King ebook held up

[John M. Whalen]

Here is a news item that, despite being so poorly written (as most journalism is these days of dwindling newspaper circulation), seems to indicate that book publishers are wising up and not making cheaper ebooks available until the more expensive hardcover editions have exhausted their sales potential. The thing that doesn't make sense to me is why they are delaying the ebook of Stephen King's 1,000 page novel, since they plan to offer it at the same price as the hardcover---$35. Maybe it just shows the chaos that exists in the business of book publishing and selling, thanks to the Internet?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...102103633.html






John M. Whalen


Wildness, Science Fiction Trails (March 2010)
"...Where There Be No Dragons..." Tower of Light (January 2010)
A Rage for Justice, http://www.spacewesterns.com
Forty Miles from Carbonville, Space Cops Anthology (now available)
Fire Creek, March 2009, Science Fiction Trails.
This Raygun for Hire stories, http://www.raygunrevival.com
The Jack Brand stories, http://www.raygunrevival.com
The Hard Deal, Spacewesterns.com, http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/85/
Green River Rain, Spacewesterns.com, http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/22/
The Dacuna, Everyday Fiction, http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-d...john-m-whalen/
Incident on Pennsylvania Av., Dragons, Knights, & Angels, http://www.dkamagazine.com/Published..._Incident.html
Sword of Fire, The Sword Review, http://www.theswordreview.com/item.php?sub_id=1415
Island of Fear, Flashing Swords, http://flashingswords.sfreader.com/i...l2-iss5-07.htm
Andothers

[erazmus]

The article is a bit muddled, poor editing? Is the e-book price fixed at 35$ or is Amazon going to sell it for 9.99$? Why would you offer an e-book in competition with your own hardback, which has a serious investment of dollars involved before you can sell any?

For that matter, who would pay the same for an e-book as a hardback? The cost to the publisher is much less for e-books and for most authors the royalty rate is about the same (King may have and should have negotiated a better deal).

Without the cost of printing, shipping and tracking that eats up so much of the cover price of paper books, how can the e-edition carry the same value as the Hard Back?

Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Dutchman Rescue'in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
'Pink Plastic Flamingos''What Smitty Saw' 'Elvis's Space Alien Lovechild' 'Two Ravens''Rejection' (forthcoming) in Big Pulp
www.bigpulp.com/index.html
'Stains''Two ravens''Job Security' 'Yeti Yet' 'Characters in Flight'(forthcoming)in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
'Morning Coffee''Happy Landings''Teller of Tales''Silver Shells''I'm tired of Bombs, and my dog is dead' 'One Dark Night'in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com
'The Jewel Below' 'Mo the Mountain' in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com
Read 'Silver Shells' In The Best of Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/features/the-best-of-every-day-fiction-2008/

[John M. Whalen]

The other question is: Do you really want to read a 1,000+ page Stephen King novel in any form at any price?

John M. Whalen


Wildness, Science Fiction Trails (March 2010)
"...Where There Be No Dragons..." Tower of Light (January 2010)
A Rage for Justice, http://www.spacewesterns.com
Forty Miles from Carbonville, Space Cops Anthology (now available)
Fire Creek, March 2009, Science Fiction Trails.
This Raygun for Hire stories, http://www.raygunrevival.com
The Jack Brand stories, http://www.raygunrevival.com
The Hard Deal, Spacewesterns.com, http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/85/
Green River Rain, Spacewesterns.com, http://www.spacewesterns.com/articles/22/
The Dacuna, Everyday Fiction, http://www.everydayfiction.com/the-d...john-m-whalen/
Incident on Pennsylvania Av., Dragons, Knights, & Angels, http://www.dkamagazine.com/Published..._Incident.html
Sword of Fire, The Sword Review, http://www.theswordreview.com/item.php?sub_id=1415
Island of Fear, Flashing Swords, http://flashingswords.sfreader.com/i...l2-iss5-07.htm
Andothers

[erazmus]

Well, sure I do. I enjoy his work and find the long ones as diverting as the short ones. I loved 'The Stand' and 'It'. 'It' may be my favorite novel of King's. Followed by 'The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon'.

Mike

Michael D. Turner
'Psyched Up' in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
'Dutchman Rescue'in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

'An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern' in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
'Pink Plastic Flamingos''What Smitty Saw' 'Elvis's Space Alien Lovechild' 'Two Ravens''Rejection' (forthcoming) in Big Pulp
www.bigpulp.com/index.html
'Stains''Two ravens''Job Security' 'Yeti Yet' 'Characters in Flight'(forthcoming)in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
'Morning Coffee''Happy Landings''Teller of Tales''Silver Shells''I'm tired of Bombs, and my dog is dead' 'One Dark Night'in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com
'The Jewel Below' 'Mo the Mountain' in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com
Read 'Silver Shells' In The Best of Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/features/the-best-of-every-day-fiction-2008/

[RLCopple]

Flashg said...
The other question is: Do you really want to read a 1,000+ page Stephen King novel in any form at any price?

Well, not caring for horror, I'm not of a mind to read the short ones either.

But, aside that point, it is crazy that ebooks are the same price as the printed one. I think I know what their reasoning is. They're afraid if they make the ebooks cheaper, people will just buy them instead of the paper versions. They don't want to compete against themselves, I guess.

But I've noticed that on a couple of books I thought maybe I'd get from Kindle on my IPod, but couldn't stomach paying the same price as buying the paperback. But I've actually come to prefer reading on my IPod. It's lighter, I can hold it and turn pages with one hand while the other keeps the drink and food pouring into my mouth, and they are much easier to store. The downside is, when you're done, you can't give them to someone else to read. At least, not easily.

But that's why even though my paperback book retails for almost $16, sells on Amazon for $12 something, my Kindle book which I had full control over, I sell for $4.99. That pays me the same royalty as the paperback, pays the cover artist royalty, and the rest is Amazon's. If I can do it, so can those guys.

R. L. Copple

www.rlcopple.com
www.raygunradio.com

Infinite Realities available at Amazon.com
Transforming Realities available at Amazon.com

[lin]

My guess is something like this. They'd LOVE to establish eBook sales as same value as printed books. (And in a way, from consumer side, they kind of are, aren't they?) And think the best way to do that would be flog a blockbuster author at that price and see who salutes.

But suit committees are dithering about that policy and the whole thing turned into a clusterfug.

Maybe

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