Publishers continue to live in the past

[Elsi]

Related to this topic, Just a couple weeks ago Neil Gaiman posted that The Graveyard Book had spent more than a whole year in the top 10 of the New York Times Bestseller list, despite the fact that the entire thing has been posted online, each chapter read aloud by the author as part of his book tour for nearly that entire time. If you would like to listen to The Graveyard Book, it's still online.

[fugazied]

In some respects it could be a good opportunity for independent publishers and new authors to get a more prominent position.

If traditional publisher stay out of the sector, readers looking for ebook content might be exposed to modern publishers and authors not scared to death of the internet.

[pdurrant]

There was some disagreement that could not be resolved between Martin Miller's agent and Baen over the contract for more Thraxas books. My guess is it was over the non-exclusive world-wide ebook rights.

I don't think Baen will make a book contract that doesn't give them world-wide non-exclusive ebook rights, and I suspect that's been their policy for the past ten years or more.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

IAnd it also raises the question of what Baen should do if the author (or author's agent) refuses to sell world ebook rights. (They may be under the impression they can do better overall selling ebook rights the same way they sell pbook rights - country by country.)

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

And it also raises the question of what Baen should do if the author (or author's agent) refuses to sell world ebook rights.
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Dennis

Fairly simple in most case I'd imagine, tell them politely to get lost.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There was some disagreement that could not be resolved between Martin Miller's agent and Baen over the contract for more Thraxas books. My guess is it was over the non-exclusive world-wide ebook rights.

I don't think Baen will make a book contract that doesn't give them world-wide non-exclusive ebook rights, and I suspect that's been their policy for the past ten years or more.

For some portion of the past decade, Baen was insisting on buying exclusive world-wide digital rights. Then one day, Eric Flint and Jim Baen were discussing their observation that the sales model used by Baen for the digital part of the business was drastically superior to that used by other publishers... ...and they slapped their foreheads and said something along the lines of "let's prove it!" And within a very few days,* Baen switched to buying non-exclusive world-wide digital rights. And so it has been ever since.

Xenophon
(Who is repeating a tale told by Eric Flint at a con, but who may have misplaced some details in the garbage pit of his memory...)

* As for the "very few days," let's just say that Jim Baen had a whim of iron. And complete control of his company. So he could set policy more or less as he pleased.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Fairly simple in most case I'd imagine, tell them politely to get lost.

How likely that is to happen will depend upon the author, I think. If, say, David Weber, whose books now hit the best seller list objected, they would be anxious to come up with a compromise...
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

* As for the "very few days," let's just say that Jim Baen had a whim of iron. And complete control of his company. So he could set policy more or less as he pleased.

Yep. And did. He was CEO and majority stockholder, so...

However, he was also smart enough to listen to dissenting views, and change his policy if given a convincing argument. Eric Flint in particular seems to have had good success in getting Jim to switch directions.
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Dennis

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

How likely that is to happen will depend upon the author, I think. If, say, David Weber, whose books now hit the best seller list objected, they would be anxious to come up with a compromise...

Equally, I'd point out that David's Safehold series is, well, not-Baen. I'm sure there's a story there.

*shrugs*

Of course, very few other companies are willing to accept non-exclusive electronic rights, limiting the value of Baen's move. But it's still an extremely good one...

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Equally, I'd point out that David's Safehold series is, well, not-Baen. I'm sure there's a story there.

*shrugs*

Of course, very few other companies are willing to accept non-exclusive electronic rights, limiting the value of Baen's move. But it's still an extremely good one...

Yes. Baen can only release so many titles in one year. He writes a lot. Or, Tor offered a bigger advance.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Equally, I'd point out that David's Safehold series is, well, not-Baen. I'm sure there's a story there.

*shrugs*

My guess is, David can turn it out faster than Baen can publish it. He's not the only author who has had more than one publisher for reasons like that. Baen will publish a set number of titles per month, and as much as they appreciate Weber, they do want to publish other authors...

Tor CEO Tom Doherty, incidentally, used to be Jim Baen's boss whan Tom was publisher and Jim was Editor at Ace Books, and they remained friends and Tom was an investor in Baen Books when Jim set up his own shop.

So I suspect Weber having a series published by Tor was seen somewhat as "keeping it in the family".

Of course, very few other companies are willing to accept non-exclusive electronic rights, limiting the value of Baen's move. But it's still an extremely good one...

It's a good one from Baen's perspective, because it's something I think authors will be more likely to go for.
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Dennis

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

How likely that is to happen will depend upon the author, I think. If, say, David Weber, whose books now hit the best seller list objected, they would be anxious to come up with a compromise...
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Dennis

Yes : "most cases".

[ondabeach]

Go roger the rabbit, publishers suck, amazon sucks.

The world needs an iTunes store for eBooks. Authors upload their own books and we download them cheap. No middle men.

[pdurrant]

It's already here. http://www.smashwords.com/

perhaps not as pretty or integrated as iTunes, it otherwise meets your specification.

Well - expect the no middle men. Smashwords is obviously a middle man. But only one.

Originally Posted by ondabeach

Go roger the rabbit, publishers suck, amazon sucks.

The world needs an iTunes store for eBooks. Authors upload their own books and we download them cheap. No middle men.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by ondabeach

Go roger the rabbit, publishers suck, amazon sucks.

The world needs an iTunes store for eBooks. Authors upload their own books and we download them cheap. No middle men.

What you suggest is most certainly a middle man.

[calvin-c]

One thing that strikes me about this is the similarity to tariff laws, except that tariffs don't stop buying goods from other countries, they just make it more expensive. Hopefully (for the tariff proponents) prohibitively expensive. (Like tariff laws, geographic restrictions also result in ludicrous examples to take advantage of loopholes. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken...ing_the_tariff)

Somebody mentioned countries getting together to reform copyright laws. Heaven Forbid! Do you really think that such reform would be to the benefit of the consumer?

Now if you want to propose an international consumer movement to reform copyright laws, I might be in favor of that-but please, don't propose that the governments get involved!