At the end of the day, Baen’s previous stance appealed to me and I was a pretty big evangelist and bought a lot of eARC’s. Now I’ll just wait until I see a price I like, and frankly associating with Amazon and their tax dodging isn’t exactly a bonus point from my UK perspective.

(It’s not in the same class as certain authors who have been personally rude to me, in several cases *because* I supported Baen’s model (hi Scalzi!), and who I only now buy second hand, but I *am* disappointed)

I see people asking for various Baen books on the Amazon and B&N forums all the time. These folks want the ease of buying them from the same place they buy all of their other books.

Also, for the vast majority of Baen e-books—the ones that are in paperback already—the price change is minimal. They jump by 99 cents, that’s all. The only more expensive e-books are those for the newest publications. Even then, not only are they less than the hardcover price, they’re also less than the $12 and up that the Agency Five (then Six) insisted on charging for the e-books of most of their hardcover releases. They’re at that $9.99 price point that Amazon Kindle buyers clamored for, and got upset when the Agency publishers took away from them.

Remember that economics is about maximizing revenue. Are enough people willing to buy at $10 to make up for the decreased numbers of people who would have bought at $6? It kind of depends—especially since most of the target audience Baen is trying to reach might not even be aware they even used to be $6.

I think a lot of e-book early adopters may underestimate the significance of what Amazon has done—or maybe not want Amazon to have significance. (See also, “It’s Popular, Now It Sucks”.) Amazon has built a huge critical mass of e-book buyers by making it possible to buy an e-book from wherever you are (or even just wherever you are with wi-fi) with just a few taps on the screen.

The downside is, to many Kindle users if you can’t get it with just a few taps on the screen, it doesn’t exist. You think they want to go home, buy, download, sideload? Or even buy and go through the rigamarole of entering their email address in a form to get it sent? They’ve got better things to do with their time, and a zillion other e-books they could be reading. Baen has built a devoted audience, true, but let’s be honest here—compared to the pool of potential Kindle buyers who don’t know Baen from what Jack planted to kill the giant, it’s pretty tiny. If even 1% of Kindle users bought Baen e-books through their Kindles, that might represent a huge boost in revenue.

Whether we like it or not, e-books’ childhood is ending and they’re coming into their own. They’re not paper-book-promoting tzotzkes anymore, they’re what people buy instead of paper books. We can’t make out like bandits on the largess of publishers who are more interested in selling printed books anymore. If you were paying attention, you had to know this was coming sooner or later.

Frankly, I think Baen is being a lot more accommodating to fans and readers than it really has to be. It could stop the monthly bundles and EARCs entirely and just go to a standard book/e-book release schedule like the Big Six. (And who knows; it’s possible that it still might.) So I’m just going to count my blessings, thanks. Baen hasn’t really jumped the shark just yet.

That aside, if I read the article correctly, only new releases will be 9.99 and when a book is at the “mass market” paperback stage, it will be 7.99, which is pretty much industry standard and one can assume pays Amazon for carrying it, along with the authors and publisher.

“Fair” and “can make it work with the bottom line” don’t always agree. Which is why companies close their doors and go out of business.

Yes, it is true that once on Amazon people might buy the hardback or paperbacks. Where the sale comes from isn’t as important as GETTING the sale. Used books are another non-sale, but they are a reality.

Chuck, the bulk of the costs for me are editing and artwork. The reason indies can make any money at all is the fact that on some books we can get between 60 and 70 percent of the price (2.99 to 9.99). In the past, authors were lucky to be getting 30 cents for each mass market sold. On a paperback, I cannot sell a book for 7.99–That outstrips the actual cost of production.

I’m not saying printing and warehousing are not a part of the cost. And I do believe ebooks should be cheaper than their print counterpart (eventually). But when a book first comes out and is trying to get to break-even, the upfront costs to get to break-even are very high WITHOUT warehousing and print costs. So I wouldn’t expect the ebooks to be significantly cheaper until the book earns out.

When an author goes through Baen, they might earn more on an ebook as the industry has leaned towards paying 25 percent of the book price. But even with that, don’t worry. None of us are getting rich.

Kay, I’m not Baen so shouldn’t speak for them, but I’m good at massive speculation. I don’t think Baen would be doing this if their current model was bringing in enough readers. If the model was working and growing, they’d probably stick with it. But with all the freebies out there and people moving to shopping at Amazon and online at B&N, Kobobooks, etc…you have to be where the people are.

I would love to sell only through my own site, but the reality is that people forget where they bought a book. Catching and keeping their attention is very difficult and as a numbers game, it can be detrimental to sales.

I agree with Maria (and with Michael) that you’ve got to sell through big corporations. I (like Maria and Baen) sell directly but this has gone from the bulk of my business to a tiny fraction over the past five years. If you’re not at Amazon, you’re invisible to the bulk of the Kindle users… who make up the bulk of today’s eBook buyers. I do share the concerns of several that concentration of the distribution network has the potential to choke off small publishers and authors. So far, Amazon has been a huge help to small publishers and self-publishers.

Rob Preece, Publisher

The industry keeps claiming that the printing, warehousing and shipping of hard copies is insignifigant parts of the cost( and price ebooks as if it is), but common sense says that all that stuff is in reality a signifigant part of the cost, and ebook prices are intended to support those costs instead of reflecting the actual costs of the ebook, which is why you see many independent authors able to make good returns by selling books at 2.99 on Amazon, which includes the cost of editing and layout.

Rob…unsustainable? Do you know how many of us Baen readers got that way THROUGH being pointed at the free library? Hell how many of us buy not just the ebooks, but also the hardbound and massmarket as well? For that matter do you know how many FREE [to the people we're giving them to anyway] books Baen itself and it’s readers in general give away every year, thereby bringing more readers into the wonderful world of Baen books? The free ebook library inevitably leads to sales boyo. Unsustainable my ass. *snort*

@Binko-Baen get bought out by Amazon? LOLOL.. You tell the best jokes. I’d put the odds of that in one of 3 categories depending on where you want my response on the thoughtful/snark scale. The odds are thusly. Slim, infitessimal and non freakin existent.

Having recently (three or four years ago) taken up sewing, just be glad there are corporations supplying you with clothing. Because…I can’t even wear most of the stuff I sew. Unless you are a pillow or a window (curtains) most of my successful projects will not fit you. Or any other humanoid shape. I would fail as an Amish. My latest “t-shirt” is only going to fit someone who has an alarmingly long neck. But the material is very nice. Dang it.