Simon and Schuster plans to have 12,000+ books from its backlist digitized by the end of ’07, according to Publishers’ Marketplace. Download sales tripled this year, and DearAuthor credibly believes that “competitive pricing” helped. Applause, applause for the people at S&S, HarperCollins and Random House who’ve pushed for mass digitization The quality of books counts, immensely, but this is also a numbers game—with publishers of all sizes benefiting from the majors’ efforts. With more titles available, readers are more likely to commit to e-books. Now if only the big houses can get this-here format thing taken care of.
Also from DearAuthor: An interview with S&S’s Claire Israel, where she laudably argues for fair compensation for writers. I’m with you, Claire, on the compensation part. But isn’t it possible you might want to try out the Cory Doctorow model of e-free/p-paid on the right books? What if S&S and writers are losing money by not experimenting with new business models, such as skipping DRM and using e-books to promote paper ones? Just look at what Wiley is doing experimentally. No need to remove DRM, etc., from The Great Gatsby if you and the Fitzgerald heirs don’t want, but why not experiment with books by new authors who, yes, stand more to lose from obscurity than from piracy. That would be a way to manage risks without shutting the door on such innovations.
David;
Actually, we do experiments all the time with providing free eBook content from our authors in order to push either a print book sale, or try and engage a non eBook reader into trying the format out. We’ve had varying levels of success. Our core business is selling the books by our authors, and we intend to be very creative this year in the Digital Department to experiment with all different models.
Best,
Claire
Nice reply, Claire; thanks. If you’d like, tell us more about your experiences at S&S with new biz models. Have you experimented with offering entire books for free? I’ve heard that “entire” can make a difference. In any event, I’d love to hear more about experiments that worked and those which didn’t—I want to keep an open mind here. If, for example, you offered entire books for free and that didn’t help sales, then let us know. And feel free to brag about the successes 😉 Happiest of holidays.
David