. It occurs to me that a quiet author might be a happy author. I pretty much assumed that when publishers raised prices, or delayed releases - it was pretty much done to suit their own business needs and desires, and with little feedback from most authors.It'd be nice if authors would realize that we're not greedy, nor do we necessarily have a Wal-Mart mentality as he so ineloquently characterized people like you and me. There's really just one reason that we were made to see many books on Kindle without Text-to-Speech and upset that prices are going to be $12 to $15 for new releases instead of $9.99... because that's what we were given.
I didn't ask for $9.99 eBooks released same day as hardcover and with text-to-speech which is kind of (but not really) a substitute for audio books. But yeah, I kind of got used to it.
In this post I somewhat defended Preston against another blogger's vitriol. As I've let a few days pass, I'm a bit angrier at his comments (still not as angry as Nico mind you). Preston should be attacking his publisher, or keeping his mouth shut. Or perhaps attacking Amazon. The $9.99 precedent was set. Amazon chose to sell books, often at a loss to establish a market. B&N, Kobo and others followed them in the interest of being competitive and establishing their own markets. Publishers allowed this to happen for two years until Steve Jobs came down from the mountain with his own tablet speaking of the promised land (profitability).
I still feel like it's a healthy thing for the marketplace. $10 to $15 eBooks competing against $15 to $20 hardcovers, released same day, with all parties making out (us: slight discount, same day access, publishers: still profitable, although less so than before, sellers: profitable on all titles, authors: a stable, profitable marketplace won't hurt their chances to negotiate future deals.) But now I just don't like Preston either.
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