Monthly series hold the advantage, however, of being able to sell subscriptions- you could even keep the same price per book and just throw in extras for monthly subscribers. It might actually be advantageous to stretch the wait time between volumes- it almost seems like a bi-monthly series would feel more substantial. Of course, then you risk your audience losing interest or growing out of the series... Haha, okay, forget I said anything. For one-off novels in ebook form... I probably wouldn't be willing to pay more than like... $7? Give or take? Depending on how interested I was, of course. Set the prices too high and you risk losing more customers to piracy. And I know I still much prefer reading on paper, so until simulated paper technology becomes more widespread, I think the prices for ebooks have to be kept nice and low.
I totally agree with delta that there should be some sort of trial period... or (in a cruel but probably very effective plot) maybe the first few chapters could be made available for free. Something similar to the way you can cruise a few pages of books in the bookstore before purchasing. For a monthly series... I'm not sure I'd release it alongside paperbacks, honestly. Exclusively ebook series make much more sense than paperback monthly series in today's world. Shorter series and standalone novels need to start being released in electronic incarnations alongside their physical versions in order to propagate the ebook trend.
That subscription thing is a really good point, I didn't even think about that. It would provide an incentive for people to buy the books in bulk, then, too--like how on iTunes you can get the season pass for a TV season for slightly cheaper than just buying each individual episode.
I'm still basically on the side that RIGHT NOW, ebooks aren't there yet. Publishers aren't on board, and despite a few technophile bibliophiles, I don't think the consumer base is on board with the e-readers, either. I think you're right, eventually it's going to get to the point, like with any new technology, that it's cheaper to buy the ebooks than real books, but I think it's going to take a while to get there yet.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but the only thing I'm thinking about with this whole thing is price. And I'm still cheap enough to buy most of my books used. I really don't think there's a difference between a brand new copy of a book and an edition from 20 years ago, as long as it's held up over the years. Maybe most people don't feel that way. And maybe once the economy kicks up again, people will start to feel more comfortable moving from used books to new books. I know right now, when I grab a new hardcover, I groan at the various ways the publisher artificially raises the price--those stupid rough-torn page edges, raised lettering on the cover, colored ink inside. Like, who gives a damn?
Okay that was sort of a tangent, but I think for ebooks to finally catch on there's going to have to be some innovations. Like the subscription thing is genius, but what if you could use your ereader to directly access a community of fans of the book? What if you could click on the book, and there was a link that said "see what critics say! See what others say! See a message from the author!" It's like DVDs--besides market saturation, I think a very big reason DVD supplanted VHS as the home video format was that
they could do more. You didn't have to rewind them, and they included all of that extra stuff--making of featurettes, director and actor commentary, production stills. There is a very large market of people who buy special edition DVDs just for all of that extra stuff. Why couldn't that work for publishing too? Then, you could still price discriminate--offer just the text for a lower price, and for a slightly inflated price, provide access to all of that extra information.
lol I basically just pounced on your idea, Aluminator. But you've finally convinced me that ebooks could work.
