What is your dream e-device?

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

As far as will they loose or gain sales... there is no way to know. Unless you can split the universe in two at the point where it happens and follow the two outcomes and report back. But, we know this is only possible in Science Fiction.

BOb

Good answer but many publishers think that they will loose.

[Xenophon]

Of course they'd politely request that the book be taken down. But there've been plenty of cases of folks asking in Usenet groups (that happen to contain mostly pirate activity*) for copies of Baen eBooks. And the other folks who frequent those groups of told the requester to "just buy it -- it's cheap and they get it."

Their philosophy is to offer books at a reasonable price, providing good value for the money. They think that most folks would rather have a legal copy if it's cheap and convenient to do so. You know: treat the customer fairly and with respect and (most of them) will do right by you in return. And, so far, the results in the real world have worked just that way.

As for whether or not they'd be losing money on those 1000 hypothetical unpaid downloads, well... that's one of those imponderable questions that's really hard to answer in practice. In theory, the subset of downloads that actually displace a sale that would otherwise have taken place represent "lost sales." But it's essentially impossible to figure out what fraction of the 1000 are lost sales and what fraction are people DLing something they would otherwise never have paid for because "it's free."

It's worth noting, however, that Baen has put CDs chock full of eBooks in quite a few of their hardcover books. Those CDs are clearly marked as being free to copy, give away, or share, but not to make money on. And there are a number of web sites that have complete downloads of everything on those CDs; with the publisher's blessing! And yes, those CDs have included things like every prior book in the 15-book series that the HC is the latest of, along with nearly everything else that author has written. So they're not particularly worried about folks getting free copies.

Xenophon

*I'm not saying that anything about all, or even most Usenet newsgroups. Rather, the specific binaries groups in question happened to mostly contain pirate activity.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

As for whether or not they'd be losing money on those 1000 hypothetical unpaid downloads, well... that's one of those imponderable questions that's really hard to answer in practice. In theory, the subset of downloads that actually displace a sale that would otherwise have taken place represent "lost sales." But it's essentially impossible to figure out what fraction of the 1000 are lost sales and what fraction are people DLing something they would otherwise never have paid for because "it's free."

Actually the case is shut: Baen and Meisha Merlin paperback houses in the 90's. Baen does drm-free ebooks, becomes a powerhouse hardcover house in its niche, has NYT bestselling authors...

Meisha Merlin does drm books (sometimes), the paperback market collapses, Meisha Merlin goes bankrupt.

Simplification sure, but...

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Kris777

Ok, very simple question: What Baen will do if you purchase one most popular book for $5 from them and post it as a free download on this forum and after it 1000 visitors will dowload it for free? Can we say that they will loose some money on it or not?

Toni Weisskopf (And Jim Baen when he was alive) considers it 'free advertising' pretty much. IOW, any copy of an ebook given away to a friend quite often (often enough to make it a good source of word-of-mouth advertising, in effect) leads the recipient to buy MORE ebooks from Baen authors - both ebooks and dead-tree.

Now if you really want to piss Baen Books off, just try re-selling those ebooks. IOW, as Cory Doctorow and others have stated time and again, it's not the "theft" of a 'stolen ebook' that hurts the authors, and the publishers most, but the lack of publicity for the stories. If I write (okay, *finish*) a novel, but only a small publishing firm prints it and then does nothing to market it, I may never get out of the obscurity ghetto. But if someone 'steals' an ebook version and starts posting it to the various ebook sections of Usenet or on the #bookz IRC channels, thousands of readers may discover my work and demand more.

Derek

[astra]

Baend has the latest DRM free bestsellers?
Really?

Does it sell in a DRM free format?:
The Hero of Ages [Mistborn Series Book 3] - By Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension [Mistborn Book 2] - By Brandon Sanderson
The Shadow of the Wind - By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Kushiel's Chosen - By Jacqueline Carey
Coldfire Trilogy - By C. S. Friedman
The Farseer, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy and Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb?[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

Baend has the latest DRM free bestsellers?
Really?

Does it sell in a DRM free format?:
The Hero of Ages [Mistborn Series Book 3] - By Brandon Sanderson
The Well of Ascension [Mistborn Book 2] - By Brandon Sanderson
The Shadow of the Wind - By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Kushiel's Chosen - By Jacqueline Carey
Coldfire Trilogy - By C. S. Friedman
The Farseer, The Liveship Traders Trilogy, The Tawny Man Trilogy and Soldier Son Trilogy by Robin Hobb?[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-1][/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT]

Baen are a publisher, not a general book seller. With a small number of exceptions, they only sell the books that they themselves publish.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Baen are a publisher, not a general book seller. With a small number of exceptions, they only sell the books that they themselves publish.

People here claim that Baen is publishing DRM free bestsellers in general, not a small number of writers who go with Baen but major Fantasy and Sci-Fi writers. Otherwise, what is a point of the claim? Anyone can boast publishing DRM free bestsellers written by average Joe....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by astra

People here claim that Baen is publishing DRM free bestsellers in general, not a small number of writers who go with Baen but major Fantasy and Sci-Fi writers. Otherwise, what is a point of the claim? Anyone can boast publishing DRM free bestsellers written by average Joe....

I think you might have misinterpreted what was being said, astra. All that anyone's said is that several of Baen's authors regularly make the "bestseller" lists.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think you might have misinterpreted what was being said, astra. All that anyone's said is that several of Baen's authors regularly make the "bestseller" lists.

OK. Quite possible you are right.

[igorsk]

Here, I'll repeat the relevant part of the post in question.

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Except, of course, when one of that month's books from Baen happens to be a bestseller. Which happens several times a year. New books from Weber, Flint, Bujold, and sometimes Ringo routinely make the bestseller lists. So, actually, readers can buy new best sellers from Baen.

Hope this clears things up.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by astra

OK. Quite possible you are right.

The point is that despite offering drm free ebooks that "supposedly" destroy demand, quite a few Baen authors hit the NYT bestseller list and for example War of Honor which was the first Baen novel including a cd sold its first 100k hc printing quite fast around 2000 from what I remember.

[bill_mchale]

Just a thought, but Eric Flint actually credits giving away ebook copies of his books as being a large part of his success as a writer.

Dedicated ebook readers might ultimately sabotage this approach, but most people do not want to read an entire book from their laptop or their desktop. As a result, they might read a chapter or two, or three and then ultimately purchase a paper back version of the book.

In general, I am starting to think that the whole current scheme of copyright that has been developed over the last 2 centuries needs to be scrapped in favor of something that recognizes the new reality of the publishing world.

Oh to get to the original quesitons...

5" screen, VGA or better resolution, quick screen refreshes, built in wireless and probably a built in web browser as well. The ability to read epub, ereader, and mobi... but no DRM period.

--
Bill