Comments on: Workflow in the House

By: Chris northern

Chris northern — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:54:09 +0000

I published The Last King’s Amulet and Prison of Power with smashwords and have to admit that the covers are far less attractive than I would like to see, but I am a writer not an artist and I am making sales and receiving fan mail. As soon as it is practical I will upload more attractive artwork. It matters, but good work that readers enjoy and want to see more of matters more.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 01:48:35 +0000

Leon: Thanks for your comment. I don’t really want to open up the whole pricing debate because it’s a complicated balancing act and it’s a bit off-topic (and I’m not sure where you’re pulling the $8 figure from), but suffice to say I think there is a growing acceptance within publishing that e-book prices have to come down (just as quality has to come up) and — assuming certain retailers are willing to negotiate in good faith — we will see prices more comparable with (and possibly less than) paperbacks in the near future. Whether we get those lower-cost e-books at the same time as newly released hardcovers may be a different story however…

Also, as I’ve been trying to make clear throughout this discussion, most general trade publishers are in touch with the real world — they have to make tough decisions every day and e-book sales are a tiny part of their business. Until very very recently the “real world” has been telling them to concentrate on print. That has not been the case for publishers in some specific areas — genre fiction (science fiction, romance etc) and computer manuals for example have seen greater growth in e-books (and a greater threat from piracy) and, so their “real world” has looked different. With this in mind, I don’t think it is surprising that publishers like Baen, Harlequin, and O’Reilly are ahead of the game.

Thanks again.

By: Leon Jester

Leon Jester — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:51:10 +0000

On the pricing thing: Publishers sell paperbacks at ~$8.00 list. There’s no reason to sell electronic versions for more — and most readers I know simply will not pay it, unless there is some special reason (ARC, for instance, released well ahead of print date).

Tor’s debacle with Dave Weber’s Off Armageddon Reef is an excellent example: The electronic book was marketed at ~$18 when B&N had it in hardcover for a discounted price of ~$16.50.

Jim Baen set the standard, the rest of the publishers need to get in touch with the real world.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:45:32 +0000

Thanks Phil. Don’t get me wrong — glad to have you all here and you all have a perspective different to mine which is interesting! — I was just curious. Thanks again.

By: Phil Sevetson

Phil Sevetson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:42:09 +0000

Dan,
1) You’ve been linked to at “Baen’s Bar” (http://bar.baen.com/), a multitopic bulletin board, in the “Toni’s [Weisskopf, the publisher] Table” forum.

2) Agree with you about the Webscriptions surfing. If you don’t go there with a pretty good idea of what you want to buy, it’s tough to get around. Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library) is a bit easier to follow, and includes whole-book authorial loss leaders (hit “The Books” link on the leftside menu bar). I don’t go into Webscriptions unless I am in search of a specific title (I follow various fora on the Bar, and there is much discussion of new Baen titles and authors).

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:22:41 +0000

Hi John. Just curious: where are all you Baen fans coming from??? It’s nice, but… ?

Anyway, I think genre lends itself to the model you discuss because there are series or authors that readers follow avidly. I don’t know how that works for more stand-alone trade books? It’s interesting though. I know Harlequin (the romance publisher) are doing some similar things to Baen.

I agree that the dynamic is different from movies and music, but I actually think publishers are less scared about theft than those industries — we do have more of a culture of lending and giving. That said, maybe we are more worried about rights? A traditional way for publishers (particularly small publishers) to make money has been to sell foreign rights — so if you publish in Canada, you might sell rights to a publisher in the US or the UK etc — because it’s a better bet than trying to distribute the book abroad yourself. Digital has the potential to change this equation — it might begin to make more sense for publishers to sell their own books internationally, but for the meantime it’s a bit of a minefield. Few old contracts have references to e-books so who has the rights (and to where)?

(PS I actually find the Baen site unreadable. Their e-books might be great, but they really need to do something about their webdesign!).

By: John Biltz

John Biltz — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:03:46 +0000

I’m another Baen reader. I generally buy e-book over paper. The thing about the Baen model is it is customer friendly. If there is a series then quite often the first book of the series is in the free library. Think about how you read and find books. A friend with similar tastes reads the book and says this is great. He doesn’t then tell you to go out and buy it he lends it to you. Then you may well buy it yourself or start buying the author. You can’t do that with DRM. Its not book friendly. Yes some are going to get pirated, so do books, its called used book stores. IMO the publishers are so worried about theft they are killing their markets. Books are not movies or music. The dynamic is different. Think about how many books you now buy today because when you were young you went to the library and read books for free. Yes, books are going to get pirated that does not mean they would have ever been bought by the pirate.
Eric Flint says it best here. http://www.baen.com/library/

By: Phil Sevetson

Phil Sevetson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:56:09 +0000

@Geoffrey: Nicholas Negroponte, in “The Media Lab” (A history of MIT’s famous digital-technology experimentation project), was quoted as saying, “Once a new technology rolls over you, you’re either part of the steamroller or part of the road.”

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:47:58 +0000

Geoffrey: Yes there is definitely a bit of that. But I think it is changing… S L O W L Y ! :-)

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:46:45 +0000

Thanks Phil. Well, I think publishers are beginning to realise the price has to come down, but I think they want to do on their own terms not Amazon’s… And, as I say, DRM is complicated. I think the cloud idea provides a possible answer, but that has other issues… [NB: I made the edit your comment!]