From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sun May 19 2002 - 20:17:48 MDT
At 02:56 PM 5/19/02 +0100, Charlie Stross wrote:
>> The price--$23.36--is nearly as great as the hardcover paper edition.
>> Insane--when will publishers learn that e-readers aren't idiots?
>I've spoken to the guys at Fictionwise myself (for obvious reasons). It
>turns out that the price isn't set by Fictionwise but by whoever the rights
>holder is.
Of course. That's what I meant--the publishers (in this case Tor) are being
idiots in setting their e-version prices so uncompetitively high.
Fictionwise, in this instance, are just acting as distributors.
>If the author holds the rights and is sane, the Fictionwise
>price is sensible-ish and the e-books are published in open, unencrypted
>formats.
Indeed. They've worked out a very sensible policy, and I expect that sooner
or later, once people start to download books more regularly (with better
portable text readers in hand), they'll make up for low prices in huge
turnover.
>If the publisher holds the rights, they typically try to gouge
>the public for the hardcover price and also demand draconian anti-copying
>measures.
Yep. They'll die as a result, and as they dry out in the pitiless sun
they'll ask each other uncomprehendingly, `Whatever did *we* do?'
Damien Broderick
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