Posted by
Russell Standish on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-disappearing-virtual-library-tp7485007p7486130.html
This has already been done. See, for instance, Amazon's CreateSpace
(previously known as BookSurge). There is also a competitor based in
Canada, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten. Both paper and
eBook is supported.
Editing, typesetting you can source yourself, or you can avail
yourself of their services. Another source of technical editing
services I'm associated with is Online English. They're not the
cheapest, but they do take quality seriously (manuscripts are edited
by native English speakers who either have an editing background, or a
technical background - eg ex-academics).
For Theory of Nothing, I used CreateSpace, and recently did a Kindle
version. It has been available as a free PDF since a year after its
publication date, prior to that, the PDF was available for sale at the
price of the book royalty (Kindle version is not much higher), and
bundled with the physical book sale. I
skimped on the editing services, because it didn't make business sense
(editing costs would have consumed several years worth of
revenue). Alas, it shows, but my readers mostly forgive me :).
I found:
a) Physical books sold well - better than expectations even.
b) The sales of the unencrypted PDF were very poor (about 5% of the
physical). And few physical book purchasers claimed their PDF version.
c) Free PDF downloads went through the roof (about 5 times as many
downloads as physical copies sold, before it was torrented, and I lost
track of the downloads :). The availability of free downloads didn't
affect sales of the physical book (maybe it sustained it, perhaps).
d) Sales of the Kindle ebook have been poor. This is somewhat
surprising, as the rendering of the free PDF on the Kindle reader is
attrocious. Maybe very few of my readers bother with Kindle - not sure
- there is a review somewhere of my PDF book on a Kindle out there in
the internet, so obviously people tried it.
In conclusion - I would still do a physical copy of a book as well as
an ebook. Ebook monetisation is still a problem.
Cheers
On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 10:09:39AM -0600, Joseph Spinden wrote:
> Here's an article I came across today:
>
>
> Opinion: Academic Publishing Is Broken | The Scientist
>
>
http://the-scientist.com/2012/03/19/opinion-academic-publishing-is-broken/>
>
>
> This started me thinking about what services publishers perform in
> general. As this article points out, for the scientific community,
> some publications are necessary for historical reasons. Also, I can
> see great value in peer review.
>
> But, what is to prevent someone from setting up a web site devoted
> to eBooks not subject to the publishers' restrictions ? E.g.,
> self-published books or books marketed by "ebook agents". By taking
> the copyrights out of the current publishers' hands, presumably, the
> prices could be drastically lowered while the authors could get
> higher fees and/or royalties !
>
> This would not do away with the need for editors. But do editors
> need to be employees of the existing publishers ?
>
> So, what are the compelling arguments for the ability of publishers
> to maintain their control over content delivered electronically ?
>
> Joe
>
>
> --
>
> "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
>
> -- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913.
>
>
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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