Theos-Talk Archives (August 2009 Message tt00221)

Here is some news of where the book publishing is going. Every publisher in
the world will be affected.

Most of the theosophical classics are already out of copyright and Google
effort will make them available free for everyone.

MKR

===

E-books could spell the end for hardbacks, warns Hachette chief

(Hachette is the worldâs second largest publisher of books by sales)

Hardback books could be killed off if Amazonâs e-books and Googleâs digital
library force publishers to slash prices, Arnaud Nourry, chief executive of
French publishing group Hachette, has warned.

EbooksMr Nourry said unilateral pricing by Google, Amazon and other e-book
retailers such as Barnes & Noble could destroy publishersâ profits.

He said publishers were âvery hostileâ to Amazonâs pricing strategy â over
which the online retailer failed to consult publishers â to charge $9.99 for
all its e-books in the US. He also pointed to plans by Google to put
millions of out-of-copyright books online for public use.

âOn the one hand, you have millions of books for free where there is no
longer an author to pay and, on the other hand, there are very recent books,
bestsellers at $9.99, which means that all the rest will have to be sold at
between zero and $9.99,â Mr Nourry said.

Full article at:

<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0df31226-958d-11de-90e0-00144feabdc0.html>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]