By blackmailing your vendors:
http://johnbatchelorshow.com/debrief/20 ... soners.php
Jim Baen's wisdom on handling Ebooks becomes ever more clear when stuff like this goes on:
http://www.ibdof.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=118932
I have to ask myself if they are all idiots. In the end everybody looses in this kind of fight.
How Baen Books has always done e books:
http://www.baen.com/library/
This is the free library(warning, it's like free pot, you are more than likely going to become addicted). All of Baen's books have no restrictions on them, even the ones you have to pay for. Download them on as many computers and devices you like, in as many formats as you want. and Baen has never pulled a book back. The big problem is that all the people involved seem to be stuck in 20th century thinking.
How not to treat your customers
Amazon has cut book promoters like me (I make a few bucks a month promoting Amazon stuff) out of the e-book deal.
They are working hard to piss off their customers and people who give them "free" advertising. Free? Yes. I only get paid if I close the deal.
They are working hard to piss off their customers and people who give them "free" advertising. Free? Yes. I only get paid if I close the deal.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Its a shame. The Kindle model is potentially good for little guys who want to self-publish. The major publishers won't touch little stuff, even for e-books.
The incompatiblity of file formats and attempts to be proprietary (pro-pirate-ary?) have convinced me to not buy in to any of them.
Plus, folks like Google and Amazon think they have the right to set their own terms. Google planned to scan every book they could lay their hands on and make it available and tell the author what if any terms they would get. I don't think so.
So, of course, we have folks over in Nolawsistan scanning our stuff and providing torrent downloads for which no author is paid. I'm in good company there. Even the big names are unable to stop it. Maybe, in the end, that will become the de-facto standard?
The incompatiblity of file formats and attempts to be proprietary (pro-pirate-ary?) have convinced me to not buy in to any of them.
Plus, folks like Google and Amazon think they have the right to set their own terms. Google planned to scan every book they could lay their hands on and make it available and tell the author what if any terms they would get. I don't think so.
So, of course, we have folks over in Nolawsistan scanning our stuff and providing torrent downloads for which no author is paid. I'm in good company there. Even the big names are unable to stop it. Maybe, in the end, that will become the de-facto standard?
Baen's got it right. I've been a user of their free library for years, which has impelled me to buy a LOT of their books. They also have a monthly release list, with old and new titles, and it's really funny how after reading the first 6 or 8 chapters of a book on-line you'll go ahead and buy the physical copy!
It doesn't make much sense to me to charge paperback prices (or near hardback prices, in some cases) for ebooks. For a book, you've got royalties, publishing costs (which include materials, printing, warehousing, shipping, retail overhead and personnel costs) to consider. For an ebook, you've got royalties, administrative costs, server space and bandwidth costs. You never have to worry about returns, or remaindering unsold copies. Bandwidth and storage costs come out to a fraction of a cent per copy.
I can see ebooks costing at most HALF of a paperback version, and that'd include a fair bit of profit for the publisher as well as usual royalties for the author.
That said, does it strike anyone else as kind of amusing that as we've gone from clay tablets to papyrus, to vellum, to paper, to electronic media, that we're creating a record of our civilization that's completely unreadable without electronic assistance?
It doesn't make much sense to me to charge paperback prices (or near hardback prices, in some cases) for ebooks. For a book, you've got royalties, publishing costs (which include materials, printing, warehousing, shipping, retail overhead and personnel costs) to consider. For an ebook, you've got royalties, administrative costs, server space and bandwidth costs. You never have to worry about returns, or remaindering unsold copies. Bandwidth and storage costs come out to a fraction of a cent per copy.
I can see ebooks costing at most HALF of a paperback version, and that'd include a fair bit of profit for the publisher as well as usual royalties for the author.
That said, does it strike anyone else as kind of amusing that as we've gone from clay tablets to papyrus, to vellum, to paper, to electronic media, that we're creating a record of our civilization that's completely unreadable without electronic assistance?
When opinion and reality conflict - guess which one is going to win in the long run.
Re: How not to treat your customers
Thankyou. That absolutely warms my heart - to hear a publisher speak practically of alternatives to draconian copyright enforcement. Today on the radio there was a story about a short few second flute rift having been found guilty of infringing a 1934 children song. Ridiculous!! The radio played both (flute versus kids singing) and they didn't sound at all the same. This awful decision has the potential for far reaching and a chilling effects on creativity.Jccarlton wrote:http://www.baen.com/library/
Too true. Count another one in. I'll definitely have a look.Word of mouth, unlike paid advertising, comes free to the author — and it's ten times more effective than any kind of paid advertising, because it's the one form of promotion which people usually trust.
I mostly believe this. Some research supports this also:The first is a simple truth which Jim Baen is fond of pointing out: most people would rather be honest than dishonest.
http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/br ... ruism.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 112007.php
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.
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CaptainBeowulf
- Posts: 498
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Josh Cryer
- Posts: 526
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Re: How not to treat your customers
As I sit in my snowed in home, wondering about the unusual amount of snow we've already had, and watching as not one but two more snow events are bearing down on us, I keep thinking "Where is this Global Warming thing I keep hearing about? Bring on the warming. PLEASE!"DavidWillard wrote: My favorite lately is the Fallen Angels by Larry Niven. A future where the ice age comes back due to over zealous CO2 controls and the space station folk ar harrassed for stealing a bit of atmosphere . throw another log on the fire.. How prophetic for 2002. Maybe?
Re: How not to treat your customers
Hold on.... It's coming. I predict just a few weeks after the Olympics....KitemanSA wrote:As I sit in my snowed in home, wondering about the unusual amount of snow we've already had, and watching as not one but two more snow events are bearing down on us, I keep thinking "Where is this Global Warming thing I keep hearing about? Bring on the warming. PLEASE!"DavidWillard wrote: My favorite lately is the Fallen Angels by Larry Niven. A future where the ice age comes back due to over zealous CO2 controls and the space station folk ar harrassed for stealing a bit of atmosphere . throw another log on the fire.. How prophetic for 2002. Maybe?
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Josh Cryer
- Posts: 526
- Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:19 am
Re: How not to treat your customers
Helius wrote:Hold on.... It's coming. I predict just a few weeks after the Olympics....
The Olympics could use some snow.
Science is what we have learned about how not to fool ourselves about the way the world is.
Re: How not to treat your customers
Vancouver should have known to have Al Gore come to Vancouver for a global warming summit just before the Olympics. Then they would have had plenty of snow due to the well known Al gore effect.Josh Cryer wrote:Helius wrote:Hold on.... It's coming. I predict just a few weeks after the Olympics....
The Olympics could use some snow.
Had they planned the Olympics for Washington, D.C. snow would not have been a problem.
Evidently it is warming in the North and cooling in the South.
Them Climate Scientists are useless when it comes to predictions. About as bad as meteorologists.
Evidently it is warming in the North and cooling in the South.
Them Climate Scientists are useless when it comes to predictions. About as bad as meteorologists.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.