Posted on 12/16/2009 6:28:30 AM PST by SonOfDarkSkies
Ever since electronic books emerged as a major growth market, New York’s largest publishing houses have worried that big-name authors might sign deals directly with e-book retailers or other new ventures, bypassing traditional publishers entirely.
Now, one well-known author is doing just that.
Stephen R. Covey, one of the most successful business authors of the last two decades, has moved e-book rights for two of his best-selling books from his print publisher, Simon & Schuster, a division of the CBS Corporation, to a digital publisher that will sell the e-books to Amazon.com for one year.
...
The move promises to raise the already high anxiety level among publishers about the economics of digital publishing and could offer authors a way to earn more profits from their works than they do under the traditional system.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The publisher handles the final editing and layout, the printing and the advertising and distribution. The final editing and layout is now relatively cheap as it can be done by an editor with an off the shelf PC for a few thousand dollars of pay. The advertising and distribution can be handled by the stores themselves, especially for electronic versions which don’t need trucks to haul them around. That leaves printing which isn’t needed for ebooks. So, just what value does the publisher add as a middleman?
I’d hoped the eReader boom would open up more books and formats, not cause exclusivity contracts with authors. No sane author would restrict the sale of his/her dead tree novels to one bookstore chain!
If you could buy a book direct from an independent author via ePub or PDR, at a cheaper price, I’d jump at it. Support the author directly, encourage them, and give them a better idea of what market they’re reaching for.
You know, to create buzz at this time of the year about their kindle.
There is going to be a rapid-fire revolution in that industry and it will be fun to watch the self-anointed keepers of the gate take a fall.
It will also be interesting to see how this revolution affects the ease with which new authors gain market access.
Could be...but Amazon’s “retraction” of Animal Farm was a deal killer for me. I was looking for an eReader as a Christmas gift and crossed off the Kindle pretty quick.
Amazon tries to be all things to all people - but they didn't figure how many people want an ereader which can download all that FREE out-of-copyright material digitized over at http://books.google.com - that's why we are interested in the Nook, it can download all that stuff for FREE.
But I hope the Nook is at least half as good as the critics claim it to be, seems it's hard to trust anything or anyone nowadays.
I’ve got a Kindle and think it’s great. In one package, with its case, it’s no larger than an ordinary hard back novel and is a piece of cake to get on and off airplanes. Not only that, but I’ve got about 20 books on it right now and don’t need to buy extra book cases. It’s a great solution for the problem of being driven out of the house by the History Book Club, Book of the Month Club, etc.
I'm waiting until next year, too. There will be more competition, lower prices, and the readers that support the public domain/free formats will get my money.
One has to wonder if books will eventually be available on sites like a (fictitious at this point) “youbook.com” wherein one might download the first chapter for free and pay only for downloads of additional chapters.
I considered the Nook but 1) am looking for a Christmas gift, 2) the software on the Nook is very laggy, and 3) B&N has been sued by the company they first contracted with to develop an e-reader and stands a good chance of winning in court. THAT will create a mess.
I bought the Sony Touch Reader. It can handle the most formats (my husband reads really obscure stuff), takes two types of memory cards, and there’s a huge amount of material it’ll read. The Daily Edition would’ve been nice but it was even pricier than the Reader.
Would that be fantastic, or what!?
If you have time, can you tell me what is "The Daily Edition"?
I have just over 3000 (3011, if I remember correctly) hardback books and at least 500 paperbacks and have run out of room in my house to expand my bookshelves. Yet there are always new books coming out that I would like to have.
I do a good amount of re-reading of books (particularly fiction/science fiction novels or short story collections) and have a large number of military history books for research purposes. So there's a great amount of re-accessing the same books over and over again and I don't want to "buy" a book that I can't save for later usage.
/sarc
rofl... LOL @ stainlessbanner !!!
I have just over 3000 (3011, if I remember correctly) hardback books and at least 500 paperbacks and have run out of room in my house to expand my bookshelves. Yet there are always new books coming out that I would like to have.
I do a good amount of re-reading of books (particularly fiction/science fiction novels or short story collections) and have a large number of military history books for research purposes. So there's a great amount of re-accessing the same books over and over again and I don't want to "buy" a book that I can't save for later usage.
Amazon allows you to archive any number of ebooks with them and to download those books any time you want to, all at no extra charge beyond the original price of the Kindle. Thus, the archive allows you to have far more ebooks than the Kindle can hold on is own. You can also download directly from Amazon to your computer, bypassing the Kindle, a service that also comes at no extra charge. In loooking at the instructions for my Kindle, I've not seen anything that shows it's possible to download books directly from the Kindle to my computer.
You've asked a very good question; hence, I've posted your question and my answer for all and urge many more FReepers too join the conversation.
RIGHT ON!! Just why I bought my Kindle.
I do wish there were more available content. It may come down to buying another type of e-reader to get more options. But it is still better than buying all the books and having to store them.
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