tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post2656129165875130574..comments2024-03-28T02:00:11.260-05:00Comments on A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Selling PaperJA Konrathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-81770036929926988212011-06-27T12:35:48.195-05:002011-06-27T12:35:48.195-05:00Joe, I'm just now (06/27/11) reading this post...Joe, I'm just now (06/27/11) reading this post, and I'm curious: <br /><br />Is Amazon still losing money on ebook sales? Or has the boom in Kindle made up the difference for them in the meantime?<br /><br />Thanks,<br />CourtneyCourtney Cantrellhttp://courtcan.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-68642139129224254512010-02-17T12:41:13.254-06:002010-02-17T12:41:13.254-06:00However, it's more likely that the ebooks cost...<i>However, it's more likely that the ebooks cost half of $12.50, or $6.25 each, which enables Amazon to make a healthy profit.</i><br /><br />Nope, they're paying half the hardcover list price and losing money on each sale. I'm 100% sure of this.JA Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-65720882323542263342010-02-17T12:10:10.830-06:002010-02-17T12:10:10.830-06:00This is an excellent article, but I wanted to poin...This is an excellent article, but I wanted to point out one possible hole in your reasoning.<br /><br />When you say that ebooks cost Amazon half the amount of hardbooks, you may well be correct--if you're talking about half of their cost.<br /><br />In the bookstore industry, publishers normally charge bookstores (especially large bookstores like Amazon) anywhere between 50-60% of list price. That means the hardcover book that sells for $24.95 probably cost Amazon about $12.50 to buy. If Amazon is paying half price for ebooks, the are probably paying half of the $12.50, NOT half of the full list price.<br /><br />By your argument, Amazon would be losing money if they were selling ebooks which cost $12.50 for $10. However, it's more likely that the ebooks cost half of $12.50, or $6.25 each, which enables Amazon to make a healthy profit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-31211173736822742072010-02-11T08:50:34.301-06:002010-02-11T08:50:34.301-06:00@Sean McCray -- There really should be some simple...@Sean McCray -- There really should be some simple option for books that aren't available in ebooks to be picked up by another publisher. Maybe even in the case of in print books that the publisher doesn't offer in ebook format, but particularly for out of print books or abandoned works. <br /><br />I don't know if Joe Blow can contact the publisher of an out of print book and ask to buy the ebook rights?Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03164503318632817085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-75480594056244641922010-02-11T07:37:27.854-06:002010-02-11T07:37:27.854-06:00you are so correct about out of print books, but a...you are so correct about out of print books, but also books in print. I am finding that many classics, which are required reading in High school or college, are also unavailable in ebook format. I wanted to get James Baldwin in ebook, but cant find it.Sean McCrayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05176487931658436150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-33535769180010932162010-02-08T08:58:35.394-06:002010-02-08T08:58:35.394-06:00Check out Scott Westerfield's blog here http:/...Check out Scott Westerfield's blog here http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/?p=2138 for a great breakdown of the whole situation. <br /><br />Then you can look at Tobias Buckell who does a great job of explaining the cost of producing a book.<br />http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2010/01/31/why-my-books-are-no-longer-for-sale-via-amazon/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-22153738160284687682010-02-03T21:41:35.757-06:002010-02-03T21:41:35.757-06:00Joe, I just found your blog post from 12/8/09 wher...Joe, I just found your blog post from 12/8/09 where you answered this FAQ:<br /><br />"Should I forsake finding an agent and a print deal and release my book as an ebook?"<br /><br />So I can see your answer to that question, pretty much, is no. If there's anything else interesting you might add about how you would approach your career if you were starting out today wrt traditional publishing and ebooks, I'd be very grateful to hear it. But thanks for answering that already :-)<br /><br />Big congrats on your recent successes, by the way.Moses Siregar IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14054458331242370871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-15282010768110167792010-02-03T16:31:26.606-06:002010-02-03T16:31:26.606-06:00Zoe said: "What is in Joe's best interest...Zoe said: "What is in Joe's best interest as an author financially is what Joe should be doing. He doesn't have to be Moses here."<br /><br />*raises hand*<br /><br />Moses here :-)<br /><br />First, thanks a ton for this post Joe. Your experience with Kindle sales are really inspiring to me. Have you ever blogged about how you'd try get started if you were a new writer in the current environment? <br /><br />I'm torn between trad publishing and going ebook/indie rogue. Do you think a new writer could generate enough downloads of a free book for kindle to help him sell enough copies of a second or third book (I've thought of releasing a free and a $2.99 ebook to Kindle at the same time)? Or are you probably better off getting some more press with trad publishers first? In my case, it would probably be a couple of years before I had both books ready, and by then more people would be reading ebooks.<br /><br />Joe said: "Looking hard at an ebook dominated future, I don't see millionaires. I see more authors making a living (or supplementing their living) but fewer making a killing."<br /><br />Interesting. I'm curious why? I've been wondering if we'd see more author rock stars if and when ebooks become our overlords. Perhaps impulse ebook buying could lead to more "viral" books. Also, I'm wondering if good sales among certain ebooks could inspire some big publishing contracts.<br /><br />"Oh, you've sold 20,000 copies of your ebook? Here, have a six-figure advance for letting us publish it in print."<br /><br />What do you think? I don't know.<br /><br />Your comment about piracy and ads in ebooks is also very interesting. Well, maybe we can sell some T-shirts and coffee mugs even if our books will be pirated LOL. Actually though, I think there's some great potential with being able to plug things in ebooks.<br /><br />Thanks Joe! I just found your site yesterday, and I really appreciate all you've done here.Moses Siregar IIIhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14054458331242370871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-26255593146317987502010-02-01T11:31:31.676-06:002010-02-01T11:31:31.676-06:00I worked for a large nonfiction house, in-house fi...I worked for a large nonfiction house, in-house first and then freelance. When my department switched over from using plates to doing manuscripts on disk from Step One till Step End, the publishing process went faster. It wasn't necessarily more accurate, but keeping formatting more uniform was easier.<br /><br />"Not to mention that outsourced editing isn't automatically cheaper - an in-house editor can work on multiple books at once, keeping to house style, for their (very low) fixed salary."<br /><br />--This wasn't my experience. Actually, I don't know what you're talking about there. I freelanced on multiple projects at once for that publisher, just like I did sometimes in-house. As a freelancer I had a few less manuscripts in front of me at a quarter-end, but I still sometimes had more than one to work on. My boss was in charge of both the in-house copy-editors and the freelance copy-editors. He rarely checked our work; we checked each other's work by always doing run-throughs with three separate people. That was especially the case in-house. Some days then I had almost no work and got paid for doing almost nothing. When I got paid for freelancing, I had to produce work FIRST.<br /><br />EVERYONE had to know the house style manual, or people couldn't work for the place. While freelancing my boss sent me memos for any new changes. A significant number of copy-editors would start in-house and move to freelance, and the company seemed to like this. In-house I had benefits and a weekly salary; freelance I did not.mshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05189632590362435386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-66708596354787343992010-02-01T10:57:05.933-06:002010-02-01T10:57:05.933-06:00Thanks, Dusty. I treat all of this as a learning o...Thanks, Dusty. I treat all of this as a learning opportunity.<br /><br />And sum up my thoughts here:<br /><br /><a href="http://onlinebookreview.org/2010/02/01/amazon-macmillan-ebook-pricing-disagreement-part-2/" rel="nofollow">http://onlinebookreview.org</a>Stacey Cochranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14128613653591282474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-42671453365593182052010-02-01T10:32:05.555-06:002010-02-01T10:32:05.555-06:00Hi Stacey: In 2007, the Supreme Court held that ve...Hi Stacey: In 2007, <a href="http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/06-480.pdf" rel="nofollow">the Supreme Court held </a>that vertical price restraints (the fancy technical term for what we're talking about here) weren't <i>per se</i> illegal under the Antitrust Acts, but had to be judged by a "rule of reason". i.e, there had to be some evidence that the practice actually restrained trade in a particular case. <br /><br />Litigators across the planet rejoiced.JD Rhoadeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07123361739160525998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-68935893253999086072010-02-01T10:31:54.510-06:002010-02-01T10:31:54.510-06:00Sofie,
Then why do mass market paperbacks cost $7...Sofie,<br /><br />Then why do mass market paperbacks cost $7.99? Am I to believe they weren't properly edited? No one typeset them? There was no cover design involved?<br /><br />Further, why can much smaller publishers keep their costs so low for these things (They have to because their average book sales are 500-3000 copies.)?<br /><br />NY pubs want readers to pay for their overhead. And that's just not going to fly in the digital age. Does this mean people will lose jobs and a lot of this stuff will go to freelance? Probably. Is that sad for those losing jobs? Yes. But when you can do something more effectively at a lower cost, it's not fair to make the readers pay just so you can keep up the status quo. IMO.Zoe Wintershttp://www.zoewinters.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-87007105808362881762010-02-01T09:25:02.800-06:002010-02-01T09:25:02.800-06:00Dusty, Joe, et al.,
The way I understand it, the...Dusty, Joe, et al., <br /><br />The way I understand it, the <a href="http://www.allbusiness.com/glossaries/miller-tydings-fair-trade-act/4963232-1.html" rel="nofollow">Consumer Goods Pricing Act of 1975</a> repealed previous law that enforced MSRP. Thus, from a legal standpoint, manufacturers may <i>suggest</i> a retail price, but have no legal grounds to enforce it.<br /><br />Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court support the retailer (i.e., Amazon) in this scenario, not the manufacturer.<br /><br />_____________________________<br /><br />Stacey Cochran<br />Author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/CLAWS-ebook/dp/B0024NL6QS" rel="nofollow">CLAWS for $1.00</a>Stacey Cochranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14128613653591282474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-17923717564363803902010-02-01T08:11:30.112-06:002010-02-01T08:11:30.112-06:00After reading hundreds of blog posts on this issue...After reading hundreds of blog posts on this issue, here's how I summed up the situation on my blog at hauntedcomputer.blogspot.com (and, yes, I know there are unhappy people who will boycott higher prices, Amazon, or Macmillan, but this is generally good news for ebooks and readers).<br /><br />Well, Amazon ceded the battle but the war was already over. Amazon, after pulling Macmillan titles for a couple of days over ebook prices, graciously relented and agreed to Macmillan's desired ebook prices of up to $14.99. I am surprised it was settled so quickly, but it actually makes sense. Amazon could certainly afford to hold out longer than Macmillan, but Amazon also risked its reputation as the world's top bookstore, a difficult claim to maintain when you don't carry one of the six major publishers in the United States. Macmillan risked almost everything, and I never believed the perceived threat of the Apple iPad carried much weight, because many consumers don't see it as a legitimate ebook reader. Instead, it's a computer you can read books on, just as you can your desktop.<br /><br />Amazon wins by appearing gracious but it has already established the public perception of the value of an ebook, $9.99. No matter what happens from now on, the core foundation of ebook consumers has been presented the value of ebooks. Amazon gets to continue offering Macmillan products while making it clear they think the price is too high, but allowing consumers to make their own choice. Some consumers will pay the higher price for instant gratification. Others will wait for the ebook price to drop, as it inevitably will, in much the same way a paperback crowd bypasses a hardcover version.<br /><br />Macmillan wins by getting its preferred price, though surely it is only temporary. When authors see they are getting only a tiny fraction of ebook royalties, and Amazon is waving a 70 percent royalty at them, it's clear that some authors will begin withholding their ebook rights unless the publisher is fairly compensating them overall (i.e., their paper sales are more than enough to offset this lost revenue.) Hopefully Macmillan will use the time it has bought to get a reasonable handle on ebooks and embrace the new market instead of trying to ignore the gorilla in the room.<br /><br />Independent authors and small presses win because they have virtually no overhead and can offer their ebooks for a couple of bucks and compete for readers among value-minded consumers. True, they don't carry the name clout of major authors, but cumulatively they are a force that won't be ignored, because they have no stake in artificially high prices for ebooks.<br /><br />Apple wins because it was all about promotion for its iPad. Apple and the publishing industry used the issue to get attention, and people who like Apple products will buy an iPad and all the assorted gimmicks, wireless plans, and other tethers that will keep them hooked to the Apple tree, and they will be happy. I don't think many of them will be reading books when they have so many other toys available. Either way, it expands the reality of ebooks.<br /><br />And ebooks win, because this has been the single most-talked-about book news of the past few years, and brought ebooks to the mainstream. They undeniably exist now, and are important enough for corporations to war over. That is good news for readers everywhere, whether they go paper or plastic. More books, more diversity, more literacy, more stories, more education, and more joy.Author Scott Nicholsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09778999586794284457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-28526837012167233322010-02-01T08:00:13.514-06:002010-02-01T08:00:13.514-06:00Excellent post Joe. Hearing Amazon yank books off ...Excellent post Joe. Hearing Amazon yank books off their virtual shelves made me cringe. Your explanation of the issue helped me understand this business better. Thanks. www.kathykulig.comKathy Kulighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17061095905421177808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-67266000371379359572010-02-01T06:58:08.352-06:002010-02-01T06:58:08.352-06:00JD -- Your Beer analogy makes sense, but misses an...JD -- Your Beer analogy makes sense, but misses an important part of the picture. Budweiser could easily tell the distributor they have to sell at X price, or else they won't be able to buy from Budweiser anymore.<br /><br />However, even when budweiser stops selling to the distributor, that distributor could still buy and sell budweiser products, they just have to find a new source. (Buy from the distributor in the next town, etc.) <br /><br />Maybe they buy from another distributor at Wholesale Price + 5%. They can still sell the beer in stores at whatever price they choose. With physical merchandise, the manufacturer has no say in what is done with it after someone buys it from the manufacturer. <br /><br />Unfortunately with ebooks, there is an artificial monopoly created by the licensing restrictions and DRM. While the right of first sale applies to physical products, ebooks currently carry restrictions that prevent a book owner from loaning, giving, or selling their copy of the book to someone else. That's sure to change, eventually. <br /><br />Until it does, the beer analogy falls flat.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03164503318632817085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-65770975971167223092010-02-01T06:37:06.054-06:002010-02-01T06:37:06.054-06:00I don't see an Amazon-dominated ebook future a...<i>I don't see an Amazon-dominated ebook future as dangerous, any more than I see iTunes-dominated music as dangerous. </i><br /><br />You can play mp3's on other devices (hell, even my phone can play them), and iTunes isn't the only game in town for buying mp3's (I'm a Rhapsody man myself, because of the streaming feature). <br /><br />Amazon wants its Kindle to be the only device upon which to read Amazon-available e-books. Which is why it's probably going to fail. John Scalzi (who's no enemy of the e-book) sums up Amazon's failure pretty succinctly, <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/01/all-the-many-ways-amazon-so-very-failed-the-weekend/" rel="nofollow">here. </a>JD Rhoadeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07123361739160525998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-50937135385440568492010-02-01T06:33:37.431-06:002010-02-01T06:33:37.431-06:00Okay, this made me spit coffee from laughing.
App...Okay, this made me spit coffee from laughing.<br /><br />Apparently, one of my Kindle books, ORIGIN, won a Golden Cup award.<br /><br />http://fr33sp33k.h33t.com/index.php?topic=15815.30<br /><br />A Golden Cup is awarded to a pirate who created the best torrent of the week. In other words, someone illegally uploaded and shared one of my ebooks, and got kudos from their peers.<br /><br />I'm tickled that the ORIGIN torrent was chosen. I'm especially tickled because the ebook is available for free on my website.<br /><br />I hope the pirates dig the book.<br /><br />Piracy will always exist. Some people simply like sharing digital content, regardless of price. <br /><br />But price and popularity do factor into how many times a property gets shared online. <br /><br />The internet was created to share information. It's human nature to share. No one can stop it.<br /><br />But it can be fought with cost and convenience.<br /><br />If you belong to a members-only file sharing site, where pirates make it quick and easy to download torrents, it is very convenient to do so. <br /><br />But Amazon is also convenient. So is iTunes. They make money because they're convenient. Press as button, and you instantly have a product. And at lower price points, they make more money.<br /><br />You want to hear something fascinating? Pirate sites make money through advertising revenue. In fact, often the torrents will contain advertising for the torrent website.<br /><br />Here's something else that fascinates me. Pirates don't tend to change the content before they share it.<br /><br />In other words, if they download the latest CD, and the ID3 tags are messed up, they share the upload without fixing the ID3 tags. They'll fix the tags on their own computer, but won't bother re-upping the fixed version. Too much trouble.<br /><br />How do I know this? I downloaded a pirated Kindle version of ORIGIN, and it still has the three excerpts from Aston West, Donnie Light, and Bill Gagliani in the back matter. The same excerpts these writers paid me to include as part of one of my ebook experiments.<br /><br />The pirate stole and shared the Kindle book, and left the paid ads inside. <br /><br />So let's say free ebooks become funded by print ads. Based on the pirating behavior I've witnessed, I highly doubt pirates would cut out the ads before sharing the ebook. They'd just share the ebook with the ads in it. <br /><br />In other words, the advertiser gets free impressions.<br /><br />Win-win for author and advertiser.<br /><br />Cheap sells. Free sells a lot better. And advertising funds the internet. Ads are why Google and YouTube and Facebook are billion dollar companies.JA Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-70364818452925305562010-02-01T05:43:56.827-06:002010-02-01T05:43:56.827-06:00Outsourcing does not magically make overhead go aw...<i>Outsourcing does not magically make overhead go away - all it does is shift it to another book-keeping column.</i><br /><br />Publishers love this argument, and have yet to prove it.<br /><br />We're not just talking about printing costs. We're talking about end to end costs. How much does it cost, including overhead, to get the book from the writer to the consumer? What are all the steps and all the employees involved in the process, and how many steps and employees are eliminated with an all digital model?<br /><br />This goes way beyond the 10% printing costs. <br /><br />A hardcover sells for $24.95, but printing one costs around two bucks. The majority of the mark-ups along the way are directly associated with print.<br /><br /><i>your proposed future business model for publishers just isn't viable from the publisher's point of view.</i><br /><br />Not with their current business model. But they can adapt. Writers don't want to have to deal with cover design and uploading and formatting. Writers still need editors. Marketing can still play a part.<br /><br />But publishers would rather charge 15 bucks for an ebook, in a futile attempt to stave off the digital publishing future, instead of figuring out how to be viable in this new climate.<br /><br />Business--any business--has to keep the needs of the consumer in mind. If the consumer wants $4 ebooks, the business that supplies them needs to figure out how to make that work.<br /><br />To say it's impossible is BS. I'm one guy, working on a home computer, making 24k a year self publishing on a single platform; Kindle. I predict that income will double when Amazon's royalty rates hit 70%, and continue to climb as other etailers take root and I put more ebooks online and ereaders become widespread.<br /><br />If you truly believe that digital content costs almost the same as print content, walk me through the steps. Show me how that's the case. Explain to me the fixed costs of getting a book to a customer, including overhead and mark-up. <br /><br />Also explain to me why publishers aren't trying what I've been preaching for years, releasing out of print books as ebooks and supplementing costs with advertising.<br /><br />These are things that a large company with deep pockets could be doing, instead of trying to protect the past by charging ridiculous amounts for ebooks, which only serves to keep print alive for a while longer.JA Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-53158518681935631132010-02-01T04:05:52.186-06:002010-02-01T04:05:52.186-06:00I think you've fallen for the classic "di...I think you've fallen for the classic "digital information costs nothing to produce" nonsense.<br /><br />The cost of printing is only about 10-15% of the retail, and switching to electronic format still has similar formatting and typesetting costs. The costs of making a book don't magically go away just because they're no longer printed on paper. Amazon is selling each book at a loss to prop up that 9.99 price point, which damages the industry in the long run by devaluing the novel in the public's eye. Why should the author and publisher take a profit cut for Amazon's benefit?<br /><br /><i>Editing, proofreading, cover art can be outsourced. How much would this reduce costs?<br /><br />No expensive Manhattan offices. No editor expense accounts. No sales reps or marketing department. No employee benefits.</i><br /><br />Outsourcing does not magically make overhead go away - all it does is shift it to another book-keeping column. Outsourcing everything can actually increase your costs, as you have to ensure multiple parties are working within your house style and guidelines, and if your preferred contractors are unavailable, you have to spend time (and money) vetting new ones.<br /><br />Not to mention that outsourced editing isn't automatically cheaper - an in-house editor can work on multiple books at once, keeping to house style, for their (very low) fixed salary. WIth full-outsourcing, you need to have someone vetting everything those contractors do (at least, you do if you care anything for quality), and someone managing the projects and schedules.<br /><br />You suggest outsourcing all editing and illustration and cutting marketing and sales entirely, and selling online. Your model reduces the publisher to dust: they provide nothing that an author cannot acquire or do themselves, yet still want a cut for their non-work - why would authors sign over X% of the profit?<br /><br />While I have nothing against authors eschewing publishers altogether and selling online, your proposed future business model for publishers just isn't viable from the publisher's point of view.Sofie Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10569731263629196776noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-3054528644636318672010-01-31T23:00:59.798-06:002010-01-31T23:00:59.798-06:00Great post and I think it is a great change for au...Great post and I think it is a great change for authors at least!Emma Michaelshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00472202702058908057noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-45587608391766832802010-01-31T21:57:17.161-06:002010-01-31T21:57:17.161-06:00Again Thank You for this post. I posted another ro...Again Thank You for this post. I posted another round of thoughts on my blog (http://tinyurl.com/yhctsh9)Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17911230635293326933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-64256289128923519622010-01-31T21:47:05.909-06:002010-01-31T21:47:05.909-06:00Thanks. Food for thought.Thanks. Food for thought.Connie Kellerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10774616533630985219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-84498225484736972422010-01-31T21:05:31.159-06:002010-01-31T21:05:31.159-06:00If a Ford dealer was selling Focuses at a loss wit...<i>If a Ford dealer was selling Focuses at a loss with the apparent intention of driving the Mustang off the market, Ford would have something to say about it (And so would I, cuz I love my 'stang).</i><br /><br />Then you stop selling that dealer Focuses.<br /><br />But why should they? They're making a tidy profit off those Focuses. <br /><br />I see what you're saying, Dusty. But I don't see an Amazon-dominated ebook future as dangerous, any more than I see iTunes-dominated music as dangerous. <br /><br />Which begs the obvious: this is all very good for Apple. If Amazon takes the same deal, they're competing head to head with the iPad, and Apple is known to make a good product. But they're not competing in a supply and demand way, where price plays a point. They'd be letting the publishers artificially inflate the price. I think that's scarier--and will mean less sales--than the way Amazon currently approaches their contracts.JA Konrathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08778324558755151986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11291165.post-85948387223938319552010-01-31T19:51:09.113-06:002010-01-31T19:51:09.113-06:00Excellent, informative post, Joe. Every time I rea...Excellent, informative post, Joe. Every time I read about this stuff, I cringe. Why? Adapt or die. The world HAS changed. Sure, there'll still be print books, but e-books are a whole 'nother animal. And a young, healthy one.Conda Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12972790965426924941noreply@blogger.com