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By: Jonny Scum
on Mon August 16, 2010, 14:00:29
What about really cheap, ad-supported e-books, and you can pay $ to get the ads out of the chapter breaks?
Re: What’s Wrong with Publishing? #11: One More Digital Thought
By: Barry
on Mon August 16, 2010, 14:32:11
@Jonny: I have a sinking feeling that day will come. I loathe the idea of ads in books.
And I thought it was “Jonny Skum?”
And I thought it was “Jonny Skum?”
An Interesting Take, but…
By: Tom M Franklin
on Mon August 16, 2010, 14:35:24
I doubt you’re going to be able to convince the buying public that they are either paying more for specific rights for a physical bound collection of printed folio pages or paying less for a digital version of the content.
This issue is as much about perception as anything else. It’s also about the consumer feeling respected (or disrespected) by the media conglomerates that are selling them Whatevers.
According to a friend of mine (head of marketing for a well-respected University Press) up to 95% of the cost of producing a book exists *before* sending it to the printers. That means all of the in-house Acquisitions/Editing/Production work takes up all but about 5% of the cost of a title.
Cutting the price of an e-book that substantially isn’t likely to happen without substantial kickback from the publishers (as we’ve already seen).
As for my own, latest thoughts on the Piracy Game, I’ll post them to my own blog later this (or next) week and let you know when it’s there. : )– Tom
This issue is as much about perception as anything else. It’s also about the consumer feeling respected (or disrespected) by the media conglomerates that are selling them Whatevers.
According to a friend of mine (head of marketing for a well-respected University Press) up to 95% of the cost of producing a book exists *before* sending it to the printers. That means all of the in-house Acquisitions/Editing/Production work takes up all but about 5% of the cost of a title.
Cutting the price of an e-book that substantially isn’t likely to happen without substantial kickback from the publishers (as we’ve already seen).
As for my own, latest thoughts on the Piracy Game, I’ll post them to my own blog later this (or next) week and let you know when it’s there. : )– Tom
Re: What’s Wrong with Publishing? #11: One More Digital Thought
By: Barry
on Mon August 16, 2010, 14:45:53
@Tom: Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m afraid of. You can tell people, “Hey, look, we’re not scamming you! It really is a good deal!” Whether they’ll buy it or not is a whole ‘nother deal…