For those interested in how the Internet is changing traditional ways of doing commerce, here’s an interesting article on publishing books electronically, “Electronic Book Experiments Continue”:
“We’re used to authors writing lengthy books for publishers, who then rely on bookstores for sales, but in the electronic book publishing world, roles are different and assumptions change.
“Electronic books written for purely digital distribution are seldom as long as a traditional paper book...
“In the ebook world, there’s also little difference between publishers and bookstores...
“[in traditional publishing] royalty rates for authors top out at about 20 percent of the selling price to bookstores... In contrast, ebook publishers generally rely on authors to provide a mostly polished text in return for up to 50 percent royalties on the full price...”
The electronic publication that this article is from is called TidBITS. It is the second longest running electronic publication in the world (the first being an obscure Scottish newsletter). It started with an exclusive focus on the Macintosh but now also covers many issues related to the Internet, like spam and electronic commerce. If developments in these areas interest you, I strongly recommend the free e-mail subscription.
