“We’re doing this to preserve our industry, I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”
Correction: This move is about the past of your business.
I’m just being a historian here when I point out that language like “We’re doing this to preserve our industry” is a classic symptom of what we at Forrester loving call The Media Meltdown. I wrote a whole report on this ailment and its many symptoms, chief among them is that media businesses attempt to preserve analog business models in the digital economy, even when analog economics no longer apply. This is exactly that scenario.
via paidcontent.org
Well written piece with some nice options for publishers that are an alternative to simply pulling the digital versions of books for a few months.
I'm on a plane right now and I just watched Julie & Julia (sorry B it was the best on offer) and Mastering the Art of French Cooking got a $1500 advance from Knopf. It is now in it's 43rd printing.