DRM, which we don't. DRM is evil.

I've done some extensive testing putting my own books up as if pirated, and concluded that the people who read pirated copies are very unlikely to have have made a purchase, so there's virtually no lost revenue.

I've done several experiments and surveys. In one survey, conducted via bittorrent, I asked people what fair pricing would be based on various parameters. Lots of responses. I then did an experiment, putting up some of my own ebooks on bittorrent with a note inside saying, for example, "If you read this, please pay $3 if you really liked this, $2 if it was just okay, and $.89 if you weren't feeling it" -- numbers arrived at as fair from the survey of torrent users. I found a number of hits to my web site (which was mentioned inside it) so I know at least some percent of them opened the file and read enough to see the URL (as opposed to just collecting it and never opening it). Of those who I can tell opened and read the ebook, which numbered in the several hundred when I checked on it -- ONE person paid for it. I've repeated that experiment with variations, and the same net effect, that torrent downloaders do not represent much in lost sales. I haven't seen any difference in sales in my titles that are on bittorrent vs. the ones that aren't. My sense is that people who are able to pay for ebooks they read will be fair and pay, and those who don't are either unable to afford it, live in a country where they can't easily pay, or weren't that into the book enough that they even finished it. I suspect the number who actually read a pirated book all the way through and are able to pay, but don't, is extremely small. They're more like people reading the book in a bookstore. But they don't represent any significant lost revenue.

So, there are your stats about piracy -- probably not what you expected!

And @ozron, yes, we did have good response to the coupon, so see OP -- we've put it back on again for a few days since you missed it last time.

[sabredog]

Well I'll be!


That sort of attitude is going to sell you some books for certain. Glad to read what you posted. I wish the Luddites in the publishing industry had the same vision.

[Croptop]

Thanks for posting the new coupon. I'm new to Mr. Bova's work and welcome the opportunity to read more of his writings. I figured I'd take advantage of the discount and grab the Exiles trilogy while I was there.

[andrewburt]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Well I'll be!


That sort of attitude is going to sell you some books for certain. Glad to read what you posted. I wish the Luddites in the publishing industry had the same vision.

Thanks, I hope so too on the sales! As for Luddites, well, yes, that may be close to accurate. Or at least, not grasping Moore's Law and what exponential curves really mean. I've long studied the S-curve for ebook adoption (the S-curve is the "S" shaped curve that adoptions of new products tend to follow), and my curve-fitting of ebook sales data show they're on a path to overtake print sales and become the dominant format within a few years. (Print will remain, I'm sure, but more a niche. More so in some areas, e.g. e-readers are more cumbersome for reading textbooks where you need to flip back and forth a lot, but new ereaders will likely come to address that. For reading novels and other linear-reading books, ebooks appear likely to dominate, and fairly soon.) The curve fit has a really tight correlation coefficient, so it seems likely to happen.

The thing is that publishers and authors aren't math / computer science guys. (Which is my background, former CS professor.) There's also a psychological factor I've noticed. Some might grasp the idea, but are either fearful of it, or just like what they know (paper), and thus refuse to acknowledge the science behind it. (Pick any scientific / technology based change, and you tend to find a lot of resistance -- the earth being flat vs. round, earth orbiting the sun or vice versa, etc.) So it's understandable, and probably predictable, that the established players will ignore and fight change. I try to take a realistic view of things and plan for where the curve is heading. Plus there are just all these books on my shelf that I personally wish were ebooks!

There's also a business case for them, that with print the big publishers have a monopoly power (much lower cost printing and shipping than small publishers) which they lose when it comes to ebooks. So they're understandably afraid of something that levels the playing field and takes away their golden goose. My view is that it's vastly better for society to have all books available to read, not just the ones a small group has chosen (on the basis purely of profit, at that, not merit). Which is why I started ReAnimus Press, to help authors get their books available where people can read them. I love this job!

Changing subjects -- @croptop -- glad you found the coupon useful, and discovered Ben Bova. I really like his stuff. By way of background for those who haven't read his work, he's a six-time winner of the Hugo Award and many other awards, including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel of the Year (2006, for Titan) and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. He is the former editor of Analog and Omni magazines, and the author of over a hundred books, both fiction and non-fiction. Bova has served as president of both Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. and the National Space Society. And a nice guy. I'm really pleased we've been able to publish a bunch of his books (and we have several more in the pipeline, so keep an eye out for them).

[mchernin]

I agree. At some point in time i was able to download this book for free to my palm tree, does anyone know where this link is.

thanks

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by mchernin

I agree. At some point in time i was able to download this book for free to my palm tree, does anyone know where this link is.

thanks

Moderator Notice

Ben Bova is still alive. If that title is in copyright, then MobileRead will NOT allow any link whatsoever for a copyrighted title to be obtained by illegal means, unless by express permission of the copyright holder.

[andrewburt]

Originally Posted by mchernin

I agree. At some point in time i was able to download this book for free to my palm tree, does anyone know where this link is.

thanks

Hi, mchernin, several years ago Ben made it available free for short time on his web site, back long before ebooks were popular, but it hasn't been available there for years now. (As noted, it is still in copyright.) That edition was a good try but still had many errors in it, had no cover, and was what by today's standards would be an amateur job. Ben gave ReAnimus Press the exclusive electronic rights, so I was glad we could bring it back, with those errors corrected, the original cover, etc., and it is now the only version he's making available.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree, Richard; it's all a matter of personal value. For me, £8 is about the price of a very cheap take-away pizza. I value a book, which will last me a lifetime, more highly than I do the ephemeral pleasure of the pizza. Of course I'd be happy if it were £4 rather than £8, but, nonetheless, if it were a book that I knew that I'd enjoy, I'd probably buy it. We all have to make our own judgements in these matters.

A cheap take-away pizza here is 3 to 4 pounds. Therefore a paperback should be 3 to 4 pounds.

[koland]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

A cheap take-away pizza here is 3 to 4 pounds. Therefore a paperback should be 3 to 4 pounds.

I find paperbacks of that weight much too large to carry around; it's ok for reference books (or those that collect dust on the coffee table), I suppose.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by koland

I find paperbacks of that weight much too large to carry around; it's ok for reference books (or those that collect dust on the coffee table), I suppose.

Yes, so get the ebook. Costing three or four pounds it won't be heavy, and you don't have to keep it hot!

[caleb72]

If you ever manage to get Elizabeth Hand's back catalog I'd definitely bite. I've already told her personally that I'd buy all of her books if they came out electronically (minus the Star Wars/movie tie-in stuff).

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by caleb72

If you ever manage to get Elizabeth Hand's back catalog I'd definitely bite. I've already told her personally that I'd buy all of her books if they came out electronically (minus the Star Wars/movie tie-in stuff).

Yeah, me too. You can probably skip Catwoman, as well. Although considerably better than the movie!

[andrewburt]

Just an update to this, we're happy to announce that Ben has given us permission to do a *print* edition of THE STAR CONQUERORS now, in addition to our ebook edition. For those who might want a paper copy, it's available on Amazon as well as directly from the print-on-demand system we use (which is also owned by Amazon):

https://www.createspace.com/4344064

This is the first ever paperback edition, and only the second ever print edition. Hope you enjoy it!