Apologies in advance for a much-longer-than-usual post. It is not like the publishers haven’t seen the ebook royalty fight coming. On a panel he and I were on together in March of 2009, John Sargent, the Chairman and CEO of Macmillan, identified ebook margins as the critical issue for publishers going forward. Even though ebook […]
The wild weekend of Amazon and Macmillan
Now I swear all this is true. As everybody knows, a very serious food fight broke out between Amazon and Macmillan late Friday night. All weekend Michael Cader led the way in ferreting out additional useful information and I spent most of today (Sunday) trying to write an analytical blogpost. I got it just about […]
Holding back the ebook
The tactic of keeping the ebook off the market to “protect” hardcover sales, first executed by Sourcebooks this month on behalf of Bran Hambric, is becoming more widespread. At the same time that Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was released simultaneously in cloth and digital, Ted Kennedy’s posthumous True Compass was released in print with the ebook withheld. […]
Debut pricing: my idea, great idea, unfortunately can’t work
In the words of Emily Litella, the Saturday Night Live character of the 1970s invented by Gilda Radner, “never mind.” I’m referring to my post about “debut pricing” from earlier this week. It can’t be done; at least not easily and at least not immediately. The challenges we face require a continuing conversation and crowds […]
“Debut pricing” for ebooks: a better idea than withholding them
Three weeks ago, the community had a big discussion about the timing of ebook releases which was triggered by Dominique Raccah’s announcement that Sourcebooks would hold back the ebook of Bran Hambric for some period after the hardcover release. The expressed concern was to insulate the $28.95 hardcover from the price competition currently taking place […]