
Publishers line up against Amazon’s $9.99 e-books - AndrewWarner
http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/05/hachette-amazon-harpercollins-macmillan-apple/
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petercooper
Awesome. Let the big publishers shoot themselves in the foot so that small
publishers and independent authors can undercut them, yet still make more
money per book.

With the end-to-end digital process, you'll see a lot of authors selling
independently (as has already started on the Kindle) and publishers will be
caught on the back foot. Readers will vote with their dollars and smart
authors will skip the publishers and provide what readers want without them.

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dagw
You're assuming that books by different authors are interchangeable goods. If
had to choose between buying the latest book by my favourite author for $21 or
three books by independent authors that I've never heard of for $7 each, I'll
go with my favourite author. When it comes to books I buy what I like and
price is pretty much irrelevant. So yes I do vote with my dollars, and I vote
quality first.

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MikeCapone
Once e-books are widespread enough, your favorite author could go solo, sell
for less, and still make more money. And you'd get the book you want.

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petercooper
Can you even imagine how much money J K Rowling could make if she hired a few
people to run a self publishing outfit and then sold her latest scrawl on the
App Store and iBookstore at $9.99 a pop?

Not that she needs any more money at this point, of course..

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tghw
I love the idea of the little guy doing it without a big publisher. The
problem with that idea is the same problem that any indie artist has had:
exposure.

Publishers spend between 1 and 3 million dollars on a new book just for
production (editors, graphic designers, typesetters, etc.) and marketing. JK
Rowling very much benefited from those dollars. Editors helped her shape her
work into books millions of people would love and marketers made sure that the
world heard about it. She would not be the woman she is today (financially
speaking) without those up-front costs.

At this point in her career, you're probably right, she could self publish and
do pretty well. But if the later Harry Potter books (where she had more
editorial control) are any indication, she's much better off under the guide
of a strict editor.

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ryanelkins
I find it a little odd that Apple, which really seemed to drive adoption of
digital music sales with 99 cent songs, seems to now have a hand in driving
digital book sales, although by pushing the relative price upwards.

It will be interesting to see where the price point is that enough people are
willing to buy a book rather than pirate it.

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wmf
The music industry felt a little burned by the whole 99 cent experience, and I
suspect the movie and book people learned from that. Also, Amazon already
tried the "bully the publishers" play so Apple is doing something different.

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gamble
I hope it doesn't take a decade for the publishing industry to come to the
same conclusion as the music business and ditch DRM. There's no way that I'm
going to spend $15 on a book that can only be read using a specific device and
depends on the manufacturer maintaining an authentication server in
perpetuity.

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protomyth
I think the more important part of the story is the % a publisher gets and the
relationship between the publishers and Amazon / Apple. I would really like to
see some analysis of how the different models worked and who got what.

I still think publishers are important for editorial. I wonder if a group of
editors will create a company to do the "editing, ebook production,
accounting" part of the chain and take like a 5 - 10% cut of the book.

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chromatic
It's probably not feasible for the editors and producers at five or ten
percent; it might start to make sense at 20%.

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protomyth
so do you think: 30% eBook shop (e.g. Amazon, iTunes), 20% editors /
producers, and 50% authors?

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chromatic
30% for the distributor seems high, especially compared to the editors. I'd
rather see 20% distributor, 30% editor / producer, 50% author.

For physical copies, the numbers are much different, especially because
initial costs are higher.

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protomyth
I guess the 30% is generally there because of high credit card fees. I wonder
if Amazon / Apple has a min price for ebooks?

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smokey_the_bear
I wish amazon would bundle the ebook with the physical book for an extra
dollar or something. I've often gone to buy a book, and thought maybe I'd buy
the ebook so I could start reading it immediately on my iphone. But then it's
not substantially cheaper than the physical book, and I decide I'd prefer the
physical book.

