If I did this for a 10% cut of any sales, then the ebook could be sold for $2 and the author would take $1.80 and I would take $0.20 per copy.

All that blather about an ebook requiring extensive marketing and sales is just that – blather! I used to write the marketing materials which the marketers would simply use directly! How is that value-adding? I would write the sales materials and the sales emails and they would be used directly! No value-adding there!

I see editors/writers who can pick up some design and marketing skills as the natural successor to the large publishing house. Their expertise lies in running a distribution network. Eventually they’ll outsource design, editorial, marketing, sales, etc and focus on their core business. Only people who have sold 10, 000 ebooks will be able to get in the door … and the royalty agreement will need to be higher than a paltry 10%.

The days of the middleman taking huge chunks of money are fast coming to an end.

I’m talking to you, marketing air-heads.

Getting books into the hands of readers at reasonable prices is in the best interest of both publishers and writers. Failing to adapt to changing markets and technologies does no one any good.

Baen sells ebooks at $4-6 each (or $15 for the eARC available in rough before the paper edition). It has been doing so for about 10 years now. I’m pretty sure it’s making a good deal of money doing so. If other publishers can’t sell ebooks at $6 each and make a profit then they are doing something wrong.

$6 each allows Baen – if they wanted to – to sell via Amazon to Kindle readers for $10 and make more money I think