Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Will Ebooks Get Slotted?

I don't get this. I'm thinking the profit margins on an ebook have to be huge. WSJ reports:
Simon & Schuster is delaying by four months the electronic-book editions of about 35 leading titles coming out early next year, taking a dramatic stand against the cut-rate $9.99 pricing of e-book best sellers.

A second publisher, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, said it has similar plans in the works.
"The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback," said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. "We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible."...

Titles affected by Simon & Schuster's stance include Don DeLillo's novel "Point Omega," Karl Rove's memoir "Courage and Consequence" and Jodi Picoult's novel "House Rules."
Rather than making the e-book editions available on the same date as the hardcover editions, Simon & Schuster says it will publish the e-books four months after the official hardcover publication date.

If other big publishers follow suit, e-books would effectively be slotted into the publishing cycle, much the way that fancy and rack-size paperbacks typically follow the hardcover original books by about 12 months.

2 comments:

  1. They don't see the change that has already begun. People that have e-books wouldn't buy a hardcover anyway. Duh

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  2. Somebody is forcing them to do this; Costco or Walmart maybe.

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