Black Horse Westerns go digital
BHW ebooks in January with a "Four for £10 bundle" through Faber Factory. Managing director Gill Jackson said, "The arrangements had to take place fast in order to take advantage of the hoped-for spike in orders of ebooks in January following anticipated sales of devices at Christmas." Later, individual titles would be added to the BHW ebook list, probably priced at £3.99 - £5. But Ms Jackson warned authors, "No one is going to get rich on ebook downloads until the proportion shifts substantially from physical books to electronic ones."
Expect more details on this at the Archive later today when we've heard from Hale publishing but this is a big step in making the Black Horse Western range more widely available at competitive prices. I'm excited at the prospect of eEditions of my Hale westerns and feel that this justifies the Archive's long held belief that eBooks are the future of mass market genre fiction.
4 comments:
Interesting news, indeed. Does that include past titles, I wonder? I don't recall what the contracts state. I'll give them a look-see.
The news is pleasing in a wider sense, because it could make the BHWs readily available everywhere. I just hope the rewards don't get lost in attending to the interests of all the other parties who will be involved. Hale makes the valid point that it's a small company without the staff and resources of major publishing conglomerates. For instance, Gill Jackson mentions "origination, commission and accounting costs" plus discounts to published prices of up to 60% for retailers. This sounds suspiciously like the crippling margins that bedevil the paper-book industry.
When I was e-published back in 2003-2005 I think I got 12p per copy downloaded. The income bought me an expensive hat but that was about it. LOL
That's good news. Borgo is perhaps moving in this direction too so we may see my Talera books in ebook eventually.
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